Quote Originally Posted by johnredl View Post
Ian, have u used any of the HNT Gordon planes? From what I understand they offer the ability to use them as a normal angle plane & by 'reversing' (?) the blade the plane becomes a scraper?
Hi John - been away from home for 2 weeks with virtually no internet access, so just catching up with the Forum....

Answer: No, I have no real experience with any of HNT's planes other than using a couple at wood shows for a few swipes, and using a couple of the blades he used to sell for planes I've made...

I have used a lot of Camphor over the years, and up this way, at least, it's a very variable wood. Great stuff once you beat it into shape, but it can be frustrating trying to get a perfect surface on! It's a firm, but far from hard wood, and some is dead easy to plane, most is at least ok, and some is just mongrel wood. It is often rowed, but some trees have an exceptionally high angle difference between the opposing rows, so that pick-out is savage on the "against grain" rows. As you'd expect, it's frequently the nicest-looking & most colourful stuff that is the wildest Having tried all sorts of ways to tame it, I find the best for me is a very sharp, bevel-down blade on a bog standard 45 degree bed. That gets it very close on all but the very worst pieces, after which light sanding will usually suffice. A fresh, sharp card scraper sometimes works, but sometimes tears 'strings' of wood out & makes things worse.

Cheers,