Thread: darkside afternoon - it worked!

At the end of several hours of labour, there it was - a length of pine reduced down from 140mm wide to 138mm wide - all square, smooth and lovely (well as lovely as pine gets).

Was that the objective? No. Well, I did need to repair a bit of wood I had waved around a bit injudisciously too close to a running bandsaw blade. But I could have used the table saw, or had a bit of fun on the jointer (it's new and the novelty still hasn't worn off).

No - the real purpose of the afternoon was to get an old plane up and running. And there it was - a thick carpet of fresh shavings all over the floor! Long, thin and luurrvely!

So why was I feeling so pleased with myself?

I'd had had several goes at getting it working and had almost given up. I'd previously cleaned it up and fettled the sole, but was struggling with the adjustment - and (dare I say it), the blade. The one that came with the plane was badly nicked.

Originally, I thought it was beyond my grinding and sharpening skills (I'd never done any before) and had splashed out and bought and expensive replacement blade. But, too smart by half, the one I bought was too thick to fit in the plane. It would have involved widening the mouth and, although I started at this, I soon gave it away. (I'll need to buy a new plane to fit the Paul Williams blade - what a shame.)

Then, here I was back at the grinder and waterstones. Out with Ian Kirby's sharpening book - read and reread the relevant sections, and I was away.

Step number one - flattened the back (again), this time doing it properly.

Then the grinder. Into the grinding stone square as recommended by the expert. I was a bit tentative at first, but once started you have to finish. This was to remove the blue burn marks left after I ground out the nicks last time.

Then into the jig and onto the tool rest. Voila a 25 degree grinding bevel. So far so good.

Then onto the waterstones - 800, 1200 and 4,000 . This time using the veritas honing guide. (I know you frown at these things Mr Kirby, but believe me, without all your years of experience it just wasn't working for me.)

First time through and I couldn't remove the obligatory arm hair. Back to 800 stone and through again. This time waiting for the burr to develop, then removing it by backing off on the 4,000. Whoohoo - arm shaved! Into the plane and muck around for a bit with knobs and levers.

And it worked!!! Shavings coming off easy as!! I couldn't bring myseld to clean them up when I left the workshop - left them all over the floor, so I could enjoy them again tomorrow!

I know ... sick, but ... well .. it was so much fun! Can't wait to have anothe go tomorrow. Might even have a go at a bit of hardwood. Hmm, not sure I'm ready for that yet. Might just make more pine shavings!

I just had to share my thrill, here. No-one else would understand!

jaspr