Stewie, I am not 'blaming' the tool at all! It's plenty good enough for the job it was designed to do, which is to cut rebates. Most rebates in cabinet work don't need to be particularly tidy, as they almost always end up out of sight, so as Derek rightly says, this is not a refined tool, & it doesn't need to be. Mainly because I don't like spending many minutes sweating over a job that can be done in two quick passes (and often more neatly), on a tablesaw, I just don't use the 78 for its ''intended" purpose, hence it is 'useless' to me in that role.
Derek, I think you misunderstood me - I use my 78 for refining the
cheeks of tenons, not the shoulders, which is most certainly a job for the shoulder plane. While I can confidently saw dovetails to the line, my accuracy on the longer, wider cuts of tenon cheeks isn't nearly as reliable, particularly since my eyesight lost its acuity. So I saw with a fairly generous margin, which means I don't have to constantly check the back of the cut, or switch it around, then use the 78 to clean up to the scribe lines. Planing across the grain is an easy way to remove wood, so it usually only takes a few swipes to get them nice and flat & parallel.
I first tried using a 10 1/2 for the same job, but at least in my hands, it's nowhere near as good as the 78. The 'coarse-ness' of the 78 gives it the advantage here, because basically, I'm using it as a "scrub plane" which can cut up to a shoulder. Perhaps my use of the plane is 'unorthodox', but it sure is a quick & easy way to get tightly-fitting tenons..
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As it happens, I've got a bunch of good-sized tenons to fit this very day, on a bench I'm currently making for the newly-renovated garage (so the better half can do her messier craft work in comfort). I'll be sharpening up the 78 very shortly......
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Cheers,
IW