Scrub plane? Maybe? Perhaps?
About two days ago I used a bit of a jig and a planer bit in my router to make my flat work bench very very flat. It was a bit of fun and easy to do. So yesterday I thought I would try the same trick on some camphor laurel slabs, just some short bits for a bit of a knock together table. I have about a cubic metre of the stuff in the shed and this little table is the first object made from it. The rest is destined to become a kitchen over Christmas.
Anyway, I didn't like doing it that way at all. It was noisy. It put dust and bits of wood chip everywhere. There was little skill involved. That sort of thing is not why I go into the shed. I don't mind using machinery, but not like that. I like a bit of peace and quite. The high pitched whine of a router is okay in small doses but I soon tired of all the fever pitched action and noise.
But that still leaves a great pile of slabs sitting looking at me. Now a lot of it will finish up as narrowish boards for door frames and draw fronts. But some of the nice wide slabs with wild grain deserve better.
Normally I flatten wide boards with a Stanley no 7 jointer but given that some of the boards want reducing in thickness a bit perhaps the jointer is not the tool to use as a first plane.
I have been doing some research on scrub planes and there seems to be two schools of thought. Use them, they are great and leave them alone because they leave great unsightly gouges across the boards which take forever to remove.
So what do I do? I suppose I am secretly looking for an excuse to get another plane but I do not want to waste a lot of money.