Before you buy a block plane
· 3 min read
I attempted the honest version first. It did not last. Nothing here requires a block plane, though it does make things easier. The trick, if there is one, is to leave sufficient room for errors.
The middle part
Most of what I know about dovetails came from getting it wrong first. Oil finishes are forgiving, easy to repair and age beautifully. Hand tools are slower, quieter and strangely calming.
- Give cutting dovetails a full autumn
- Budget twice the time you expect
- Write down what you change
- Compare against last autumn
- Compare against last spring
First steps
Half of the work is deciding what to leave out. The workbench is the first project and never the last. If you only take one thing from this, make it the part about drawers. Some of this will be plain; some of it took me years.
I wrote most of this on a hushed Monday morning. Most of what I know about sharpening came from getting it wrong first. The sturdy part is seldom the hard part; consistency is.
Notes along the way
Looking back, the simple approach was the right call. For a long time I treated oak as an afterthought. Most of the work happens before any cutting starts. There is a version of this that is much more complicated. This is not that version.
Good sharpening is largely a series of small, unglamorous decisions. Somewhere between the sawmill and home, the notion finally made sense. It took me twelve attempts to see the pattern.
The shift showed up bit by bit, then all at once. I would rather do one thing deliberately than five things fast. The first five weeks were largely about unlearning. Below are a few jottings, roughly in the order I found out them. Most of what I know about oak came from getting it wrong first.
Looking ahead
It is not glamorous, but it holds up. For a long time I treated finishes as an afterthought. You can get unexpectedly far with a block plane and some patience. This is less a walkthrough and more a record of what worked for me. I keep a short list of things to try next; planing boards is near the top.
I keep a short list of things to try next; sharpening is near the top. I attempted the sturdy version first. It did not last. The first two weeks were largely about unlearning. Nothing here requires a bow saw, though it does make things easier.
- Leave room for sturdy mistakes
- Budget twice the time you expect
- Budget twice the time you expect
- Give milling lumber a full winter
- Note the date and the weather
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