I’ve had the following conversation a dozen times with students and woodworking friends. Perhaps you were one of them? (I won’t tell.)
Me: Why do you have four jack planes in your tool chest?
Gary: One is set up with an 8”-radius blade for traditional traversing. One is set up with a 3”-radius blade so it can act like a scrub plane and remove large amounts of material quickly. One is set up like a panel plane with a slightly radiused iron – it’s basically a big smoother. And the fourth has a dead-straight blade for shooting.
Me: And you have six smoothing planes?
Gary: One is set up like a traditional smoother for mild domestics. One is set up for tricky grain with a tight mouth and high-angle frog. This one is a bevel-up plane that I use for smoothing softwoods. That one has a 3”-radius blade plus a wide-open mouth to act as a scrub when…
Me: Wait, don’t you have a jack plane set up for that already?
Gary: <glares>
Me: <raises eyebrow in my best Mr. Spock>
Gary: OK, I just want them all. That’s why.
Me: Thank you for your honesty.
When I teach someone to do woodworking stuff, I assume they want to learn woodworking stuff. You know, boxes and platforms and charcuterie boards. But this is not always the case. During the last 20 years, I’ve had students who decline to make the class’s project. Instead, they just want to talk about tools. To ask me about steel. And get my thoughts in comparing this chisel to that chisel.
They paid good money for the class, and so I tell them what I know.
But usually by the end of the week I have something else I want to say to them. It goes like this (only in my head as I would never be so rude as to say it out loud but here we go):
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