My resolution for the New Year:

To do my small part in distributing the understanding that when furniture was made entirely by hand, what could be left coarse, was. Split it, saw it, flatten it, and move on.

When I smooth the backboards, generations of dead cabinetmakers howl.

Re-treads and the Strike-block plane

I am a big believer in making one's own tools. Doing so offers a tremendous sensitivity to how a tool works, and this seems particularly true for planes. That is far, far from a novel idea; James Krenov's articulate argument for plane-making is well circulated. Unlike Krenov, I'm not much of an innovator when it comes to planes. I tend to trust the accumulated wisdom of traditional patterns.

I'm also a big believer in re-treads. Not for my car, but certainly in my workshop. I've made a good many planes from scratch, but I'm not adverse to letting a long-dead craftsperson take some of the load off. I think that modifying an existing plane can be a great introduction to plane-making, even if that means simply tightening the throat with an inlay. Doing so invites you to be sharply perceptive about the tool's form, the subtleties of its geometry. It also saves money.

At the moment, I'm in the midst of a commission that involves a good deal of long, exposed end-grain surfaces that must be planed very true. That's asking a lot of my bench-planes.

The traditional tool to meet a challenge such as this was the strike-block plane. These had an iron bedded at an angle significantly lower than most bench planes - 40 degrees or so - that facilitated easy planing of end grain. These bevel-down planes were, in time, superseded by bevel-up mitre planes and, now, by the wildly popular bevel-up bench planes. (There is a long discussion across the internet about the merits and demerits of bevel-up planes. Better informed, and better-funded folks can folks can keep that up, since these last tools cost at least $250.)

So.....I happened to have a beaten and lonely jack plane on the shelf. I cut of the handle. I planed the side and sole true. I reduced the angle of the bed from 45 to 35 degrees. I made a new wedge. Voila! Cuts like a dream, and, as Blondie said, "dreaming is free."