We spend three days with the worlds most expensive planes. Are they just jewelry? Are they just jewelry?
Pages: 52-59
Issue #156, August 2006.
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There are times when I wish I could find my first handplane. It was, to most people’s standards, a complete piece of junk. It was a piece of junk that I bought after college on a late-night Wal-Mart run. I was influenced by the fact it was cheap, blue and the only block plane that I could find that night.
It was therefore surprising that the tool worked so well. It didnt have a blade adjuster, the sole was rough and the steel in the cutter was as gummy as Juicy Fruit. But when I put the tool to wood it made that sweet sneeeeck sound of a perfect curl of wood being sliced from its mother board.
It was the first step in my journey. In the last 13 years Ive slowly upgraded my handplanes. After buying a Stanley jack plane, the blue plane went into my carpentry toolkit. It was then put in a basement box. And now I cant find it. Sometimes I feel a tug of desire for it. But never have I wanted that block plane more than the day I pushed a Karl Holtey A13 infill plane over a piece of curly maple.
Issue #156, August 2006.
Buy this issue now
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