Finished the second one, now what I need to do is order the second couch.
The maple end tables turned out okay, I’m not particularly proud of them though I suspect that most people other than me won’t see the mistakes. Actually, you’d need an x-ray to see the heinous ones. I tuned up a couple of new planes (cheap jointer and jack planes1) and tested them out on a nice piece of butternut. I think I’ll try something out of it next, a bathroom cabinet I think. I’ve never worked with butternut before. In fact, I’d never even heard of it until I moved to this part of the country. I can’t stop thinking about the influence of material (i.e. material cause) and keep feeling the pull of hand tools over screaming machines. It’s just more, well, peaceful. Hand planes don’t upset the cat nearly as much as my planer.
1I really don’t understand why people on the internet love to slam these cheap Groz planes. The nearest alternative is around 4 or 5 times the price. If you sharpen and tune it up (which does take some time) they work fine. I started with a #4 from them, and recently upgraded the iron in it (the stock one really does dull quickly). I figure I’ll do the same with the other new ones. I have some small Veritas planes that are obviously much better, but I really didn’t want to shell out that much on planes simply used to true lumber. Flat is flat; getting there doesn’t have to be elegant.
