Tool You Just Love To Use

[Tom Banes]

Earlier thread asked about most often used tolls (stationary, as it happens).

Different question. What tool do you just like to use? Be it a kick, or a zen experience, it's the one you just look for an excuse to grab.

For me, it's an old 603C (type 2) with a Hock blade. Something about the size, balance, and the whispers it makes on wood, just makes me grab it any chance I get. I even misuse it, when a larger or smaller plane would be more appropriate. Heck, I used it to flatten and smooth the top of an old Sjoberg bench I picked up at a garage sale! Coulda used the 607C, but that beast is big, heavy, and ugly and the 608 is just uglier.

Maybe I'll just dump all the rest of the planes rather than let them sit, unused, in my plane hanger (that's what I call the shelf they live on).

Tom

[Duke of Burl]

For the complete and utter change that it creates, my planer.

I send ugly ass 100 year old barnboards through it and out comes the most beautiful salmon colored (coloured David) oak you've ever seen.

[Mark & Juanita]

Not sure yet; I've got a Lie Nielsen low-angle block plane that I love using, but just got an LN spokeshave (to help with the curved sections of the bed project). After using the new Veritas sharpening jig to get it shaving sharp, I spent some time with some curved scrap last night -- this may become the new favorite.

+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------+ If you're gonna be dumb, you better be tough +--------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

[bizHB]

the 603c is the only one i have and i too use it for everything. i love the effect that it has on wood after some work using it. i love the crisp 90 degree edges i get on the boards after using it and unlike some other planes ive used its not just about the outcome. its a pleasure to use through out the whole proccess.

[Phisherman]

As strange as it sounds I enjoy using my table saw, although I typically use it for short periods of time. A close second is my lathe--a truly strange machine because hours go by when it feels like minutes. I found that a sharp tool is a joy to use.

[Don Fearn]

Because Tom Banes could, he/she/it opin'd:

My coping saw. It doesn't get used much, but I LOVE the feel of it in my hand when I need to cope something.

Why? Because it's the first tool I ever bought; I picked it up at a garage sale when I was about 10 or thereabouts.

-Don

[Mike O.]

There are just too many jokes here..............

Mike O.

[Owen Lawrence]

Is that the only reason? I've had a coping saw since I was about that age and I hate it. Sometimes it's the only tool for the job, but for some reason I can never get mine to work well. The blades always seem to bend; I can't even make a flat cut in 1/2" thick pine, it seems.

If someone told me, "Your saw is no good, neither are your blades; here's where you go to buy one that works..." I'd listen and give it a try.

I did buy a fret saw with about the same luck. I fancied myself doing beautiful inlays, you know, the kind that have the 7 degree sloping edges so they drop right in place and fit perfectly after a little sanding. I haven't produce a single one yet.

Bah. Humbug.

Today I painted spruce 2x4s. (Select. "Premium Quality" says Home Depot. What a joke.) Now there's fine woodworking for you.

- Owen -

[David]

My Veritas shoulder planes, jack plane, and jointer plane. I'm not so keen on the first one I bought; the BU smoother--not enough heft. I also enjoy using my Performax because it's the newest toy in the shop.

Dave

[DCH]

"Owen Lawrence" wrote in news:b02dd$44dfbec2$cef892a7$ [e-mail]:

Greetings.....I am not trying to be critical...since I myself was guilty of this for a long time...I had the teeth of the saw pointing the wrong way....like it was trying to cut on the push stroke...similarto to a hacksaw...when I read that coping saws cut on the pull stroke...I said to myself...no wonder it don't cut right...

[Jay Pique]

I get a kick out of taking a Pro Prep scraper to a newly glued up panel. The glue line just zips right off. It's also fun to pop off all of the little drips from bench tops. Highly recommended.

JP

[Lowell Holmes]

I have a 604, 605, 607 Bedrocks and I do love to use the 604 as you like the

603. I will say that I recently acquired a 5 1/2 Baily and it is the plane I reach for more often than not. Another tool I use a lot is a 1" Stanley 750 chisel that is dead flat on the back. I can pare tenons with it that looks like a shoulder plane did it.

Should I mention my Starret square or my LV apron plane or my LN 60 1/2 rabbet plane?

[# Fred #]

Chainsaw with a new chain but I ran out of trees to cut.

[The3rd Earl Of Derby]

Is your log cabin still standing? ;-)

[marc rosen]

[Larry Blanchard]

An old Goodell-Pratt push drill.

[CW]

Thought that myself. Figured I'd just keep quite.

[Patriarch]

Tom Banes wrote in news: [e-mail]:

I bought a sweet old Bailey #3, with a Sweetheart blade, about 4 years ago. Didn't steal it, but the money was very well spent. That's a very nice sized plane.

The LN Adjustable Mouth block plane, 9 1/2, standard angle, is one of the finer tools in the Neander cabinet, and gets used on almost every project. More money well spent.

Patriarch

[Owen Lawrence]

Honestly, I don't know. I just went down to the shop to check. The fret saw had the teeth pointed for a pull cut, but the coping saw was in the toolbox "unloaded". I'll certainly keep it in mind the next time I use it, though. Thanks for the reminder.

- Owen -

[Puckdropper]

DCH wrote in news:Xns981ED345154A5dchayniebellsou@216.77.188.18:

One other thing I found with coping saws was that the handle and blade should be tight. There should be no play in the blade.

I can't cut straight through a piece of 2x4 with it, but that's ME and not the saw.

Picked mine up from Menards just after Christmas.

Puckdropper