I'm about to construct a frame and panel chest with Mahogany. It looks like a local supplier is going to be able to do a little ripping and maybe resawing to get me the general sizes of stock I need since I don't yet own a tablesaw. I hope to finish the job with handplanes. I'm looking through the Lee Valley catalog and I can't figure out what the most useful plane would be to add to the low angle block plane and shoulder plane I have now. I won't be planing anything over 40" in length for this project. I will be edge joining a few boards to make the panels I need but the stock I'll be using should be pretty square on one edge so I shouldn't have to worry about taking off lots of material to prepare for joining.
Is that enough info to make it possible to offer good advice? I can't decide whether I should get a bench plane or a smooth plane here. I'm leaning heavily toward the Veritas #4 smooth plane. It seems I've read about low angle block planes and #4 planes being good starting points as both are pretty versatile. Is 9.5" long enough to true an edge on a 40" board if needed or should I maybe think about the #51/4W since it is 12" long? What about after I've joined the boards to build the panels and need to smooth the joint? Will the #4 do that job well or should I be thinking about using a scraper for that anyway?
I know I've asked a lot of questions here. I've been doing research myself and I own The Handplane Book, which I'm about to go read a little more but I thought I would ask here as well.
Thanks in advance for any help!
-Chris