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I do like my collection of cheapo Stanleys/Records. Recently added a No5 which is really handy. But I wanted to have more hands-on with a posher plane and QS seems to be as good as LN but at 1/3rd the price, and the No4 seems to be the most useful addition i.e. one good smoother, everything...

Stanley (it wasn't Record I just looked again). Either way it'd only fit if I opened the adjuster aperture as the frog has to go surprisingly far forwards (and the blade back), and I didn't want to modify the new QS. Couldn't do the converse (put QS blade in Record), as you'd have to open the...

Tricky wood isn't necessarily hard. I've been planing some soft sapele and mahogany which tears out very easily where the grain reverses. I've also been doing some sycamore which is very variable but very hard in small knotty areas. And various off cuts lying about in the workshop including oak...

Or Alfred Brendel playing the piano.

Having been instructed in hair splitting and how to set up the tools, you then need to go off on your own and practice. However good the instructions, the first ones are likely to be less good. By the 500th you could be really getting the hang of it. This is a common experience for most craft...

More QS4 fiddling here if anybody is interested. Put old record blade in for a trial.

I made one for myself based on the Woodworking Magazine download People liked it and I've now sold a few. Not sure abt the copyright but it's in the public domain, not an exact copy etc so should be OK I hope! There are a lot of them about, it's a classic design, a useful little table. Yours...

By which time he will have learned how to do them pretty well, better than by any amount of instruction. Same with splitting 500 hairs!

And perhaps more importantly; conscious memory. If you look closely at what you are doing (bright light helps) you can often see what is going wrong and take measures to avoid it. Frinstance you can look down the mouth of a plane, at the wood just in front of the blade.

Practice, practice! That's the answer to most woodwork problems and questions . With the proviso that you also look closely at what you are doing and think about why it is/isn't working.

If they ask me for a breakdown my first feeling is mind yer own business! Basically I wouldn't do it unless there was a good reason; can't think what. Not that I'd have any objection to talking about pricing in an informal way. My experience of fussy price conscious clients is that they are...

Shouldn't make much difference if you plane square down the middle. The cambered blade will in theory leave a slightly hollow footprint, but the camber is usually so small that you wouldn't notice. But if the edge is a bit off square, with a cambered blade you can take off a tapered shavings by...

Can't say I'm too bothered about S Maloof chairs myself. Beautifully made no doubt, nice chap by all accounts, but seen one you seen em all. Sci fi gothic stroke vernacular. Sort of thing this chap would have behind the arris for when he wants to read the Fortean Times in comfort:- Richard's...

Mine's a Minimax lab 300 (with extra long sliding table). I have to say it is excellent. Very well made, very accurate, easy to set up and use. Had one minor breakdown with failed capacitor (or something) which SCM diagnosed over the phone and sent replacement by following day. It's got one...

Don't agree. A copy is worth exactly as much as the original in real terms. Having a genuine Maloof or an indistinguishable copy is the same thing in chair terms. The difference is in marketing - if you can prove the thing is 'genuine' it will sell for more.

PS (This a reply to Steve above, crossed with PAC who posted before) Yes yes but what I am thinking about is closer to home - my own efforts to get to grips with things, and the efforts of others such as we see in these forums. A lot of people seem to be trying to be original when perhaps they...

I'm not suggesting that there should not be progress or change. But with with woodwork I feel that people need to learn the 'language' before they attempt to 'say' anything, and that copying is the way to learn it.

Yebbut that's a particularly tedious designer being especially obnoxious. In the real world copying is absolutely the norm - it's called 'tradition' and most of it's products are anonymous. Copying is essential - could be seen as 'studying in depth' and is the best way to learn. I generally...

Ikea is the epitome of closely integrated design and technology. About the worst example you could think of! Also vice versa. Beautiful craftwork with primitive techniques.

Same thing. They are inseparable. You can't design anything without due regard to the craft.