I lucked into a nice large quartered rosewood blank - I don't know that it's perfect quality, but it'll be good enough for the guitars that I'm making.
I asked the seller if it was dry, and maybe it's just me, but the people selling exotics are always "oh, yeah, it's air dried - we've had it for a while, I'm sure it's 8-9%".
That's about ambient moisture here in the US in wood, or close to what you'd expect kiln dried wood to come back up to.
I get a package from UPS today and sure enough the blank comes out and it smells like a peppery cigar and is cool to the touch and a little heavier than its texture would suggest. I sent an email "are you importing green wood, sawing it and just selling it?"
"No, we've had it for a while".
So, thinking it's a bit damp and not wanting to waste my millions (OK, the fortune is more like the reciprocal) I figured I'll plane it flush (so I can see any checks and glue them right away) and then I'll weigh it.
Youtube served me Rob Cosman's "the last word on bevel up vs. bevel down planes". I think the algorithm knows how to make my eyes cross. No teaching people to use the cap iron.....Of course.
It occurred to me that I have a mexico four that I flattened, and that the stock iron is pretty decent in (there's no reason it shouldn't be, but there are plenty of $13 stamped irons sold now that are made of medium carbon chome vanadium. This plane isn't one of them - the iron is a solid middle of the pack or about vintage hardness). This board was covered with fairly coarse saw cuts, so there are definitely shavings, but there was a lot of planing in addition to that to get to them. I didn't have to resharpen. the next time I use this plane, I'd resharpen. IT was pleasant to use because the cap was set and the plane stays engaged in the cut. Without the cap set or with a BU plane that's not steep (which is defeating to the person using it for anything like this), the plane won't stay in the cut. I know the armchair experts know why this doesn't matter, and Rob sets his cap iron back at least visually and ....I really have no clue.
When I started, I was convinced that you couldn't use a plane with plastic handles, you couldn't use the iron that came in a plane like this, nor the plane and that I could probably just throw these irons away. That's what the gurus teach about what you need. Nothing is replaced on this plane - it's got a large mouth (closing the mouth is an activity for the witless, and on this one, the span of unsupported iron hanging off of the frog would be yucky), but this plane does have one not special habit - the eccentric on the lever cap isn't right and in order to get good pressure clamping down, you toss the lever cap on and then turn the frog screw retaining it about 1/3rd of a turn and all is great. Without it, the iron is just a bit loose. Tighten the screw first, and you aren't man enough to finish the rest (I'm not, at least). If you keep a screwdriver at the stones (some people keep a ruler and a guide!!!) this takes all of about 5 seconds.
This plane will plane anything. If the person using it knows how to set the iron geometry so that it doesn't get damaged by hard woods or abrasive woods, it will last as long as you'd care to go before resharpening again, and then be resharpened in a minute.
(that's shellac in the background, by the way - not wee....I was fitting handles to some of my own chisels earlier and the glass jar hasn't yet evacuated to a safe space).
My zest for the forums is fast running out. One of the reasons that is has to do with how easy it is to get a plane like this to work with rosewood or even gombeira, but that it's a constant struggle to get anyone to even try and two for one, you get smarm back.
(no special sharpening either - diamond hone, washita, tangent buff to strop).
One last side detail - I was enamored with V11's ability to last in an idealized test, and then used the steel that is most likely is as well as the V11 irons and found an inability to get the full "improvement" in actual daily use. The iron in this plane when nicking and sharpening time is considered is actually more efficient than V11. I didn't know if there would be silica in this billet (I don't think there is, but sometimes there's a lot) - but even without that, the interrupted cut would take some little nicks out of the V11 edges and if smoothing were to follow this, it's back to the stones to remove a couple of thousandths.
I asked the seller if it was dry, and maybe it's just me, but the people selling exotics are always "oh, yeah, it's air dried - we've had it for a while, I'm sure it's 8-9%".
That's about ambient moisture here in the US in wood, or close to what you'd expect kiln dried wood to come back up to.
I get a package from UPS today and sure enough the blank comes out and it smells like a peppery cigar and is cool to the touch and a little heavier than its texture would suggest. I sent an email "are you importing green wood, sawing it and just selling it?"
"No, we've had it for a while".
So, thinking it's a bit damp and not wanting to waste my millions (OK, the fortune is more like the reciprocal) I figured I'll plane it flush (so I can see any checks and glue them right away) and then I'll weigh it.
Youtube served me Rob Cosman's "the last word on bevel up vs. bevel down planes". I think the algorithm knows how to make my eyes cross. No teaching people to use the cap iron.....Of course.
It occurred to me that I have a mexico four that I flattened, and that the stock iron is pretty decent in (there's no reason it shouldn't be, but there are plenty of $13 stamped irons sold now that are made of medium carbon chome vanadium. This plane isn't one of them - the iron is a solid middle of the pack or about vintage hardness). This board was covered with fairly coarse saw cuts, so there are definitely shavings, but there was a lot of planing in addition to that to get to them. I didn't have to resharpen. the next time I use this plane, I'd resharpen. IT was pleasant to use because the cap was set and the plane stays engaged in the cut. Without the cap set or with a BU plane that's not steep (which is defeating to the person using it for anything like this), the plane won't stay in the cut. I know the armchair experts know why this doesn't matter, and Rob sets his cap iron back at least visually and ....I really have no clue.
When I started, I was convinced that you couldn't use a plane with plastic handles, you couldn't use the iron that came in a plane like this, nor the plane and that I could probably just throw these irons away. That's what the gurus teach about what you need. Nothing is replaced on this plane - it's got a large mouth (closing the mouth is an activity for the witless, and on this one, the span of unsupported iron hanging off of the frog would be yucky), but this plane does have one not special habit - the eccentric on the lever cap isn't right and in order to get good pressure clamping down, you toss the lever cap on and then turn the frog screw retaining it about 1/3rd of a turn and all is great. Without it, the iron is just a bit loose. Tighten the screw first, and you aren't man enough to finish the rest (I'm not, at least). If you keep a screwdriver at the stones (some people keep a ruler and a guide!!!) this takes all of about 5 seconds.
This plane will plane anything. If the person using it knows how to set the iron geometry so that it doesn't get damaged by hard woods or abrasive woods, it will last as long as you'd care to go before resharpening again, and then be resharpened in a minute.
(that's shellac in the background, by the way - not wee....I was fitting handles to some of my own chisels earlier and the glass jar hasn't yet evacuated to a safe space).
My zest for the forums is fast running out. One of the reasons that is has to do with how easy it is to get a plane like this to work with rosewood or even gombeira, but that it's a constant struggle to get anyone to even try and two for one, you get smarm back.
(no special sharpening either - diamond hone, washita, tangent buff to strop).
One last side detail - I was enamored with V11's ability to last in an idealized test, and then used the steel that is most likely is as well as the V11 irons and found an inability to get the full "improvement" in actual daily use. The iron in this plane when nicking and sharpening time is considered is actually more efficient than V11. I didn't know if there would be silica in this billet (I don't think there is, but sometimes there's a lot) - but even without that, the interrupted cut would take some little nicks out of the V11 edges and if smoothing were to follow this, it's back to the stones to remove a couple of thousandths.