planing beach

[Justin Green]

George - danke shön - the ö is what gives it the "er"-ish sound in German, if I remember my high school German correctly. I never did really master the pronunciation of the umlaut O, or any other letters with the umlaut. But they're easier than some of the Arabic pronunciations, which sound an awfull lot like you're clearing your throat.

[george wilson]

I was just spelling phonetically . I never took any languages,but have been able to pick them up,at least when I was younger. Petra,our German employee,says I speak with no accent when I do say something in German to her.

[Halgeir Wold]

Just for information - beech in scandinavian languages, is boek - although oe is written with the scandinavian versions of slashed O or dotted O ( in sweedish)

[Matthew N. Masail]

Since I am making my workbench top out of Euro Beech I thought it would be interesting to make the base from the quintessential Southern hardwood, Hickory. When I was checking out the hardwood at my supplier they suggested the Beech. Once I saw it and the predictable grain that Chris refers to it just looked easier to work than the grain in the Ash, the other hardwood I was considering. Plus I have a compact Hammer workbench with a German beech top that I have been very happy with.

Right, Hickory is flexible in a handle as compared to steel, iron or other very hard wood like hard maple. Even in steel the knife guys talk about tough steel vs hard steel. A steel that has a little "flex" in it stays sharp and often makes a better tool than steel with a very high hardness that ends up being brittle under certain pressures. In the 5 3/4 x 3 1/2" legs of a bench I think Hickory will be a very sturdy base. I suspect it might be a chore to flatten a whole bench top made of Hickory though. Maybe a little more test than I want to give my recently made Purple Heart planes, even with my HNT Gordon HSS steel iron.

Here is Roy's Hickory video. I think since it is educational it is ok to post the link:
http://www.pbs.org/woodwrightsshop/video/3100/3103.html

Thanks Mike ! that's a great vid. Good luck with your bench!

[James Carmichael]

Dang, the title of this thread gave me visions of girls in bikinis planing on a beach, not "beech"!