More Beech Plane Ideas?

[David Weaver]

It'll look better once its planed and has a little bit of oil on it. It's a bit dull to look at as wood until you've worked with it, then it's more exciting.

I hope not ever any career as a planemaker - right now I can do the planes as well as I want them for users, but "planemakers" have to worry about them being photo perfect for customers used to getting things that come from CNC machines! It should be enough for me to make every type of bench and specialty plane that I'll ever want to make, though (I have about 80 to 100 BF of 8/4 and 4/4 beech and then some euro pear and a few other specialty blanks).

[Matthew N. Masail]

Congrats !

[David Weaver]

I didn't have a great sense of how much wood this was going to be until I actually got it. I ordered 55 board feet, and I think they may have given me a bit more than that (though I didn't measure yet). The shipping bill said 250 pounds.

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There are 12 billets, with the largest two on the top. The top billet is literally large enough to build two jointers and two jacks by itself.

What I learned dealing with horizon, as you might have gathered, i didn't have a lot of patience early on when it took me a while to get a hold of someone and get a response. But, once I got a hold of someone, they are on the extreme end of communication, discussing what I was getting the wood for, what proportions I'd like, and then pulling the wood, taking pictures of it to confirm it's what I wanted, arranging freight and then sending me a message to tell me the day it was picked up and when I'd expect to get it. It's like old school, where you feel like they're spending more time getting it right than you would be willing to if you were selling.

Every single piece is good enough to make a top shelf plane, there is no having to pick through it for the "good ones" and figuring out what to do with the marginal ones.

(Plus I have a couple of billets left from prashun that I can make another couple of planes or tools from).

After fiddling around for so long looking here or there for 16/4 beech, quartered, I'm so glad to have enough now that I don't need to worry about looking for it again.