I have been a casual woodworker for a very long time, but only recently have I gotten serious about my long yearning to work with hand tools. I'm finally getting the hang of sharpening, so using hand planes is becoming correspondingly more satisfying. I'm nearly finished with my Roubo (which I'll post about separately when it's done), but I'm already clamping things to it and getting stuff done with it.
Last night, and at lunch today, I created great big piles of curly, wispy maple shavings as I smoothed and chamfered the vice chop:
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It's hard to describe how much pleasure this brought me, but I'm sure I'm preaching to the choir here anyway. The feeling and sound of a sharp, well-adjusted plane slicing through hardwood on a rock-solid bench has rapidly become one of my favorite things. I'm sure my aching triceps will learn to enjoy it, too.
I had one small area of tear-out (but not enough to ruin the bliss!):
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Is it time to overcome my irrational fear of scrapers? (Well, that's a slight exaggeration, but I've never sharpened one of 'em yet).