Hi Everyone!
First time posting, thank you in advance for any feedback.
I've been doing some mostly power tool wood working for a few years now and have become a huge fan of it. I'm relocating to a place where I won't have the space to use really any power tools for 6-12 months and seems like the best opportunity for me to really dive into the hand tool side of things. I'm nearly finished with my workbench build, Scandinavian inspired.
I plan to be mostly making small-large boxes that will work in the limited space, maybe some small furniture pieces. Want to focus on dovetail joinery. Will probably have to do some lumber squaring but plan to get s2s lumber if I can't find any good s4s readily available.
Hand tools I currently have (have a bunch of flat/phillips drivers and clamps /squares /marking gauges etc already as well)
I currently have 3 various number 4 Stanley planes I picked up cheap and restored. Plan to use one for scrubbing, one for smoothing. probably just keep the other as a back up / shelf dust collector tentatively.
I've acquired a router plane and a plough plane.
I have a decent set of chisels to start with 1/4 1/2 3/4 1"
What i will be acquiring in the near future
I plan to purchase either a Japanese Pull saw or Vertitas Western style Dovetail saw.
I plan to purchase a 1/4 mortising chisel
Going with a Tren 300/1000 grit diamond stone and probably will land on a 5-8k grit finishing stone of some sort as well
The one thing I can't seem to make my mind up on for the life of me is what I want to use for my shooting board.
The options that I believe i'm leaning towards currently are (in order of what I currently think is most likely decision at this time)
Veritas Shooting Plane
Veritas Jack rabbit plane (read a really cool article I found on this forum of a guy that converted it to be able to be used for shooting and seemed to work very well.
5 1/2 Veritas custom
TLDR;
What to get for shooting board as new hand tool wood worker.
My thought process in leaning towards the shooting plane is I feel as though I'll have a much higher likelihood in finding a 5 or 5 1/2 in a flea market this summer pretty soon here than a shooting plane (especially a reasonably priced one) however I don't necessarily like that the handle on the veritas is toward the rear requiring me really to put a outside track on the board to keep it from wanting to pull out, really n ot a big deal and an easy fix.
I also like the idea of having a low angle jack plane in my arsenal of planes I start out with which is probably the most enticing part of the JRP to me at this point. Seems like it could be "jack of all trades" + shooting board plane with little effort.
Was wondering if anyone had any feedback, my main worry about not getting a 5 1/2 if i'm not able to find one would be can I make do with small boxes/ small furniture/ squaring up small-medium lumber easy enough with a No 4? At what size of board does it become beneficial to have a 5+ for squaring lumber?
Any Cons to the Jack rabbit plane used as a general use plane/ shooting board plane that i'm not thinking of?
Sorry for the super long post and thank you again!