It's a wooden life

No car boot sales for me tomorrow - going out for slightly delayed anniversary celebrations for the folks. Can't believe it's a year since I was nervously unveiling those tables. Time flies in a most frightening way sometimes. Anyway, I went today instead and got something interesting. It's prompted me to ask myself important questions. Like can it be that working with exotic timber somehow attracts more of it to appear? Is lignum vitae like London Buses? You wait for ages and then three come along at once? Search me. But look what I found this morning.



Heavy blighter (tarnation - I meant to weigh it) and if it ain't lv I'd be very very surprised indeed. There's a tiny split in one place, but it seems to be just cosmetic, and it's going to need a new wedge. What sort of wood should a wedge in a lignum vitae plane be? I mean the darn stuff is naturally lubricated, so you hardly want lv on lv or the wedge will forever slip, won't it? The iron's going to need some work too - the cap iron's too narrow for a start. New maker on me too; looks like Swift & Son/s, Sheffield.



The mouth's not exactly tight either, but the sole appears to be as flat as I'm able to measure. And it just feels gorgeous to the hand. I couldn't very well leave it, could I?

Oh, I bought another wad punch too. But I think that's just another ordinary addiction...