Ferns

Less fate-tempting countries call it "daylight saving", but Mad Dogs and Englishmen persist in calling it "British Summertime". It fell upon us last Sunday. It does not come as a total surprise to the time-served Englishwoman to wake to a sharpish frost the following Friday...


You've gotta hand it to Jack Frost though; he's a dab hand with the ice art.

As for tales of daring-do in the workshop, it's more like daring-d'oh. The Maxi struck again and managed to go from a 90° setting to not-quite-a-90°-setting without any input from me. Or any appreciation of the fact from me either, until it was too late. So I'm doing a bit of unscheduled painting to help rescue the effects... If it comes out even mildly presentable (possibly with a little help from Gimpshop) then all will be revealed. What there is of it. More of an experiment than anything worth sharing really.

S'about it except for the w'shop being in a total pickle and the saw till getting some holes filled with a view to paint. I finally had enough of looking at rusty nail holes and anyway I figure a painted carcass gives me more leeway on what to make the door from. Plus I get to delay things even further while I decide on a colour...

Panel Plane

Well due to unprecedented demand... Erm, or not. Anyway:


Mainly maple, I think (it was free) with cherry wedges which were going to go with the tote I eventually decided not to fit. I've never yet made a wedge look like I wish it would - they've all been ugly as sin. Not really modeled on any one example in the end. You could argue not really modeled at all, more "slung together"...


Measurements are 9 1/4" long, 3" wide, iron 2" wide and 1/8" thick, 30° skew, 50° bedding angle.


Got in a hopeless tangle with the sole shape and fence so ended up having to stick an extra bit on, which ain't elegant but does function. The moral of the story is don't go from not having made a plane at all for years to a skewed, profiled sole one first off. The iron is of unknown parentage but was 50 new pence from a local surplus place so who's complaining? An old file provided the nicker blade.


Considering I didn't have anything a sane person would describe as a plan, and what I did have I didn't stick to, it's a minor miracle it actually works at all.

Oh, and in between waiting for the glue to dry and such, I finally finished the page on the Record 044. Saw till's still doorless though...

Raising things

Yep, reckon this one'll raise the frustration levels as well as panels... But hey, it's not finished yet and you wouldn't want to see it half-baked, would you? Mind you it's pretty much a botch job anyway, so don't indulge in too much anticipation. Just in case you don't know who to blame read this.

Funny really, 'cos I was only the other day saying to that certain saw-maker so well-known to many of the readership how Mr Christopher Schwarz, magazine editor also well-known to many, is a Bad Influence. Time and again I find myself suddenly thinking such-and-such a tool would be fun to have and wonder why - only to trace the origin of the thought back to Chris. Mr Wenzloff seems also under this terrible curse. What I hadn't realised until now is that Mr W is also a Bad Influence. Not only making saws that result in excessive "oooooooos" directed at my monitor, but in diverting me into making tools that I'd had no intention of making before. I don't think it's deliberate, but it's happened more than once now.

What I really need is one or both Bad Influences to do the decent thing and inspire me to finish that saw till...

Website Update

Just a heads up that the Combi How-To is now web sited with the addition of a couple of the constructive points made on the forum, including a link I meant to include and forgot. D'oh. Still open to revision however, if anyone has something useful to add. Also had a general re-jig to lose the Boat Anchor name and switch to Combi Plane Central instead. I had a feeling that seekers after combination plane goodness weren't necessarily making the anchor connection. Slowly coming along anyway. Got some superb pictures of a Marples 44 plough which should give me the necessary nudge to get on with that page, although I can't now recall if I have pics of a 44C now. Ack, must get more organised!