by BMac » Fri Jun 24, 2011 2:58 am
That all makes sense to me. I too have used a block plane to level out the edge of a drum. I agree, a perfect plane for the edge is critical. So I've started by planing, and then moved on to choosing and forming the best bearing edge shape only after a plane is formed. For the pros who have big lathes and jigs for turning a drum, this is all trivial. But to us little guys, hand planes and routers are the tools of choice.
About hand planes: A guy at Highland Hardware in Atlanta really broke things down for me one day, saved me a lot of money, and I am forever grateful. I told him I was ready to buy a plane, and was ready to spend the money ... looking at hand planes that cost between $100 and $300. He asked me if I just felt I needed to buy one of the fancy inlay decorated models. Top of the line hand planes are works of art themselves. They have beautifully hand-carved handles and forward knobs and such. I said "no" ... my interest was purely functional. He steered me toward a little Stanley that only cost about $30. He also told me that the handcrafted and gorgeous but expensive hand planes were set up and ready to use with expertly sharpened blades. But, he said, if I would be willing to get some high grit sandpaper, apply some oil, and lay that sand paper on a glass plane, that I could hone the Stanley blades and polish its glide surface to match the more expensive models. So he showed me all the gear I needed ... an angled blade holder to hone the blade was a key thing that I needed. He convinced me that ultimately, no matter which plane I bought, I would need these other honing items to keep the plane maintained. So unless I just was enamored with the higher end planes, I could keep my $300 and just spend $60 or so and with some patient care, I could get my little Stanley plane to work quite well. What a salesman. He actually talked me down from spending hundreds of dollars. He was right. My inexpensive little Stanley plane still holds honor in my shop. Anybody here who works with wood, if you haven't worked magic with a hand plane yet ... what are you waiting for? I've tried building a sandpaper board to plane off drum heads ... and I gotta tell you ... a sharp and well-maintained hand plane works better and faster. Nothing but a fine lathe will give you a flatter bearing edge than a hand plane.
That is my word.
BMac