Our Members Really Come Through!

I want to thank Arnie Champagne, Don Naples, Neal White and their fearless leader Harold Patterson for the program they put on at our July meeting -- everything about planes! Organized mainly by Harold, the guys presented a fantastic background on the history of planes, why it's important to know how to use a plane, and what it will do for you. They also laid out perhaps 50 or so examples of all types of planes and scrapers. They talked about tools and techniques for sharpening them, and showed a set up for removing rust from metal planes and parts. Harold and Don had excellent handouts. These presenters taught us why it's easier and faster to reach for a good plane to do the final fitting when assembling wood parts than to go back to power tools. The secret is in knowing how to use it and having it very sharp. The audience was very enthusiastic about this topic and asked many questions of the presenters.

As if this wasn't enough, on Saturday this same group of presenters, with the addition of Manny Hernandez, held a plane tune-up (fettling) day at the back of Woodcraft San Carlos. Neal set up an electrolysis tank to take the rust off metal planes like magic. Don had his excellent Lap Sharp sharpening machine running. Manny brought some of his coveted Lie-Nielson planes from his collection, and all the guys answered questions and helped our members sharpen blades and fine tune their own planes for better, easier use.

Working by themselves, these five members created and staged these two events! They gathered the material and did a great presentation at Thursday's meeting, then organized 6 hours of self-help on Saturday -- all for BAWA! They're so enthusiastic about hand planes and hand tool skills, they've declared the Saturday event the First Annual Hand Plane Day. I hope we make this fettling day happen again next year too!

Last month in this column I discussed hand tool use and sharpening, and why it's so important for all of us to develop these skills. In our modern world, most people believe that if you want to produce high quality work quickly you need power tools. This is true, but well tuned, skillfully used hand tools are the real secret to fine woodworking production.

These guys have clearly demonstrated that fine craftsmanship is achieved only by combining the use of power tools and hand tools. So thank you gentlemen for sharing your knowledge with us and showing us all how to be better woodworkers!