Popular Woodworking 2006-08 № 156, страница 61

terms of performance. As did my "work-a-day" tools from Veritas and Lie-Nielsen. The same goes for other high-end tools I've already written about: the Ray Iles A5, the Clark & Williams smoothing plane and the new Bridge City variable-pitch plane, which I had only limited time with. Even my vintage Stanleys had nothing to be ashamed of.

I discussed this finding with several toolmakers, none of whom were surprised by it. Robin Lee, the president of Lee Valley Tools, summed it up this way: "The wood doesn't care." And he's right. Thomas Lie-Nielsen, founder and owner of Lie-Nielsen Toolworks, put it this way: "A plane is just a jig for a chisel." And he's right, too.

If your planes meet the minimum basic requirements of a plane: a sharp cutter that's firmly secured at an appropriate angle for the wood you're working, the tool will do an excellent j ob. So if you think that buying a very expensive plane will make all lumber bow down before you and your tool, think again.

But there are good reasons to buy custom planes - and they're the same reasons people buy custom furniture when they could go to a discount store and buy an entire bedroom suite for $500. Some people like handmade and exquisite things. And thank goodness, because our mass-manufactured world can use a few handmade touches.

These were the thoughts that were flying around my head as I packed up all the tools used for this article to ship them back to their owner. As I taped the last box and swept up the mounds of shavings we made, I resolved to tear apart our basement looking for my little blue $15 block plane. It just might have some high-end work ahead of it - until I win the lottery, that is. PW

MAVERICKS FOR A NEW ERA

When word leaked out that John Edwards and I were going to be setting up and using all of the planes featured in this article, toolmaker Wayne Anderson remarked: "Boy I would like to be a fly on that wall." After some thought, we decided to open up the door for a day and invite as many modern toolmakers as we could on short notice.

Surprisingly, many of them came. And even more surprisingly, many of them were meeting one another for the first time in our shop. The toolmak-ing attendees included:

• Wayne Anderson (Anderson Planes)

• Robert Baker (a custom maker)

• Brian Buckner (a custom maker)

• John Economaki (Bridge City Tools)

• Ron Hock (Hock Tools)

• Joel Moskowitz (Tools for Working Wood)

• Thomas Lie-Nielsen, Kirsten Lie-Nielsen, Mark Swanson (Lie-Nielsen Toolworks)

• Robin Lee, Terry Saunders (Veritas/Lee Valley Tools)

• Konrad Sauer (Sauer & Steiner)

• Larry Williams, Don McConnell (Clark & Williams)

We spent the entire day in our shop swapping personal stories, using all of the tools and generally having a good time. In hindsight, I think we were lucky that a meteor didn't hit the building that day or modern toolmaking would have been set back about 20 years. — CS

Konrad Sauer and Terry Saunders look for tear-out on a particularly nasty piece of wood.

Don

McConnell tweaks the setting on a Clark & Williams smoothing plane.

Back row (left to right): Christopher Schwarz, Thomas Lie-Nielsen, Kirsten Lie-Nielsen, Mark Swanson, Joel Moskowitz, Clarence Blanchard (from the Fine Tool Journal), Mike Jenkins (also from the Journal), John Economaki, Robin Lee. Middle row: Konrad Sauer, Ron Hock, Wayne Anderson, Don McConnell, Larry Williams, Terry Saunders, Robert Baker, Brian Buckner. Kneeling, front left: John Edwards.

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