Short order...

That very nice UPS man brought me a parcel on Friday all the way from Berlin, courtesy of Deiter Schmid. I was primarily interested in the dovetail chisels made by Mr Matsumara, but on closer inspection the side grinding along the bevels was simply too coarse so these, reluctantly, had to be returned to Germany.

I'd also ordered though, a couple of the fishtail Bachi Nomi chisels which were excellent...until I got them into the 'shop to prepare them. The larger 18mm chisel didn't just have a 'bump', the whole of the back was bowed like a banana and proved impossible to make flat and level by hand, so I had to resort the side grinding wheel of the Tormek to make it slightly concave. I approached this bit a little nervously...after all the Tormek will remove a lot of steel in short order and once it's gone, there's no putting it back! Happily, this was a lot easier than I'd anticipated and a further ten minutes lapping on the 3M papers saw it perfect.

Perhaps the biggest surprise was the little plane I'd also ordered...an ECE scrub with a hornbeam sole. I've always been a bit of a naysayer when it comes to these planes, but I was absolutely staggered to see how timber was chewed off...it's quite possible to reduce a thick board of oak to a pile of chips on the floor in very short order! I intend to use this little plane for the removal of high spots and 'wind' on rough sawn boards before going over the top on the planer-thicknesser.

However, the downside is that it's now pushed the total number of planes I own to twenty...someone's going to accuse me of being a 'collector' soon...