CW wrote:

Not to highly skilled with planes, eh?


Good enough to use them well.
Good enough to sharpen their irons properly and well.

But I'd rather start with a decent "user", as opposed to
a "vanity"/"decorative"/"sentimental value" tool, and have
the time spent tuning it so it's a good "user" tool, as
opposed to a "I can MAKE this tool work" tool.

Sharpening a crappy dull handsaw isn't difficult - but it's
time consuming and a little mind numbing. Setting
the teeth ain't hard either, but even more mind numbing.
And when you're done - at best - you only have a
marginally adequate handsaw that you can MAKE work
- for a while and probably have to sharpen again all too
soon. I'd rather start with a fair to decent dozuki and a
replacement blade and cut wood where I want to cut
and with the minimum of clean up, preferably no clean up.
When it dulls enough to get in my way I'll replace it - and
order a spare blade.

But this woodworking thing has something for everyone.
If you like to sharpen things to a micron thick edge - great.
If 89.05 or 90.02 degrees isn't close enough to square
for you - great. If you like the look of ten layers of french
polished shellac - and enjoy french polishing - great.

On the other hand, if, as a newbie, you find that sharpening
and tuning a marginally useful block plane properly is just
too much of a PITA and get turned off to woodworking ...
Or, if, as a newbie, you spend the time to learn to sharpen
and tune a block plane and it still doesn't work very well
when you're done - your might just kiss off woodworking.

If he wants to go through the process - to my mind - it's
better to go with a better starting point - a fair to decent
block plane - and end up with a good, not just barely adequate,
"user" tool that does what it's made to do - with the minimum
of fuss and effort. Once addicted to woodworking and all
the tools and tuning/tweeking that come with the addiction
- THEN let him discover how much of his life can go into
making things out of wood ; ).

charlie b
tool phreak
wood whore
currently a turned lidded box maker ('til Christmas at least)

ps - don't say ANYTHING about The Cabal
(this post will self destruct in 30 seconds . . .)