Lowell Holmes wrote:

My Stanley 80 does a decent job, but sanding is required to get a smooth
surface. I was just curious if you had ever worked with it. I have two
pieces of 4/4, the smaller one being about 36" x 9". I intend to re-saw it
to about 3/8" and make a box just to see how it works.

I just went back and re-read the thread on sapele, and did a little
Googling to find some pics of the stuff. It does look like the stuff
I've seen called ribbon-stripe mahogany. I'm guessing that a low-angle
smoother would be the way to go, and failing that, a scraper.

But I'm fascinated by the idea of planing across the grain. I've
never done that for smoothing a piece. So you wanna send me a hunk of
this stuff so I can play around with it? ;-)

Now that I've finished another project, I'll start the box today.

Cool, let us know how it goes.


Chuck Vance