Nate Perkins wrote:
Wow. I am a middle aged guy in pretty good shape, and when I tried to
do it all with an old #4 it was a heavy duty workout. Just taking a 4/4
roughsawn board down to 3/4" is a lot of wood removal. Even face
jointing a board with a lot of bow or twist in it is fair work. I did
it that way for a while, and it sure made me appreciate a power jointer
and planer.
That's great. The only time I joint by hand anymore is when I've got a
nice-grained board that's wider than my power jointer.
You bet! Only thing that matters more than the results is the enjoyment :-)

Sorry you had such a hard time of it Nate. Just FYI, a #4 is a
smoother, that's why it was so hard for you to remove the 1/4" of
wood with it. A #6 or so would have been a better place to start
and then, when you had it down to nearly the right thickness and
flatness, switch down to a #5 and then a #4. Least that's the way
I do it. As for jointing, it's simple. Clamp the two boards on
top of each other on your shooting board and run a #6 or #7 on its
side along the sandwiched sdes of the boards until the shaving is
full length, doesn't take more than a couple minutes unless the
baords are amazingly shaped. The sides will match up and be ready
to glue.

It sounds as though you are missing some planes from your
collection. But then, who isn't. %-)

Dave in Fairfax
--
Dave Leader
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