:-) Ralph rants :

>If you have supposedly interviewed hundreds of old-time "experts" to learn
>the "lost secrets" of cabinetmaking, THERE IS NO POSSIBLE WAY THAT YOU CAN
>NOT KNOW WHAT A PLOW PLANE IS CALLED!  Sorry for shouting, but this still
>gets my goat.  This is one of the most basic tools in the set, and it is
>just inconceivable that someone's research could be so shoddy as to think it
>was a dado plane.

I can't say anything about Bealer since I haven't seen any of his books
but he's not the only one with strange mistakes.  Aldren Watson's
Country Furniture calls a yankee? plough a "fillister plane" and his
picture shows one with an iron so bent out of shape that you could never
get it out of the plane to change it, let alone sharpen it.  [I must 
add that this doesn't detract in any way from my high opinion of Watson's
books.]

Hey, this is the second time in just a few days that I've pulled an
oldtool book off the shelf, after not touching them for over a year.
I'm starting to re-realize what a great passtime this is...  Gazing
at Bill's panel raiser a few minutes ago gave me the urge to go down
and fondle a plane or two of my own, something I haven't done since
my shop was filled to the ceiling last year with extra furniture.
Got the place mostly cleaned up now...

Speaking of books, don't forget mwcta.org's list of books that we of
the porch put together several years ago.  Last I heard Russ Allen
was taking care of it.

Paul Pedersen     
Montreal (Quebec)