— errm, this got longer than intended - sorry. -


Dan says blessed, but is it a curse?  

> On 12 Nov 2018, at 21:35, Dan Beck  wrote:
> 
> I've been blessed with a Stanely No. 55 in near perfect shape with all the
(snip)
> I'm wondering since I have this 55, do I really need a Rabbet Plane?


Entirely serendipitiously  (sp)  last night I spent the evening with a fellow
bodger, a man widely envied by his fellow local bodgers for his four (count
them) sheds.  He is under the cosh to complete a coffee table for Christmas for
his daughter.  The necessary time having elapsed (a year and ten months) he’s
made a start, and a discussion about how he was to attach the top led to him
coming here.

He’s a greenwood man.  If It’s growing and can be coppiced, he’s the bloke.  If
it’s planked, seasoned, needs to be jointed and french polished, he’s at the
start of the slope.

So the idea was that the still slightly green beech slab for the top was to sit
atop a simple frame of 4 legs, 4 rails.  Dead simple to make with a limited
toolchest that doesn't yet boast a full till.  I suggested that, rather than
screwing through the rails, a better option would be buttons and a groove in the
rails.  We were in the workshop for him to run the grooves.  The first weapon of
choice was of course  a record 43, then a Stanley 50 (plough planes in
increasing sizes, Jeff)  The 50 has more gizmocity than a 43, but the wider
blade was the right option.  This led to talk of 45’s and 55’s  (You see, I got
back to the question) and I waved at the shelves of moulders and said   'The
even more fancy planes like 45 and 55’s were claimed to replace the shelves of
moulding planes.  Which they will do, but the cash saved when buying planes is
spent in time used to set up the plane.  The old boys using them daily were able
to set them up to run better, by dint of practice, and the timber they had was
clearer, straighter grain often.  As with most things in what we do,  It’s the
skill and knowledge you bring to the work that is most telling, and that extends
to knowing how to tune a plane, and how to make it sharp.

So to the 778  (Rebate plane, Jeff)   Which happened to be hiding near he left
knee when I pointed out the relative simplicity of it, compared to even the 50,
You really cant beat the facility of the dedicated plane - by all means a skew
or straight wooden rebate plane, but the 778, set up with a wooden addition to
the fence and leather pad on the depth stop to prevent damage to the work and a
truly sharp blade, is the go to tool for a rebate.  Omit the padding if you only
work on cruder jobs of course.

The big question for you is really  “What work am I expecting to do?”  
If you will need to work many rebates to get jobs competed and out of the door -
buy a 778.  Not a 78.  I have both.  The 78 is for sale.  Single arm fences are
an abomination against nature.  Avoid them.  Far too easy to apply pressure to
skew the body a tad - enough to give a ragged, worn edge to the rebate where you
should have a crisp arris.

If you don’t know what you will do, or you have many profiles to cut,or few pure
rebates,  then practice with the 55.  Find some clear softwood, and practice
with different blades and set up the tool for everything you can think of,  tune
the cutters, the fences, the depth stops, the nickers until your 55 sings to
you.  You’ll experience a deep satisfaction.  Oh - and of course you need to
introduce hardwoods as test pieces once you have the basics down.  A whole
‘nuther country when you start mouldings and even rebates in hardwood after too
log at the silly soft stuff.

Summary
‘What work do I want/need to accomplish?
What’s the best tool for that job?
and the answers tell you if you’re buying (being blessed) for the inner glow of
ownership and tool knowledge or for facility.


Just say(tm)  the 778 is one of those tools that will be in my cold, dead hand.

Richard Wilson
Rambling along in Northumberland.