O Galoots: I'm sorry my attempt to send better links dragged out over three
messages, but I wasn't sure it would work (I'm still not sure, in fact). Yahoo
no longer allows me to just paste in a link; instead, it creates a little
thumbnail of the site I am linking to. It used to do this, but with an option to
get rid of the thumbnail. This option has been removed. God preserve me from the
"new, improved" versisoon of anything at all.
The great writer A.J. Liebling, who had a fine hand with an analogy, somewhere
speaks about bookleggers during Prohibition who would filter denatured alcohol
through an old felt hat, in the belief that this would remove the poisonous
contaminants from it. In a similar manner I pasted the link into a Word
document, then copied from Word and pasted that into my email. The link seems to
have made it through to the Bagga;ppts list and back to me, so I hope that it
suffices.
Neither plane would satisfy a c*ll*ct*r, especially since those gentry seem to
favor highly polished braass and shiny wood for infills. The smoother has had a
light restoration to working condition, showing in screw heads that have ebeen
filed flush to the body and what looks to me like a light polyurethane topcoat
to the wood---unfortunate if so, but its not too bad.  The tapered (not
parallel)Buck Brotherts Cast Steel blade may have been put in at the
restoration, or it might date back to the day, but it fits well and it gives a
nice tight mouth, and I will never use it enough to sharpen it back enough for
the mouth to widen significantly. It has a nick or two in the edge, but I don't
want to ush things so I haven't sharpened it yet.
The "chariot" plane has the infill under the blade loose, with visible hot glue
residues on it. I don't see any reason why it should be glued, since it is
surrounded by brass on five faces, so I am leaving that as is for the moment.
The blade is parallel, with half a mar at the top end; the first line has beeen
lost, but "cast steel" remains. As received the wedge puts no pressure at all on
the blade, and the blade simply slips forward and back undeer it. A piece of
cardboard box about 1-3/4" x 4", slipped into place (as I said in an earlier
posting) between the wedge and the blade, gives enough pressure to use the plane
for a few test curlss; I'll have to play with it for a while to see if anything
else is needed.Neither is my dream infill (that remains a little Sauer & Steiner
I played with for a few minutes, a number of years ago, at a Lie-Nielson "tool
event" at The Crucible in Oakland just south of here) but they are enough to
fuel a raging hunger for more, more, more infills. Well, maybe not that bad, but
I foresee a genuine bullnose chariot, a shoulder plane or two, and a 5" thumb
plane in my long-term plans.God willin' and the creek don't rise.
Tom Conroystill doing a gloat dance, but quietly, by shuffling my feet under the
table. No blazing sporrans to see here, no sirree bob.