Shopping spree

After installing the keel, I had a break of a couple months while I waited for the time and money needed for the chine and sheer. There wasn't much boat work in November and December, but we finally took delivery of a bunch of wood right before Christmas. In the meantime, there were tools to buy. One day when Jen was out of town, I went on a shopping spree at Woodcraft. It was awesome. Here's what I picked up:

Lie-Nielsen Low Angle Smooth Plane (L-N 164)

Veritas Mk.II Honing Guide

Waterstones - a 1200 and a 4000/8000 combo

Chisel set

8" Microplane (coarse)

The honing guide and waterstones were part of my sharp chisel initiative, which will be discussed more completely in an upcoming post. The Microplane replaces/augments a basic wood rasp that I've had for some time. The wood rasp works OK, but this Microplane is great. I had used them in the kitchen before, but never in the woodshop; they're great in both places. The chisels augment a cheap set that I'd bought several years ago at Home Depot or Lowes or Harbor Freight - a cheap set that I never bothered to sharpen and which, consequently, never worked well. (In truth, I didn't know you were supposed to sharpen your chisels before you use them. I figured you just opened the package and put them to use. I suppose if I bought really nice chisels, they'd be ready to use out of the box. Not those.) The plane was obviously the big purchase among these things, and I haven't used it yet. Big Shot Bob is coming over soon to help me figure out how to use it and, hopefully, how to do some of the upcoming fairing work, regardless of the tools used.