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My son Troy and I just returned from this conference. It was not anything at all like the "entourage" woodworking shows. Yes there was a vendors hall where you could "lighten you wallet", and many vendors reported record sales, but this was not in any way the main part of the conference.

We found our three days packed full attending classes put on by Popular Woodworking's staff members and other noted woodworkers like Roy Underhill and Fran Klaus. The class schedule was so full that it was difficult to find the time to go into the vendor's hall, probably just as well.

There were also two tours to the nearby Whitewater Shaker village which is undergoing restoration. There are a few interesting surviving furniture pieces, including a large chest of drawers and a hutch cupboard, a reproduction of which is nearby, made by Popular Woodworking's Glen Huey. A grand banquet was held Friday night for 1000 persons. This was not a small affair. There were also smaller more informal evening "gatherings" on Saturday.

It was really great to meet Chris Schwarz and his staff members. There were also staff persons from the parent company F&W publications. Cory Smith, from F&W and I scoured the neighborhood early Sunday morning trying to find a coffee shop.

With an emphasis on traditional woodworking, this was probably not the type of conference for the production/professional type of woodworking businesses. While there were power tools there, and classes, this conference was probably better suited to expanding your hand tool woodworking knowledge and ability. Having used a router and dovetail jig, It was amazing to sit on the front row and watch Frank Klaus hand cut dovetails faster than I could set up my jig. Roy Underhill showed us how to cut tennons by hand and was very entertaining in the process. Chris Schwarz, in iron man fashion, stood on his feet and educated us on hand planes from 8 AM to 1 PM on Sunday. I took a new Anant #7 with me to show him, and Chris, in a nice way, informed me just how poor a tool decision I had made. In fact, in the class, he was also quick to criticize one of Lie-Nielson's planes to the point of telling us not to buy it, even though they were one of the vendors present at the conference. There wasn't any "sugarcoating" here.

The staff's thinking is to hold the Conference in Covington KY again next year at about the same time. Schwarz is already thinking about adding additional tours. He likes to keep the conference at around 500 attendees, so if you are contemplating attending, signing up early will be a good idea.

So which handplanes were recommneded?

Thanks for sharing all that information about the conference. Been to the regular woodworking shows with all the vendors and very few actual classes. Looks like I need to start a piggy bank to save for next year, and especially if it is going to be in Kentucky.

Swarz uses three hand planes to surface a board; first a fore plane, which can be either a #5 or #6 with a rather marked radius (6 to 8 inches) on the cutting edge. This plane is used across the grain for rapid removal of wood. Next he uses a #7 jointer plane with a slight curvature on the blade to avoid plane tracks. the Jointer is first used diagonally to smooth the fore plane tracks and then along the grain to flatten the board. The #3 or 4 smoothing plane, with a very slight curvature on the blade is used to finish prep the surface, which then doesn't even need sanding. Chris had an old Stanley #5 that he used for a fore plane, a nice Lie-Nielson #7 jointer, and a nicely restored #3 smoother.

He also recommends the router plane for cutting dados and a small router plane for cutting hinge mortises. This small router plane by-the-way can precisely cut a hinge mortise faster than you can set up a router and template. He likes to use a rabbet plane and recommends the Stanley 45 or 50. He showed us how to use a plow plane, which is a rather complicated tool that is not easily found. A #80 Stanley cabinet scraper rounds out the list.

In the class, a 14" wide six foot long oak plank was surfaced using the first three planes. Class members took turns using the planes, and the final result was a convincing argument that you don't have to have a monstrous wide jointer in order to flatten a rough sawn board.

8iowa
I'm confused he used a Lie Nielson plane but recommended not to buy one.

Did he give a reason?

Why did he tell you, you had made a bad choice in your plane?

With the radiiused blades did he suggest how to sharpen and maintain the radius?

Did he talk about sole plate flattening? Did he consider it important or incidentaliary.

In eight grade my shop teacher taught us how to plane a 8 inch rough cut board flat and uniform thickness. While I still use much of his procedure I'm sure there are shortcuts I have long forgotten.

If I remember correctly you went to a plane workshop at Highland a year to two ago. How did this compare?

We want and crave more information, please share more of what you learned.

Ed in Tampa wrote:8iowa
I'm confused he used a Lie Nielson plane but recommended not to buy one.

Did he give a reason?

Why did he tell you, you had made a bad choice in your plane?...

Sounded like one man's opinion to me. Many woodworkers have varying opinions!

Ed,

He has no problem with most LN stuff, in fact two of the three planes he used were from LN. His talk was more focused on building an effective tool set without buying too many tools and he is completing a book describing the basic set needed. All the tool manufacturers produce a wide variety of highly specialized and expensive planes that for most are quite unnecessary. The point he was trying to make was to wait until you develop your skill with a few essential tools and then you would know what to buy after that.

With one exception, all the instructors I saw are at the top of their field and were somewhat opinionated. They have developed their skills using particular methods and while these opinions were fairly consistent there were interesting differences.

Hopefully my dad can fill in the details a little more coherently, I'm paying the price for taking the time off with long days at work.

Troy

charlese wrote:Sounded like one man's opinion to me. Many woodworkers have varying opinions!

I'm not sure if woodworkers are more opinionated than watch/clock makers but I must admit the woodworkers at WIA were a nice bunch. Certainly much less cantankerous than most of the horologists I know.

Troy

horologist wrote:I'm not sure if woodworkers are more opinionated than watch/clock makers but I must admit the woodworkers at WIA were a nice bunch. Certainly much less cantankerous than most of the horologists I know.

Troy

That come from working alone in a room full of tickers???:D

JPG40504 wrote:That come from working alone in a room full of tickers???:D

Possibly or just too much time tocking to oneself.