Fair Enough

It was a good weekend. We brought the little un's to see a new foal, and to see a Japanese Garden. Stepping stones are a wonderous thing when you are 2½.

I even got to work on the boat. The last sheer strake is now glued and screwed. Incidently you can strip bronze headded screws with a Yankee Screwdriver. You just have to try hard enough. Luckily the screw is exactly where it needs to be. 8-)

I spent a lot of time Sharpening and Honing and Polishing various chisels and planes, so I started fairing the chine log with my Stanley #4 and a truely razor sharp Hock blade. 

There were a few reasons for starting with hand tools.

• You get a feel for the job without messing it up in one fell swoop.
• Shavings are less annoying than saw dust when there's clothes drying on the line
• The sound of a sharp blade shaving oak is quite pleasant, a power planer is hardly musical.
• It's interesting to try it.

One piece of advice, never arm wrestle with a carpenter who uses hand tools.

I suspect that I will move on to power tools for the bulk of the work, as I suspect that it would take many weekends of collecting shavings to make a dent in the work that must be done.

Photos will follow soon.