Suspenders and Handplanes
The MVP Tool Of The Weekend Award goes to the vintage wise old Handplane. I began building a platform bed this weekend and the handplane was essential in shaping the wood with deadly accuracy. I reached for the handplane out of desperation when I wasn’t getting the results I wanted from my sander. Who knew that this tool, which until yesterday had been patiently collecting dust – watching all its modern electric replacements get all the attention, was all business. Poised and solid, it removed only what was asked and left an edge so clean that I immediately turned to all the lesser tools in the garage and scolded them for not being more like the handplane. My new woodworking mantra is: if it was good enough for the Romans then it’s good enough for me.

For awhile the effect of the handplane was dizzying. I thought about selling all the modern tools and becoming more like that crazy Roy Underhill guy from PBS. I’d even rock those suspenders and grow the stash! Or maybe I had to go Japanese and get really zen with my woodworking. Walk around the workshop in my bare feet and get into insanely intricate joinery projects that required Jackie Chan style flexibility and hyper dovetail lunacy.

Perhaps that’s still a far off dream and probably not very realistic or smart. But the lesson I’m taking away from this is that sometimes the traditional technologies can be the best tools. Even if you don’t own a pair of suspenders.