Gravity is a bitch


This is not the first thing you want to see when you walk into your shop, especially when said cabinet was full of your hand planes and sharpening stones. Definitely not the first thing.

After pushing my stomach down out of my throat, I surveyed the damage. Fancy new tote on my jack plane, toast.


Yoke on my no. 8 jointer plane from the late 1800s, busted.


Otherwise, my tools were mostly unscathed. The handle on my crappy spokeshave snapped off, and my 8000 grit sharpening stone has a nice crack, but it’s still useable. And that was really it. Couple dings in things, but nothing major. Thank god for the ductile iron in the modern planes, and a couple lucky bounces for the others.

I ordered a replacement y-adjuster for the 8; it arrived on Saturday. After a trip to the local hardware store to pick up some punches, it was pretty easy to replace, if nervy. Anytime you have to hammer on cast iron from 100 years ago, you get a little nervous. All went well though, and I have a working jointer again.

Now, back to making furniture. And tearing down all those crappy cabinets.