Big handplane, small handplane

When going through my grandpa's handplane drawer, there were three metal-bodied planes: a regular block plane, a skew-blade plane, and a jointer plane.

Initially, my brother, myself, and my Guitar Cousin all expressed interest in the jointer plane. We decided to postpone the deciding until later.

Later, when I was packing up my stash of tools for shipping, I remembered the handplanes. My brother declined, saying that Grandpa had recently given him a metal jointer plane that had belonged to Great-Grandpa Aos, a finishing carpenter (how cool is that???). That left just my cousin and me.

Since I was taking the two block planes, I figured that it was only fair that I give my cousin the jointer plane. I wrapped it in a bit of newspaper, and brought it to the BBQ at my aunt's place that evening.

That evening, I brought my cousin out to the car, told him that it seemed equitable to give him that plane -- seeing as how I was taking the other two -- and handed him the plane.

''Thanks!'' he said. ''I don't have a long plane, yet -- just two shorter planes.''

''Umm. Actually, this is a jointer plane -- like for jointing the edges of boards. The two you have are probably jack planes.''

He paused. ''Maybe you should take this, after all.''

''You sure?'', I asked.

''Yeah,'' he said. ''I don't use my other two planes that much. And I already have a power jointer.''

''Ah. Well, thanks! I **do** collect handplanes.''


I guess he was impressed that I actually knew the technical names for them. And I think we both realized that I'd appreaciate -- and acutally **use** -- the jointer plane more than he would.

He's a good cousin. :)


--GG