the show was held at jeff miller's shop this past friday and saturday, and boy o boy what a show it was! i took friday off of work thinking to avoid the crowd on saturday, but i think others had the same idea as myself and i would say, about 30-50 people were hanging around watching demos from deneb puchalski, chris schwarz, John Economaki and jeff miller. thomas lie-nielson was there as well and although i didn’t talk to him he seemed very nice. 30-50 people may not seem like a lot, but in a small shop that number is pretty large. the demonstrations were top notch. deneb sharpening, chris schwarz on handsaws and planing, jeff miller on chair design and inlay techniques and john economaki was working his bridge-city tools real nice…....those are some NICE tools.

i think the tool highlight of the show was the bridge-city powerless table saw, however, at $1000 a pop i think it is going to be out of my price range. another cool part of the show was that lie-nielson had brought all their tools, (and here’s the good part) which were all available to take back into the shop and try out. i wound up purchasing an auriou 9 grit rasp and my first block plane, a low-angle adjustable neck beauty. i was going to get a large router plane as well (especially after watching some of the demos), but they didn’t have any to buy and i didn’t feel like paying shipping at the time (i can get it anytime anyhow).

i went back on saturday, and i was surprised that there were more people there on friday! the demonstrations were the same, although i hear that chris schwarz did a card scraper sharpening demo which i am VERY sorry to have missed, as videos are a poor substitute to real life.

if the “tour” comes through a city near you, i highly recommend you take your nearest car, buggy, wagon and get there. but be careful…..a lot of money can be “lost” in the aquisition of new tools. :)

now the fillister plane’s blade and chip breaker came right out with a couple whacks to the “front” of the dai (i’d still call it the back). and i’ll sharpen that right up, when i get some waterstones (they supposedly arrive on monday). however, the chamfer plane…..oh, yes…the chamfer plane….it couldn’t be all roses and gumdrops to get these planes going could they? apparantly not.

the chamfer plane was and is not feeling like coming out of the dai. so i scoured this vast magic land of the inter web for information on how to get a japanese plane unstuck from a dai. and i found a few good suggestions like sticking the plane in the freezer so it can contract and pull away from the wood. another suggestion was to stick the plane in water, but the plane is pretty rusty as it is, so i decided that was an awful idea.

so i took the chamfer plane to the chicago bauhaus today and jerome suggested cutting away at the rust from between the pin and chip breaker. so i did that. then i got the bright idea to use my dremel with the steel wool looking bit on it, and that worked beautifully. however, it still would not budge. so i took a scrap of purple heart and a hammer and knocked the chip breaker back and forth away from the pin and low and behold the chipbreaker came out!!!!!

unfortunately, the plane is still stuck in the dai….it looks like the dai is rusted to the wood….can that happen? anywho, both the chamfer plane and its dai are back in the freezer. hopefully pulling away from each other so i can get them seperated…

i think that’s it.

oh, if you want to see some pics of the planes here’s a link to where i was able to upload them:

http://www.japanesetools.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=1531