Canadian Mosquito Wings

Nothing crazy happening in the shop today; had company over :)

I did, however, grab a 12"x12" chunk of crotchy walnut and jointed one face flat with my Veritas Low-Angle Jack plane.  I have it set to a 37° attack angle and it seems unstoppable (as is the A2 blade).  Coincidentally, my friend Bud also posted an entry about the same plane (he had always eye-balled the Veritas low-angles, but my raving might have pushed him over the edge :)

This block was resawn long ago before I had a clue what I was doing with the bandsaw.  As such, the cut was wavy and rough.  The left half I jointed with the Jack plane while the right is still off the bandsaw.  You can see there's a lot of nice swirly grain and a nice crotch bookmatch that will need a special project.  These could be further resawn to make a nice four-way bookmatch and I'll consider that after I get them jointed then planed.

As for the Canadian mosquito reference... the provincial bird of Manitoba is the mosquito.  As such, they are big.  Most people talk about taking mosquito-wing shavings with their plane, but I find that takes forever to level a hilly board like the one shown.  Instead, I take Canadian mosquito wing shavings... 0.019"

The board isn't completely smooth yet, but there is almost no tear-out despite the crazy grain.  The side is flat and I'll wait until after I have these two resawn before taking it down to a smoother and, maybe, scraper plane.

Now, a project...