I know a feller what's put hundreds of hours into getting him some hand plane learning over the past three years. Dude can turn a dollar store plane into something that'll shave translucent curls of wood off of oak or purple heart with nothing but some diamond stones, Windex, and patience. I generally find a belt sander good enough but then I don't make many things in such a way that they have to be absolutely flat and perfectly square. I'm lazy and just make most things to where they'll look and function correctly even if they're an eighth of an inch off on half the measurements. There are exceptions but usually I find them more tedious than fulfilling.
The most recent exception is I'm making 1/16" hickory veneers for laminating together into the plywood of a skateboard. Skateboards are generally 7-ply slow growth Canadian maple. That was all fine and good when I was 130lbs and couldn't buy my own cigarettes but it's less so nowadays. Hickory's heavier than maple but it also takes a lot more to break by applying force perpendicular to the grain. Bamboo is as well and it's lighter than either of them but it flexes way more than maple and way way more than hickory. Plus I despise the double kick, narrow, concave boards they make nowadays. I'm an 80s skater and I like my boards 10-11 inches wide up by the front truck, at least a nine inch wide tail, very little nose, almost zero concavity, and only the single kick on the tail. Extra weight from hickory I can deal with easily since force = mass x acceleration and my mass has increased just a bit since I was a teenager.
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Saturday November 14 2020, @11:12PM
I know a feller what's put hundreds of hours into getting him some hand plane learning over the past three years. Dude can turn a dollar store plane into something that'll shave translucent curls of wood off of oak or purple heart with nothing but some diamond stones, Windex, and patience. I generally find a belt sander good enough but then I don't make many things in such a way that they have to be absolutely flat and perfectly square. I'm lazy and just make most things to where they'll look and function correctly even if they're an eighth of an inch off on half the measurements. There are exceptions but usually I find them more tedious than fulfilling.
The most recent exception is I'm making 1/16" hickory veneers for laminating together into the plywood of a skateboard. Skateboards are generally 7-ply slow growth Canadian maple. That was all fine and good when I was 130lbs and couldn't buy my own cigarettes but it's less so nowadays. Hickory's heavier than maple but it also takes a lot more to break by applying force perpendicular to the grain. Bamboo is as well and it's lighter than either of them but it flexes way more than maple and way way more than hickory. Plus I despise the double kick, narrow, concave boards they make nowadays. I'm an 80s skater and I like my boards 10-11 inches wide up by the front truck, at least a nine inch wide tail, very little nose, almost zero concavity, and only the single kick on the tail. Extra weight from hickory I can deal with easily since force = mass x acceleration and my mass has increased just a bit since I was a teenager.