if you want to hear ironic...I took a closer look at the stanley trim plane and realized that I never lapped the base.

So 5 minutes on the belt sander and now it's as flat and polished as a mirror. Sure enough, the combo of the lapped base and properly ground secondary bevel, it planes like a champ. I had about a split second of buyers remorse up until the point where I started peeling off micro thin shavings with the veritas...the sound it makes...it's just beautiful :)

Anyway - I don't regret it...I needed one anyway and now I have 2 fully functional tools :) I busted my honing guide too - long story - so perfect opportunity to spring for the Veritas honing guide...that'll be a nice addition to the tool bag too.

I tacked the the sheer line strips today in anticipation of some planing sessions soon to come...I taped off the edges of my stations with Frog tape and am using hot glue to tack the strips to the stations. It's as perfect a solution for a new guy like me because after I released the clips, I noticed a bow in one of the sheer line strips - it must have come loose at the scarf joint while the glue was drying...It was so subtle I missed it when I was eyeballing the lines...but luckily, since it was just hot glue, all I had to do was give it a quick pull in the right direction and the strip popped right off with no damage. I rescarfed the strips but this time using some scrap strips as guides to ensure the joints dry straight...

Should start planing my first strips for real this weekend :) yay!