Bob Mustain
Well-known member
I just finished watching Don McConnell's new video on traditional molding planes, briefly reviewed in the latest Newsletter. What a treat! Watching Don work his way through a dozen planes creating several different simple and complex moldings in cherry was great. The title is really a misnomer, and should not put off anyone who already uses his or her stash of molding planes in their shop. The video is much more than "the basics" at least as I understand the term. He not only explains striking the moldings but covers layout, plane geometry, holding the work, fitting moldings to furniture and much more. The DVD really does prepare a person reasonably familiar with planes to use molding planes to produce real work.
I only have one small complaint. Don is armed with a dazzling array of Clark and Williams planes, a full half set of hollows and rounds, quirk beads, complex molders and even snipe bills. Even if production wasn't backed up, few of us could afford all new planes. Don spends very little time on tuning old planes to put them back to work, really only a segment on sharpening and reshaping the irons. Still, there are other sources for these subjects and the instructional material in this video makes it much more than just worthwhile. Congratulations to Don and to Lie-Nielson. I hope there are more DVDs to come.
I only have one small complaint. Don is armed with a dazzling array of Clark and Williams planes, a full half set of hollows and rounds, quirk beads, complex molders and even snipe bills. Even if production wasn't backed up, few of us could afford all new planes. Don spends very little time on tuning old planes to put them back to work, really only a segment on sharpening and reshaping the irons. Still, there are other sources for these subjects and the instructional material in this video makes it much more than just worthwhile. Congratulations to Don and to Lie-Nielson. I hope there are more DVDs to come.