1000 Page views - A nice little milestone for my little blog. Someone must be reading it!

Hopefully people are finding my wood working journey vaguely interesting maybe even benefiting from my mistakes . So this post is a quick thank you to those few people who regularly drop by the blog and offer me advice, and take the time to comment.

On that note, I would like to ask you all - and yes I have read the forums.

Has anyone who has paid big money and purchased a Lie Nielsen plane had buyers remorse and in hindsight wished they had gone the (much cheaper) refurbed Stanley route?

The reason I ask is I am considering purchasing a LN no#5 with two blades (heavily and slightly cambered) to act as my go to plane for smoothing, roughing, shooting end grain and flattening. I like the idea of being able to reduce the mouth without having to remove the blade each time as they are based on the Stanley Bedrock design. They are however - super expensive!

Later and as funds allow Id also like a LN no#7 and these two planes (no#5 & no#7) would cover almost all my needs.

I do already own new (read - poor quality) Stanley no#4 and no#6, which I might sell.

So what are your thoughts or criticisms on the above ideas?

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Literally the day after finishing my Saw Bench (almost a month ago), I found myself craving a quick woodworking fix. My girlfriend had just left the house to tend her horses which gave me an excuse and a couple of hours to make her a quick surprise while she was gone. 

A small offcut of Pine seemed to be shouting at me from the pile saying make me a box ...

So, with no box joints or anything complicated I simply cut and squared the Pine into a few pieces and made a quick & dirty butt jointed box. After squaring the sides and waiting for the glue to dry I intended to make a really simple lid the next morning. 

Unfortunately, a week achoice working on the boat and then being called off to France for family matters meant the box remained unfinished... Until now.

Lunchtime today, I used a second small offcut of Pine, slightly thicker and cut and planed it to size to make a simple lid. The edges were chamfered by eye to make a wedge to fit snuggly into the box top. Secondly, a small piece of Mahogany was roughly squared and then sanded to make a knob. 

Job done - Another little box on her dressing table for her bits n bobs - A quick fix to end my period of Cold Turkey.

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