During a visit to a friend of mine, Michele, owner of a Record 778 plane, we enjoyed to compare it with my Stanley 78 in order to verify technical differences and performances.Both planes are suitable for cutting rebates up to about 3 cm wide.
Looking to two planes, leaps to the eye the difference between parallel guides. That of Stanley (left ) is supported by only one circular bar , unlike the Record that provides two circular bars support. In both planes there is a stop on the right side for rebate depth adjusting.
Another difference regards the depth adjustment system: The Record 778 has a comfortable wheel for finest regulation,
while in Stanley 78 the task is
provided by a coarser lever, easy to move downward accidentally during the pushing action , compromising the blade adjustment. The blade sits on the bed with a double contact, on the top and on a machined
area just above the mouth. We measured the extension of this area, important for the good stability of the cutting edge. For Stanley 78 this portion was about twice than the the Record one . If we look at the two parallel guides more closely, we see that the Record guide has three holes useful for adding an auxiliary wood fence, important to increase the plane stability while planing . Unfortunately, both guides were out of square (more for Stanley 78) but for Record 778 the gap can be easily correct,
adapting the auxiliary hard wood fence.
Both planes also have a spur just before of the mouth, for cutting cross grain rebates (but we have not tried to). We then sharpened blades with 25 ° bevel and 30 ° microbevel and tried the planes on a well flat and square pine board (Michele in the pic). We not found very different performances (we even tried to exchange blades to highlight any differences in steel quality ) . The Record 778 seemed to us better prepared in technical solutions , especially for the two supporting bars, the possibility to add a larger hard wood fence and the more accurate and easy to operate cutting depth adjusting system. However its cost in online auctions significantly exceeds that of a Stanley 78.
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Fabrication: Initial Cutting & Setup
Once I had the design sketched out on the LVL I began by making relief cuts in the back face which would make the concave curved cut easier.
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| These Relief Cuts Will Make Cutting The Rear Curve Easier. |
I did all my cutting on the band saw. This was the first project I made using my new Carter Guides. I won’t say they turn my crappy Ridgid band saw into a super star, but they do make it usable and predictable. For that, I give them credit and appreciation.
Once I had made the relief cuts, it occurred to me that a square block would be much easier to clamp and work then a curved one. Thankfully I thought of this when I did and left the back square (if slotted) for the time being.
Next, I cut out the “L” shape on the inside face. This too was easily done on the band saw using the Carter Guide. Though an “L” because the back and base are at 90° to each other, they are both reclined slightly to hold the bottle at a slight back tilt.
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| The Basic L. |
Once the “L” was cut out of the inside face, I got ready to sculpt the concave face of the back. Having picked up an ArborTech Turbo Plane and a Saburrtooth Extra Coarse donut wheel since my last power sculpted project, I began the sculpting on a practice piece. When I was done I had tried the Turbo Plane, Saburrtooth wheel, my Festool RAS 115 and my medium grit Kutzall wheel. While the Turbo Plane and Saburrtooth have some potential and the RAS 115 is a great tool for finer shaping, I ended up preferring the moderate material removal rate, controllability and smooth resulting finish of the Kutzall. To paraphrase Paul Lemiski, the Kutzall is awesome.
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| The Saburrtooth Extra Coarse Proved Too Aggressive. |
With the sculpting tool decided on, I took a scrap piece of 1x3 and screwed a very small piece of OSB to the end. Then I took the wine rack and placed it on the OSB. I secured it by screwing up through the OSB into the bottom of the wine rack. This firmly attached the 1x3 and allowed me to easily hold the rack in position with my bench vise.
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He expresses with great skill most of all his outstanding artistic vein in the art of carving. 
This time we have "forced" him to teach us some good rule to acquire the best practice in this work and, under his leadership, we have tried to do some exercise. The quality of carving tools and their sharpness are fundamental prerequisites for best results.
In this regard, it is very useful to have a sharpening stone on the bench for honing more frequently the cutting edge of most commonly used tools. In the picture it shows a concave shaped oil stone that best fits the profile of some edges. Unfortunately the time available is never enough, but we memorized some good advice on strategies of work, the importance of a good initial design and the respect of plans on which the various details are located, in order to obtain a perspective effect.
