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Back to the original question, the wide range of answers is because people are doing different kinds of work and so need different kinds of planes. I'd say that, whatever you're doing, you definitely need a medium-sized 'un. Quite what that means depends - I made a lot of ukuleles using a No 3...

The couple of snappy replies to Hemsby are rather unfair. He is finding the colour scheme actively painful to use, and I can see why because I'm finding it uncomfortable (though manageable) myself, so much so that I have to limit the time I spend here to rest my eyes. I can't imagine the site...

Bumble bee. Probably nests in a hole in the ground, just warm enough for a trip out foraging. You could offer it a little sugar water if it's still around.

Maybe it would help to expand on what thick_mike wrote, because most of the comments are about how wood moves with humidity. Think of a plank of wood as a bunch of straws all running in the grain direction (this is how wood fibres do run). As the humidity of the atmosphere changes, the straws...

Feel free. Though I've never built a mandolin or mandora. But with "gut" strings there will be similarities with ukes and I've built quite a few of those. Or even ask in this thread or a new one - there are quite a few here who build instruments and much of what you're doing will use...

By coarse tuning I meant the amount you have to turn the peg to raise or lower the tuning of the string. Suppose a thin peg, where you need to rotate it by 10 degrees (1/36 of a turn) to bring the string up to the correct note. That's a pretty small movement but manageable. If the peg were twice...

I think it makes a difference what kind of mandora you plan. Wikipedia tells me that the usual mandora was a bass lute, scale length around 700mm, while the Scottish mandora was mandolin scale, 320 mm. Both were gut strung, not steel. Wooden pegs will work for either (Aquila Nylgut strings...

I forgot to ask, will your mandora have metal or nylon/gut strings? If metal you really need the spiral reamer, because the lower elasticity of metal means you have to make and hold finer tuning measurements. If metal, also consider using narrower pegs, maybe 1/4 size, because these allow finer...

I've installed violin pegs on ukuleles using a taper pin reamer (near as dammit the same taper). But accuracy of fit it quite hard with a straight fluted reamer. Spiral reamers are better, this is the cheapest I can find: https://www.aliexpress.com/item/Spiral- ... 89001.html But do check...

I think all three of you are on the same side of this argument. One day we'll invent a material which can only be worked with one of those Stanley fibreboard planes, and then we'll all thank the collectors because otherwise they'd all be in landfill :)

I honestly can't see that tool collectors drive up prices. Is there a hand tool which you can't buy a working example of for substantially less than half the price of an equivalent new tool? Obviously historic tools, no longer made, are exceptions, so I guess I have some (slight) sympathy for...

On the banjo question .... Bugbear is right that I'd normally say build light, but this is apparently not so for banjos! Those in the know seem to like heavy. I think this is because the skin head is about as light as you can get, and so needs to be in a very stable support to work at its best...

Ahah, a toothed plane available new: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/plane-tooth-c ... SwXrdZ7bgD

If you're using solid wood rather than ply then I think you need a toothing plane, worked at 45 degrees to the grain direction. I regularly work with 2mm board for musical instruments, and am constantly breaking out the far edge when using a conventional plane (note to self, switch to the...

A customer is always comparing you to the competition, and for most craft items there are manufactured equivalents. You will always be more expensive than those, so the customer is asking (unconsciously) what they are getting for the premium. Part of that is "individual, hand made". For the...

I've taken to rasps and files. I have a trio of Chinese rasps (probably £15 via AliExpress) which cut really fast, and then a half round engineer's file for final shaping. I used to cut the heel shape on ukes and guitars with chisels, but never got such nice curves. A friend uses the mini...

If anyone fairly local to mid Suffolk has a 15 inch offcut I'll have a go at a soprano ukulele. I'd certainly get my required vertical grain boards at 3.5 inches width (bookmatched) for the back, 2.25 inches for the sides, however I had to slice it. But something else for the top, Jarrah is far...

Looks doable for an acoustic guitar - here is a baritone uke I found online The maker says the figuring made it hard to bend but not impossible. Plain should be easier. http://news.baileyguitars.co.uk/index.p ... ke-jarrah/ But can you get vertical grain slices out of a sleeper? I'd guess...

Could you buy the gears with the oversize bore and bush them down to your desired bore? Brass tube is available in 1mm increments with each size fitting inside the other. A little slop, but not too bad.

The first time I used yew it made my face itch a little. The second time I got a slight rash. The fourth time I suffered quite a bit. But I know others who have no problem at all. I have one nice piece of yew left, and when I use it I'll scrape only (no sanding), wear a mask and try not to...