Size isn't everything!!

[GazPal]

Much is made of the supposedly excessive weight of the larger iron bodied planes, but it needs to be said that good stock prep is key to minimising each step taken. I think a user's body type can colour tool choice, but - having said that - I've known and worked alongside cabinetmakers who were very lightly framed and thought nothing of putting in a twelve hour shift using a #07 or #08. Technique plays a massive part in how well we're able to handle tools.

On a slightly different (but related) note, I saw a write up of a course taken by Mike Dunbar. The class were in awe of the speed with which he worked, but he didn't seem to be working harder than the pupils.

The answer was that due to skill and/or confidence, he was getting closer to the line at each stage than the pupils, who were (thus) leaving more material to be removed with the subsequent (finer, slower) stages.

BugBear

My grandfather (Who trained all of the apprentices at the family firm prior to his retirement during the late 60's and when he was approaching 80) used to always say "If you break a sweat at work, you're doing something wrong". This could be mis-interpreted as meaning don't work so hard, but it was quite the contrary and simply meant time taken in carefully and accurately executed prep work pays dividends when planning, producing and completing each and every task. None of us apprentices could keep pace with him as he - seemingly - effortlessly led the way. It often took apprentices until their final year before the penny dropped and they could draw even with his rate of production, although we still had a very long way to go in terms of honing our various skill sets. Much is made of sharpening technique and the length of time taken, but keeping such steps simple and economical in terms of expended energy allows one to focus on more important aspects concerning work, skill building and rate of output.

The same can be said regarding tool choice and how we build our own preferences for certain styles and sizes of planes.