MrChipper

My plane collection is small. Mostly salvaged ones, mostly brands I never heard of but fun to rehab and make shavings with particularly the 14 inch wooden one. Darn arthritic shoulders restrict my using them much. None-the-less I am facinated by shoulder,rabbit and bull nose planes. To be able to get into corners with a plane has some eerie hold on me.

Alas Santa wasn't taken with my plea, so chisels are my back stop for now!

Re striking hammers.

A lesson I took to heart 60 + years ago when a friend's older brother hit two, what I learned later were framing hammers, together, He sported an inverted teardrop for the pupil in his left eye. A piece fractured off and cut the Irus. Fortunately it didn't blind him. So even if rare why temp fate. Why not stand beneath a tree during a lightening storm if strikes are really rare? Because of the 'image' I, to this day, do not strike hardened surface on purpose. Being a retired mechanical engineer suggests not to. I keep two ball peen hammers for striking metal.