After reading DO Interesting last year I came across the DO Make book by the excellent James Otter. The book sums up nicely why I make things. I found myself nodding all the way through and so when I got to the end I had two options, either sign up for the week long surfboard workshop or make a hand plane - I chose the latter since it was November and I wanted to get started.

I had a small section of walnut spare from a previous project (side table in walnut) which I had been planning to use for a wooden chopping board for the campervan. I thought this project could double as both! My plan had been to only use hand tools but I will confess to making use of a router since getting a smooth radius on the handle was proving challenging on the very hard walnut! So months later I finally found myself using the bobbin sander as the first person through the doors on the day of opening in the awesome Institute of Making at Stratford. After a few more rounds of shaping and sanding the hand plan was finished with a bit of Tung oil.

The belly board workshop is now on my wish list of things to do.