I did the initial flattening of the top in about 40 minutes – I used my wooden jack plane to take off the high points and then the wooden jointer to work across the grain. The result is not pretty but is reasonably flat, and I will clean it up on another day.

The apron took just over an hour. I used the metal planes for this, which I find a lot more tiring but easier to do more accurate work with than the woodies.

I got it as flat as I could and made sure it was square to the top – as with previous flattening jobs I stopped too early with the rough set plane and therefore spent more (knackering) time lugging the no 7 about than necessary. I suppose this is just a question of confidence as I stopped early just in case I went too far with the rough plane and do something that can’t be fixed, but in practice I could have got much closer to the end result without any issues.

I was pleased that with how the joint between the apron and the top turned out (no gaps!)

next job is to install the vice but this will have to wait until next week as I am out of time this week.