Slav hatched an idea to get the CATS (Chicago Artisans and Trades Society) tool club to have a Ralph Brendler Appreciation Night. Ralph was the official host of last October's M-WTCA National meet at the Beautiful Pheasant Run Resort. So much work went into the event that was so successful I doubt that Ralph really had the chance to enjoy the meet.

So it was decided to have a little surprise party for Ralph at the CATS club meeting on May 10th and present Ralph with a token of our appreciation. That token would be a plane that Ralph always wanted Wayne Anderson to build for him. Slav spoke with Wayne and told him of our plan and Wayne agreed to fly to Chi-town on his own dime and present the plane to Ralph in person.

When we solidified our plans, I sent out a few invitations for guys who were able, to take a mental health day off of work and come down to my shop to hang out with Wayne and I and have a nice BBQ dinner before the meeting started. These are some of the pictures from that day, and the evening meeting when Wayne presented Ralph with the plane and another surprise.

I took no photos of the BBQ dinner accompanied by cold beers. You've all seen that before.

Let's move on to the meeting. Remember, this event was a month and a half in the making and a surprise, and the only real question mark on the day of the meeting was: "Is the Guest of honor going to show up?" Ralph had been laying low with regard to tool events, so even though I had exchanged emails with Ralph on the 8th, it was still possible that he may have a change of plans and not be able to make it. I couldn't just come out and say: Gee Ralph, if you don't make the meeting, it will REALLY suck!" If that happened we would have a great guest in Wayne Anderson, and he could show us his latest work... but that wasn't the point. It would have been a huge disappointment if Ralph didn't show...

But he did.

Here's Ralph just after unwrapping his plane and the sweet Blaisdell gauge reproduction that Wayne had made for him. Jerry Serviss, host of Galootapalooza IV, Yankee expert, long ago thought to have joined the peace corp. and moved to Guyana, looks on.

Reminds me of the Christmas that I got my AFX racecar set.

To quote Ralph's Gauge page without permission: He writes:

Ah, the Blaisdell's Patent Gage-- this one is a classic not so much for its utility, but rather for its sheer "gizmocity". This gage uses a complicated series of cams and sliding bars to create a gage that can mark off any convex or concave curved edge. Once you figure out exactly how to set it up it actually works pretty well, but this design is way too complicated for the task it was designed to do.

This gage was produced commercially (in large and small versions, no less!) for a short time, but apparently was never very popular. Its rarity and off-beat design make this a highly prized collector piece. The smaller versions of this gage (~6" in length) are considerably rarer than the larger, making them one of the most valuable marking gages.

I know, I know. Just another ebony stuffed, brass lined hand crafted dovetailed plane from Wayne Anderson. It looks like Wayne's thinking; "Go ahead, try and make one."

Or perhaps maybe just: "Go ahead and take the picture already!"

I won't waste your bandwidth with pictures of the plane on long grain curly maple. NO, and I mean NO tear out either with or against the grain, I should mention.

How about the end grain? Wispy, see-through, weightless shavings. When he was done, Ralph left a silky smooth finish on the end of the wood to go with the glass-like finish on the faces.

Nice work Wayne.

All-in-all it was a great day. Everything went according to plan except for the sauté pan. That will have to be finished at a later date. Since you don't have to have a sauté pan for BBQ, that's OK.

Thanks to Slav for the concept and planning. Thanks to Wayne for making the trip and his incredible work. And especially, thanks to Ralph for all his work with CATS and M-WTCA and for coming to the meeting last wednesday!