I used to hate sapwood...

... until I was roughing out this Desert Ironwood set.

I have only seen one or two planes where sapwood was used effectively (as in, did not detract from the plane). But the grain on this piece of Ironwood is so graphically strong, that the white sapwood did not seem out of place or overpowering. Truth be told... I was hoping to keep as much of it as possible.





There was also a corner of sapwood on the blank for the front pad. I was not expecting any of this sapwood to remain... but did have my fingers crossed.








Only the tiniest dot of sapwood remained on the front pad. It was sad to watch it disappear as I was doing the final shaping, but I was not about to sacrifice the shape of the pad in order to keep it.































Desert Ironwood has become a very popular infill material. Here is another Ironwood filled K13.







This plane has some incredible burl in it. Here is a close up of the front pad.















More amazing burl.













There are some highly reflective gold flecks in the handle. It is almost impossible to photograph, but they are wicked in the sunlight.