Finished gluing up my first soundboard panel a few days ago and planed it to final thickness today. Final thickness was to be 9 mm in high treble and 8 mm elsewhere, a little thinner in bass if I felt like it. Not having ever glued up nor planed down a panel before, I glued it up at good thick 10 mm. I found that it is not terribly hard to get the edge glue joints pretty darn straight/even - so there is no good reason to glue the panel together when it is so thick - better to go right down to 9 mm. THAT WAY YOU CAN AVOID HAND PLANING TWO-PLUS MILLIMETERS OF SPRUCE OFF THE PANEL! Doesn't sound that hard, but I spent a good five hours working my ar$$ off planing that thing down. But it is just the right thickness (8½ -9 mm in high treble, 8 mm elsewhere and 7 - 7½ in the bass), and very smooth. I am extremely happy with my three wooden hand planes from http://www.knight-toolworks.com/wooden.htm Steve Knight made me a jointer plane, a jack plane and a coffin smoothing plane. Should be ribbing within a week. What fun! Now if I could only figure out how to make some money at this...... Terry Farrell
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