Which Plane Combo for A to Z Finishing?

**amateur77** · 29th July 2017, 12:51 AM

I'm looking to purchase several hand planes (used vintage record/stanley) to be able to tackle various projects and to be able to do 95% of the work with handtools

I currently got a £8 record no4 which I'm planing to convert to be a scrub plane (camber the blade/widen the mouth).

This is my plan so far:
- for the first step -rapid stock removal and general roughing up/shaping I will have the no4 record scrubber
-Than to start level everything properly I'm thinking about purchasing a no5 or no 5.5 jackplane?
- Than For jointing large pieces I'm looking to purchase a no7
-And finally I need something for smoothing out and finishing Like a no3 or no4? I'm not really sure what kind of plane would be the best for this step or even if I need a smaller plane if I will already have a no5? what would you suggest?

-Also I plan to purchase an old record/stanley no80 cabinet scraper to almost replace my sander with so I need to sand as little as possible.

I will be mostly using the handplanes to finish 3ft-7ft long boards.

What do you think about my plan? What should I change or add or remove from the list?
I would like to have as little tools as possible, but still have everything I need to do everything properly without faffing around.

**amateur77** · 30th July 2017, 10:37 PM

bumps/

**shanesmith80** · 30th July 2017, 11:04 PM

You seem to have it pretty well covered. Only thing I would add is a block plane.
The part I'm having the most difficulty with is 'I would like to have as little tools as possible'. I just don't understand this.

**Chief Tiff** · 30th July 2017, 11:18 PM

Can of worms opened here! Basically you either need all of them, or just one....

You can do everything with just a 5, but having a 3, a 4-1/2 and a 7 as well, or instead of; is good too. But you don't need more than one. As an example I made boards 4' by 18" by 3/4' from rough sawn pine dunnage using only a 70's record 4 to smooth and joint each plank before gluing; then smoothed the whole boards. A 5 would have been slightly easier to joint with but would have made smoothing a bit harder.

How much space do you have? If you have a lot of bench planes where each one is suited for a specific application then they need to be readilly available. If space limits you to only having 2 planes at hand then pick a smoother and a jack/fore plane and have a jointer buried a bit deeper in a drawer or similar.

What combination is down to personal choice that then always gets overidden by what is actually available.

Talking of availability; unfortunately good pre-war US made Stanleys are thin on the ground in the UK. A better bet are Records made before 1957 which were based on pre-war Stanleys, David Lynch's website HERE will help teach you how to spot the better models. There are good early model UK Stanleys but they are hard to spot.

The Stanley 80 is a splendid piece of kit; I have two of them. To sharpen them I use a Veritas 45° file holder and a thin diamond stone that can fit in it, followed by a Three Cherries burnisher. However I have no idea how it would perform on pine which is probably the most commonly available wood in your area; scrapers work better on hardwoods.

Don't forget to factor in a good sharpening system that allows you to quickly touch up a blade without having to delve into cupboards etc. Again, you need to work out how much space you have available.

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