Thread: What Planes for a Beginners kit?

That sounds like a reasonable beginning......

Possibly keep your eye out for better quality planes than the Trojans (I think these are cheap bunnings planes, am I right?) and a jointer sized plane.

There isn't complete agreement about what are the essential planes....

Here's a suggestion. Though what you'll like might vary from what I like...I like a #4 1/2 as a Smoother and a #5 1/2 as a Jack.......someone else might swear by a #3 and a #5

Block plane...Stanley #220

Smoother....Stanley #3, #4 or #4 1/2

Jack....Stanley #5

Jointer....Stanley #7....maybe a #6

That's 4 planes.



So why have I got 40?

Because they are the tool that is most identified with woodworking?

Thanks for the suggestions. I was leaning towards eventually getting a #4 and a #7.

The trojans are bunnings cheapies, but I asked for them as a gift and they are quite useable once properly sharpened, especially the block.

Are the router/plough and beading planes worth considering later?

and what are the 40? I'm curious now

40 was a guess......it was over 20 a while back and there have been additions since then.....I've stopped counting.

All planes are worth considering......I have a router plane (#71) and a modern combination plane (Stanley 13-050)....can't say I use them a lot at the moment but I wouldn't tell you not to get them.

Funny how some of those planes that are considered 'cheap' can come up all right, there's an Anant #78 copy in this photo that works just fine.

Originally Posted by andrewr79

Because they are the tool that is most identified with woodworking?

Thanks for the suggestions. I was leaning towards eventually getting a #4 and a #7.

In contrast to Sean (who appears to have some sort of illness), I have a #4, a #5 1/2, a #7 and a wooden scrub plane. And that's it. I've left a space on my tool shelf for a block plane for when I find a good one at the right price, but that at that point I will not be buying any more.

Honest.

I can stop any time I want.

I find I tend to use my block plane far more than any other.

I have a bad habit of collecting in the hopes that enough really good gear will make me better at something (hence a rather nice guitar about 3 feet away - yes, I play, no, I'm not good enough to justify it!) so with the newish woodworking hobby taking all my attention and spare $'s I'm trying to limit myself to what I actually use.

I think I might build a box for them now and do as Stu has and limit myself to what fits in that

I'm just getting to grips with the #5 having never used one before, but it's already opened up the ability to get much nicer finishes than I was before, so I might try and stick with it for a while before worrying about any more, I think I can talk SWMBO into a market trip before my birthday in August to hunt down a nice old #4 and by then I should be ready for it!

and yes Sean, the cheap block works rather well. I'd buy another if something happened to this one, for the $15 or so it's worth. I havn't got great shavings from the other trojan yet, but I think that's more to do with my technique than the plane so I'll keep at it.

Love those plane trays at the top btw, are they divided or just one big box?

Love those plane trays at the top btw, are they divided or just one big box?

Hmmm......not sure what you mean. On the left is an old "post office" and on the right is some old Big Tree Motor Spirit crates nailed together. Both were salvage items. At the top on the left behind the wooden jointers is a whole bunch of molding planes that need attention.

Just above the post office boxes are a few shallow trays. Was thinking of making something similar size with a swingable handle for mine - lock it under to have them accessible on the shelve, unlock to carry if I need to take them elsewhere

Originally Posted by andrewr79

Just above the post office boxes are a few shallow trays. Was thinking of making something similar size with a swingable handle for mine - lock it under to have them accessible on the shelve, unlock to carry if I need to take them elsewhere

You're not talking about the big wooden planes on the top of the shelf are you? I can't see any trays there!

I've got it now. The two big jointers look like the front of trays full of planes sitting on top of the the 'post office'.

All a matter of perspective really.......

https://sites.google.com/site/woodenthingy/hand-planes-1/hand-planes

I found and re printed a post from another guy on a diffferent forum a little while ago, could be worth looking through.

Cheers Simon

Andrew, seems to me you already have a 'beginner's' set of planes! You also have a beginner's confusion, faced with the plethora of types & sizes out there. Assembling a tool kit is a very personal task, and should be heavily influenced by what you really need at each step. All advice (including mine!) is coloured by personal experience & prejudice, and should be taken with a large grain of salt, and a hard look at what you are doing with your tools and what you want to do in the future. I'm going to let you into a little secret, which is that you don't actually NEED more than a single plane to make the finest furniture you could imagine. For many a year, all I had was a basic block plane, a (very good) Stanley #5 jack, and a very bad #4 smoother, which meant the jack got used for just about everything from roughing-down to fine smoothing. I still managed to make some decent furniture. I could probably do a little better now, not because I have a few more planes & other hand tools, but because my skills have increased a bit.

A good #5 is capable of handling anything from jointing to smoothing. A #6 is even better if you are going to limit yourself to just one plane (unless little boxes & doll-house furniture is your thing! ), and if you are the sturdy type, a #7 would be better still. Alan Peters, formerly one of Britain's foremost furniture makes, reckoned he used nothing but a #7 - in an old magazine article, there's a picture of him shaving dovetail pins with a #7 - one-handed!

The flaw in the one-size-fits-all approach for most of us is that unless you are very, very skilled, it's a lot easier to do some jobs with an appropriate plane fettled for the task at hand. So I would think about future acquisitions like this:

For bench planes, at what stage of stock-preparation/finishing are you going to start using hand tools? If you have machines which can do the hard work, the #5 can do a very good job of taking out the rotary planer ripples to make perfect glue edges and get surfaces ready for final smoothing or sanding. But if you don't have a planer/thicknesser or you are determined to burn calories rather than electrons, you CAN dress rough-sawn wood with nothing more than a #5, but a scrub plane to whack off the big lumps and a long 'jointer' (#7 or #8) to get edges & surfaces dead straight more easily, are very handy things to have. A smoothing plane is also a very useful item - it can be set to take a very fine shaving through a fine mouth, and thus clean up smaller flaws than a plane set up for more general work.
A block plane is also very handy for all sorts of small jobs, especially one-handed operations like easing a sharp edge & so on.

With that set - scrub, jointer, jack, smoother & block plane, I could make anything reasonable from rough-sawn wood. Of course, I usually use my planer/thicknesser, bandsaw & tablesaw for the hard yakka, but on occasion, I still use the 'old' way to clean up a board that won't fit through the machines & that I don't want to cut down.

All the other planes talked about - shoulder planes, rebating planes, low-angle planes and moulding planes etc., are luxuries. If you know how to use them well, they will speed up some operations, but you can achieve just as good a result by other means (sharp paring chisels substitute admirably well for shoulder planes in many operations), or by using one of your 'less suitable' planes insead.

Finding ways to get the job done with the tools you have will make you a more skilful hand tool user, so that over time, you will make better-informed choices about what to get next, & you will be more able to get the best out of them when you finally get hold of whatever it was you though would revolutionise your woodworking. You will still end up with enough tools that you don't really need & that don't do what you thought they would (at least not for you), but that's all part of the fun, too.

Good luck, & happy collecting......

Thanks all, some good advice here I think!

Ian

Thank you for the detailed advice, it's cleared up quite a bit of my confusion - at least I think it has!.

I live in a townhouse so have the double concern of limited workshop space and close neighbours, so hand tools and their small footprint on space and noise seem the way to go for me.

I will try and learn to do what I can with that lovely #5 sitting on my shelf before anything else, then think about the others you suggested as the next step.

better head off, too much talking about tools and not enough sawdust on the floor!