Thread: How well does a #6 work as a jointer?

Joez,
A No6 is missing from my stable of planes as I have not yet found an old one at the right price. I have a 4,5 and 7. I have jointed boards for a large coffee table with a No 5 as it was the longest plane I had at the time. A No 6 will do ok and as you have said will be good on the shooting board where a bit of weight counts. On the other hand LN miter plane is a lovely bit of kit and if the budget runs to it ? Well could a red blooded wood fiend say no.

Regards
John

I would definitely suggest the #6. This is a much more versatile tool then the mitre plane, & can handle jointing, shooting & smoothing without any difficulty.

Regards

I have a No6 which served as my general jointer until I purchased a No7, now it's used almost exclusively on the shooting board. Does that answer your question?

Thanks for the feed back everyone, looks like a 6 or 7 is the best choice for me to start off with

joez

Originally Posted by joez

Hi all, i have the ok from SWMBO to purchase a plane,

well done

Primarily I want something to help me with miters, i was thinking of getting a LN mitre plane, but i have also considering a #6 as it will do ok on a shooting board and if it can handle some basic jointing/clean up work I will get more work out of it.

Joez

the #6 can readily be used as a jointer or a scrub or as a smoother or with a shooting board

however, the four different uses of the #6 all require different amounts of curvature on the blade.

if you're using the #6 primarily for shooting mitres then you will want a square blade set so it is precisely 90° to that surface of your shooting board that holds the part being shoot (which is not the same as 90° to the side of the plane) AND you will only every want to adjust this angle when you replace the blade after sharpening it, or use the plane in the other hand.

using the #6 as a jointer requires either a square or moderately curved blade (practice and opinion varies) and the blade needs to be protrude evenly through the sole – which is not necessarily 90° to either side

using the #6 as a scrub needs a heavily curved blade and a wide mouth.

and using it as a smoother needs a very gently curved blade and a narrow mouth


all the above is a good reason to have two or three (or even five) #6s on hand


I have both a #6 and a LN #9 mitre plane.
when planing mitres or exact 90° ends my preference is always to use the mitre plane

Originally Posted by joez

Hi all, i have the ok from SWMBO to purchase a plane, now i am not sure which way to go.

Primarily I want something to help me with miters, i was thinking of getting a LN mitre plane, but i have also considering a #6 as it will do ok on a shooting board and if it can handle some basic jointing/clean up work I will get more work out of it.

What do people think?

thanks
Joez

Hi Joe,

The No. 6 is the way to go. Yes, it's fine to joint with. While you could joint a 20 foot board with a block plane successfully, it's a lot quicker with a longer plane.

The No.6 works really well as a jointer - I just use a straight-ground blade on all tasks. It took about 2 minutes to scrub a board with this blade from about 150 x 25 x 1000 down to 16mm thick - the shavings were rank on this one - getting on to about 1/2mm or so.

In your case, as you're already cleaning up jointed/flattened faces, the No.6 would be the ideal plane for this case.

The No.6 also is a good plane for the shooting board.

Cheers,

eddie

Haven't read the other replies so forgive me if I mention something everyone else did, or sound like an idiot wih bad advice, but I personally hae nothing longer or wider than a #6 and find it more than suitable.
One point I have to make before you take my answer into consideration though is that
I'm not a 100% darksider in that I'll use a machine to joint unless the project isn't special or for myself. I reckon a seven would be better specifically for jointing large jobs if available though, and haven't tried an eight (overkill for everything?) Dane

I'm going this way

Veritas® Low-Angle Jack Plane - Lee Valley Tools

All three BU planes (including the #6) take the same size of blade. This means you can have a straight-edged A2 for shooting, a slightly cambered A2 for smoothing, a high bevel angle A2 for cranky grain, and even an O1 blade.....all interchangeable as required between 3 different plane bodies for a wide range of applications.

So you can have your #6, with a range of blades which can also be fitted to the other planes. I might add that changing the blade on a bevel up plane is much quicker than on a traditional bevel down, as there is no chipbreaker to take off.

Dane - a #8 just requires a longer run up....

My shed isn't big enough for that !

Originally Posted by Mr Brush

I'm going this way

Veritas® Low-Angle Jack Plane - Lee Valley Tools

Hi Mr Brush (Basil?),

I've got a Veritas LAJ - great plane !! Wide, long, thin shavings.......

I don't do a lot of shuting (yet) but I was doing some with the LAJ a few weeks back and found I kept pulling the lever cap skew as I gripped the plane (I guess it needs a DerekC hot dog..). I wasn't game to tighten the lever cap too much in case I bent something .
In the end I pulled a sharp iron out of a No.4 and put it into an unrestored, recently acquired Record T5, and found that did the job much better . The T5 is a later model so I expected it to be a heap of junk until fettled (it has paint on the frog/sole mating surfaces ) but it worked fine. Go figure...

Cheers, Vann.