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Thread: Hand planes

  1. #1
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    Default Hand planes

    If you could have only say 4 hand planes what would you pick. I don’t mean what hand plane you reach for all the time but really what are your favourite hand planes. I know this varies a great deal as to what sort of woodwork you might be doing.
    Steven

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  3. #2
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    I'll bight. From the bottom: jointer, jack, scrub and smoother. All fitted with PMV 11 replacement irons [emoji3]

    Sent from my Nokia 4.2 using Tapatalk

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    I’m assuming here that we aren’t limited to just bench planes?

    1: My 1911 Stanley 5. Does everything except smooth.
    2: My Record 045. Beads, grooves, trenches, rebates and just looks great.
    3: My Stanley 8. The Daddy of metal jointing planes!
    4: My Stanley 112. Nothing gives a better finish on cranky grained hardwood.
    Nothing succeeds like a budgie without a beak.

  5. #4
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    I'll also mention that these are the only bemch planes I have. I sold all the rest a while ago and don't miss a single one. There's a shelf of joinery and block planes next to this one.

    Sent from my Nokia 4.2 using Tapatalk

  6. #5
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    Hrmm I would have a very hard time picking four, passed 20 a little while ago and that's after paring back most of the duplicates.

    Absolute favourites are the Record 044 plough plane, Lie-Nielsen No. 5 and my little 40th Anniversary Veritas pocket plane.

  7. #6
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    Out of my 70 or so hand planes, absolutely number one is the Falcon or Stanley 220.
    A 1 3/4" ECE horned wooden plane which I use as a scrub lane
    next is an Australian Stanley #5
    next is a Carter #6 which has quite a it of heft, & an absolutely magic original blade in it

  8. #7
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    #4
    #4
    #4
    #7.

    And 600 routers that's non-negotiable.

  9. #8
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    Stanley 60 1/2A block plane:
    Stanley UK's short-lived attempt to build a better mousetrap. Dating from the late 70s or early 80s, it's the plane that Lee Valley used to design their own much better & much more expensive Block Plane range. Cheap enough to not cry too much if it gets dropped or lost. Useful enough to be my most frequently used plane. Small & light enough to be holstered & always available hanging from my belt.

    Lee Valley Tools - Woodworking Newsletter
    Lee Valley Tools - Woodworking Newsletter


    Record T5 Technical Plane:
    My most versatile plane. Long & heavy enough to be useful as both a Jack, & even at a pinch as a type of rough Scrub Plane. With wide, long lands & an additional removable ambidextrous side handle, it's also usable in a jig as a Miter Plane. Built with heavy castings with plenty of reinforcing webbing, this relatively heavy & robust allrounder was specifically designed by Record to withstand the depredations & abuse of generations of schoolboys, whilst performing its design brief with (relative) aplomb. Another cheapie easily & inexpensively replaced (second-hand) due to their high production numbers.

    Record No. T5 Technical Jack Plane - Record Planes


    Calvert Stevens CS88 Smoothing Plane:
    Both admired & reviled equally by plane-snobs, this limited edition, limited-run smoother was at the time the absolute high point of Record Marples' English planemaking skills. Not without its faults, the attempt to marry a Norris-type adjuster to a heavy grey iron casting, Rosewood knob & Tote & Gunmetal lever cap with accurate machining to fairly tight tolerances & fitted with a lovely handmade Japanese (Samurai??) laminated steel iron & Record's own Stay-Set Cap Iron actually works remarkably well. Pretty rare these days, & unfortunately therefore commanding second hand prices somewhat higher than is warranted, but still significantly less than a new Clifton or Lie Nielsen. Having owned mine for some 30 years now, I seem to appreciate its virtues more & more over the years.

    Record No. CS88 Calvert Stevens Smooth Plane - Record Planes


    Stanley 08 Jointer:
    Big, long & heavy. Not as popular, nor as versatile perhaps as the more ubiquitous No. 7 Jointer design. Nevertheless, nothing will do as good a job of edge-jointing as this behemoth. At this particular task, its sheer size & weight just makes sense. I bought mine many years ago at a country joinery shop closing auction. It's one of the older examples. Late 19th. Century I assume, with an uncharacteristically short front knob & liberally adorned with paint spatters. I've since replaced the Cap Iron & Blade with a Clifton Stayset & 3mm laminated Blade. The originals have been carefully stored, as I'm told that the age (but unfortunately not the spotty condition) makes it quite valuable, PROVIDED it's still original. Every time I use it, which is fairly rarely, I try to think of all the other lucky users who have handled this tool in the past 150-odd years.

    The Mother Of All Tools + Stanley Bailey No #8 - YouTube
    Sycophant to nobody!

  10. #9
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    Quote Originally Posted by stevenjd View Post
    If you could have only say 4 hand planes what would you pick. I don’t mean what hand plane you reach for all the time but really what are your favourite hand planes. I know this varies a great deal as to what sort of woodwork you might be doing.
    Steven
    Impractical question for a furniture maker. Needed are:

    1. Smoother
    2. Jointer
    3. Block plane

    I can get away without a jack plane if I use machines, such as a jointer and thicknesser. If not, add it in.

    4. Plough plane
    5. Rebate plane
    6. Shoulder plane
    7. Router plane

    Others include ...

    8. Shooting plane
    9. Side edge planes (for dados and sliding dovetails)
    10. LA Jack plane

    Regards from Perth

    Derek
    Visit www.inthewoodshop.com for tutorials on constructing handtools, handtool reviews, and my trials and tribulations with furniture builds.

  11. #10
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    A Bailey style no.3, a no.4 plane, and two no.5 1/2's

    Not that I use a no.3 much, but with an extra iron for the no.4 would make the best use of space.
    For my work that covers awkward stuff with the no.3 plane, rather than a block plane.
    A no.4 with two iron's if tight for space, one iron with a bit of camber which doubles up as a nail/cement/putty finder,
    and the other iron or plane for smoothing, with as small and even camber as you can achieve the entire width, so the cap iron can be set 1/64" away from the edge..
    (corners of the irons relieved would make this impossible)
    One no.5 1/2 for most of the time, and another no.5 1/2 for the shooting board and long edges also.

    For those buying their first plane understand that the no.5 1/2 plane is a much different animal to the no.5 plane.
    I wouldn't use a no.5 plane for any task in my workshop, its just an unwieldy no.4 for what I would be doing.

    Tom

  12. #11
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    This is like asking which of your children you'd save first if the family were washed out to sea!

    As someone else said a few years back, the choice would be extremely difficult, and I'd change my mind by tomorrow. I think I have too many planes, but as soon as I decide I can get rid of one, a job pops up where it does the job better than any other, so it gets a reprieve.

    But in the spirit of the thread, I'll make some choices, assuming you are only talking bench-planes. As Derek said, no furniture-maker could go without a coupe of specialty planes.

    My 'anarchist's list' would be
    1. A scrub plane
    2. A jointer - a #7 is my preference, I'm long past pushing an 8!
    3. A jack plane (a 5 1/2 is my choice).
    4. My own #3 sized infill for a smoother. This is not the prettiest plane I've made to date, but dammit, it's the best, it has the sweetest action and has taken everything I've thrown at it in its stride, Including Ringed Gidgee. Here it is eating up some rowed-grained Solomon Islands ebony, which was up there with the worst stuff to plane I've ever met! Performing on SIE.jpg

    There the planes I'd show to the censor, but somewhere on my person, I'd secrete one of these: Palm.jpg

    I made it just for fun to use up scraps, but it has turned out to be indispensable & gets used far more than I expected....

    Cheers,
    IW

  13. #12
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    Well everyone seems to have very impressive hand plane collections..Thanks for the info.

  14. #13
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    Stanley No 24 transitional smoother
    Stanley No 5 (Type 11) wide mouth and cambered iron fore plane
    Stanley No 5 1/2 (Type 9) all rounder
    Stanley No 7 (Type 11) jointer

    Plus (a sneaky edit):
    Stanley No 65 low-angle block
    Stanley No 289 skewed rebate filletster

  15. #14
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    Quote Originally Posted by stevenjd View Post
    Well everyone seems to have very impressive hand plane collections..Thanks for the info.
    Hi Steven

    I elected to name the types of planes needed for furniture making rather than mention the four I would choose ... simply because I need them all and choosing four could be misleading. If you are starting out along this path, and are looking for a direction which four planes you might start with, then the answer changes.

    The answer also depends on whether you have machines to prepare rough boards, or whether you will buy in planed stock.

    1. If preparing boards from rough, you need a jack plane to start. This will have a blade cambered to a 10-12" radius (a scrub plane is often too severe as it has a 3" radius blade). A really good plane here is a Stanley #5 (not the #5 1/2 - that is too heavy to use for long). A woodie is also viable, but the Stanley can be used as a long smoother/short jointer by swapping to a straight blade. This is the first plane one should be starting out.

    I have a fancy-schmancy #5, actually a Stanley Bedrock #605, which I restored ...




    2. The next plane is a jointer, which also functions as a fore plane. I used a Stanley #7 for years, then made a 27" woody. The #7 is the archetypal jointer plane. Good value for money. Record also make one.

    For someone starting out and looking for a fail-free experience, the Veritas BU Jointer is superb ...



    3. The third plane is a smoother. Now you could get away with the #5, above, but if you want a cost-effective smoother, a Stanley #4 is the easiest to access. I personally prefer the smaller #3, but they are more difficult to access.



    With Stanley planes, and other bevel down planes with chipbreakers, superior performance comes when you learn to set the chipbreaker close to the edge of the blade. Read this article: Setting a Cap Iron

    4. And to the fourth plane. No, not a block plane. You will need to cut rebates and plough grooves in much of your work. One plane that can do both is the Veritas Small Plow. This is worth lashing out on.



    Good hunting.

    Regards from Perth

    Derek
    Visit www.inthewoodshop.com for tutorials on constructing handtools, handtool reviews, and my trials and tribulations with furniture builds.

  16. #15
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    Quote Originally Posted by Ratbag View Post



    Calvert Stevens CS88 Smoothing Plane:
    Both admired & reviled equally by plane-snobs, this limited edition, limited-run smoother was at the time the absolute high point of Record Marples' English planemaking skills. Not without its faults, the attempt to marry a Norris-type adjuster to a heavy grey iron casting, Rosewood knob & Tote & Gunmetal lever cap with accurate machining to fairly tight tolerances & fitted with a lovely handmade Japanese (Samurai??) laminated steel iron & Record's own Stay-Set Cap Iron actually works remarkably well. Pretty rare these days, & unfortunately therefore commanding second hand prices somewhat higher than is warranted, but still significantly less than a new Clifton or Lie Nielsen. Having owned mine for some 30 years now, I seem to appreciate its virtues more & more over the years.

    Record No. CS88 Calvert Stevens Smooth Plane - Record Planes




    Ratbag you are one of a privileged few to own a CS88, I worked Record in Australia when we distributed that plane, I remember it well, it carried a hefty price tag for a plane in those days, certainly bought back some memories.

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