Thread: Luban planes

I don't have any info other than a suggestion.
Stick with the v3 Woodriver from an authorised reseller.
I too would love a set of Woodriver planes

The luban frog is a copy of an LN frog. Look at the holes on it. I recall that one of the versions of the WR plane, woodcraft got rid of anything that was copied from the LN plane (at least within reason), presumably to avoid trouble with LN.

When Rob points out that the frog recess shape is different, it's disingenuous as they copied that (woodcraft did) originally and then "uncopied" it.

I wouldn't be surprised if the rib in the casting on the luban is a copy of LN and they moved the rib to be where it is on a stanley.

(of course, LN planes have a wheel on the adjuster, but it doesn't really matter).

I wouldn't want either of them - they're overpriced for what they are (overweight lunks that wouldn't exist if LN wasn't in business as both were copies of the LN from the start).

As far as them being made in the same factory, it's not like the plane casting is drastically different - the same place that does casting could do both castings with different patterns.

Originally Posted by tomartomau

Stick with the v3 Woodriver from an authorised reseller.

Do you know who the Australian resellers are?

Timberbits and Woodwork Supplies retail Woodriver planes, but they're a lot more money than a comparable Luban from McJing or Timbecon. I guess Woodcraft have to get their cop out of the Woodriver.

Even in the us, woodcraft charges more for comparable goods than anyone else. Sometimes drastically more.

Originally Posted by D.W.

Even in the us, woodcraft charges more for comparable goods than anyone else. Sometimes drastically more.

Interesting to know. A Woodriver no. 4 at $395 here is 65% more than a Luban no.4 at $239. IMO a bearing on the lateral adjuster is not sufficient improvement to justify a price differential of that size. Oh, and of course you get the extra cred of having 'WoodRiver' on the lever cap.

Originally Posted by aldav

Oh, and of course you get the extra cred of having 'WoodRiver' on the lever cap.

Wood River has cred? Over Veritas that's in the same price range?

Random, but semi-related question - if you find a vintage Bedrock in the $250 price range, how would that perform compared to current Bedrock pattern planes? I say $250 because you will need a new blade which will bring it up to the Wood River/Veritas price range. But how would it stack up in terms of performance and quality - machining accuracy, squareness, etc?

Cant answer your last inquiry, but have a Luban from Mcjings here in Sydney, comes with no instructions or trade name anywhere on the plane , but it is a high quality product , good value and i have restored many planes and use planes daily, just saying, Ross

Originally Posted by woodsurfer

Cant answer your last inquiry, but have a Luban from Mcjings here in Sydney, comes with no instructions or trade name anywhere on the plane , but it is a high quality product , good value and i have restored many planes and use planes daily, just saying, Ross

Thanks! Are you able to check whether the Luban has a bearing where the lateral adjustment lever connects to the frog?

Originally Posted by yoboseyo

Wood River has cred? Over Veritas that's in the same price range?

Random, but semi-related question - if you find a vintage Bedrock in the $250 price range, how would that perform compared to current Bedrock pattern planes? I say $250 because you will need a new blade which will bring it up to the Wood River/Veritas price range. But how would it stack up in terms of performance and quality - machining accuracy, squareness, etc?

This is sort of a loaded question. First thing to realize with bedrocks (and all of their copies) is that, for example, in 1916, a bedrock #7 was $3. A bailey plane at the same size was $2.70.

You're reading that right - not many bedrocks sold relative to the baileys because there's no use-related advantage to them. I think what probably drove them up was collectors wanting a clean perfect example with a decal, etc, and they're more of a challenge than bailey type planes due to the low numbers.

The heavy highly milled overweight planes are sort of a thing to get beginners going, but they are boat anchors if you use hand tools a lot (I have gone back to using bailey planes after having some of pretty much everything). The difficult part is getting from nothing to using a bailey plane well. The planes like shown in the video above, as well as LN and LV make it easier to get going. But mastering a bailey plane will teach you how to plane.

The only "premium planes" that I have at this point are infills, and they're just kind of for fun. Of they're on the heavy side (some of them aren't), they're just as tiring to use for actual work.

(one thing is always true here in the states, though - if you have to get one premium plane to start, an LN plane will always sell for about 90% of new, and in the case where there's a shortage, they will sometimes sell for more than list if you dump them on ebay).

Originally Posted by aldav

Interesting to know. A Woodriver no. 4 at $395 here is 65% more than a Luban no.4 at $239. IMO a bearing on the lateral adjuster is not sufficient improvement to justify a price differential of that size. Oh, and of course you get the extra cred of having 'WoodRiver' on the lever cap.

That's about the markup that woodcraft employs on everything else. We have another retailer, japan woodworker, who always seemed to talk up their goods and when stu tierney had his store, their tsunesaburo stuff was double stu's cost. Double. A $1000 specialty plane was $2000, etc.

Both Woodcraft and Japan Woodworker would sell things like DMT stones above their actual list cost (Which everyone else pretty much discounts off of, sometimes drastically). $58 for a duo on amazon? $70 from a specialty knife retailer? Japan woodworker would sell the same hone for $109.

And then guess what happened...
.....woodcraft bought japan woodworker. No kidding. I guess they saw it as a chance to increase market share without having to do anything about prices.

Hi Yoboseyo,the lateral adjuster on the Luban has no bearing , just a rivet, which seems to do an adequate job., thanks Ross

LN no.7 is $5 more than Woodriver No.7 is on special $745 ????
Lie-Nielsen Bench Planes Standard

Bench Plane No 7 - WoodRiver(R) woodworksupplies.com.au

jeez -they boast that it's 9 1/2 pounds. That just guarantees in the long run, you won't use it for much other than a few strokes at a time.

It's amazing that nobody seems to be able to learn from the experience/preference of millions of actual professional workers.

re: my comments above about woodcraft, there's something you guys don't have to pay for in AU. To be fair to them in the US, they have an antiquated extremely high cost operating structure - stores in retail commercial areas, at least some of them are franchised, so there are a whole bunch of people in line to try to get paid off of one purchase (the manufacturer, woodcraft corporate, the franchisee - who is repaying a loan most likely, and if they're not, just getting their own money back, or struggling to, and high-priced commercial landowners charging rent, backed by townships here who like to get more tax out of commercial properties because the "citizens won't notice").

That makes for something where very little of the value of what you're buying is actual cost to make (and far less of it goes to the people making it vs. LN where a considerable amount is paid for labor). LN's standards are higher, too, of course, but right now, they can't meet international demand consistently.