Thread: opinions on plough planes please

Mattocks,

I am by no means any expert however I will recommend from both my limited experience, and reading others experiences, the Record 040 or 043 planes. The main difference being the number of rods for the fence.

I think that carter, marples, sharmanco made similar planes to the 040.

A Stanley 50 or Record 050 are also possibilities, but are slightly more complicated, with more blades and therefore possibly more expensive.

All mentioned will do both grooves for drawers, boxes etc with minimal setup or fuss.

A good resource is:
Planes & Spokeshaves | Record Planes

I specifically haven't mentioned the Stanley 45 and 55 because if its simply grooving you want to do then don't waste your money or time on them. They can be useful for many things, but the 040 or 50 are much simpler for this task.

I think from memory I paid $60 for my near mint 043 a couple of yrs ago.

Hope this helps,

Nick

The other one to consider is a Record 044 (should come with 8 plough cutters) or its modern equivient the Veritas small plow plane. The 044 is slightly more complex than a 043, but simpler than a 050/50.

I couldn't tell you what a 044 would sell for in Aus, but one just passed in on trademe for $35 NZD (only one cutter though).

Cheers, Vann.

Any of the metal plough planes are simple and easy to use, I like them.
Wooden ones are more problematic... wooden parts wear and they become 'something to fix' rather than 'something to use'.

Stanley made the 13-052 (variations are the 12-250, 12-252, 13-050, 13-052, 12-030, 13-030 phew, they made a few!)... plastic handled plough plane. They are cheap... but don't come up often. This is my preferred plough at the moment.... just a no-frills user that takes heavy handed use. I'll use it to rip down long hardwood boards instead of a saw.. quicker than a handsaw, about as quick as a circular saw, little slower than a bandsaw... and the most portable. (hey, just searched google images for stanley 13-052 and one of my pics came up first) Mike reviews it well here.

For drawers and grooving, I reckon they are good, and no screaming, chip hurling, potential finger biting, like a router. The benefit of a router over a plough is that you can do a stopped groove easier/quicker. With a plough you need to chisel out the end of the stopped groove, making it a bit slower than clamping down a stop for the router.

You can negate the need for 'stopped grooves' easily, as you can source inlay strips in the standard sizes of the smaller plough blades, or make them up from veneer (lay the veneer up like a lamination and use a block plane to bring the width down to the right size... inlay on a groove 'run through' makes a nice feature

Ploughs are good in that you can 'jig' them... e.g. cut a few pieces of scrap to the size of the 'height of the groove to the bottom of the board'... use this to set the fence quickly. For a chest of drawers, you might have one 'fence setter' for the sides and back of the drawers, another for the front.

Just make sure you get all the blades (beats trying to buy single blades as they are rarely available and expensive), and ensure the rods, screws, slitter blade are all there. Basically, if you are getting one of the smaller ones, make sure it is complete... if you are missing a blade or two from a 45 or 55, its more likely you can find them off specialist ebay old tools sellers, for a high price!

Using the 45 or 55 and variants for ploughing is doable, but these are combination planes and a bit unwieldly for small work.

Marples and Carter are good, not used a Sharmanco (but have heard good things about them), Record are good.
I prefer the smaller plough planes, would like a Record 043 as you push it in the palm of the hand and its profile is lower making it easier to keep square, but ones with handles are good too.
Lee Valley are making them now, not used a LV one myself but hey, can anyone point to a poorly made LV/Veritas branded tool?
Which brings me to my last comment (then its off to the dreaded Saturday morning house cleaning ) for $145 + postage you can get a LV Router plane which may end up 'cheaper' and than the "less than $50 plough", particularly if you end up doing inlays and cross grain work.

Thus endeth the Saturday morning clean up procrastination!

Hi and thank you to everyone for the advice given in the three replies to date. I have taken all advice on board and it has taken me on an interesting path to find info regarding plough planes. I managed to find a review done several years ago by Derek Cohen regarding the record 044 (I think ) the veritas small plow plane and a rapier. Basically he liked them all but the veritas best. I also looked into the plastic handled stanleys' on Clinton1's advice and these look a good cheap and reliable option, especially for a learner. I have bought some items from Lee Valley in the past and they are very good and our dollar is good at the moment so we shall see what happens Although I am keeping my eye out for any of the brands recommended. No great hurry, but I will report back and let you know what I end up with.
Cheers and thanks a lot
Frank

Hi Frank

DON'T buy the Stanely-with-the-plastic-handles! Cheap and nasty.

The LV Small Plow is the best of the small ploughs, while the Record/Rapier #043 is the best of the cheaper ploughs (there - the correct spelling! ), but a decent plane. The Record #044 is another excellent plane.

Regards from Perth

Derek

I also have a an 044. A Marples in my case. Excellent for putting in a drawer bottom groove and similar. Very satisfying once mastered, not that it is hard.

The trick is to start at the end of the board and work backwards.

Record 043 and 044 are probably the pick of them in my opinion. As Derek has mentioned, Rapier made an excellent copy of the 043 and I think Marples did as well.
Not much on offer here in Oz but with the exchange rate in your favour some items from the UK might be of interest.
Here are some:

Record Plough Plane No 044 (eBay item 230601734643 end time 03-Apr-11 08:00:33 AEST) : Collectables

Record 050A Improved Combination Plane + Box + Bits (eBay item 150583329262 end time 04-Apr-11 05:53:01 AEST) : Collectables

Record 044 Plane - As Photo (eBay item 150572428275 end time 04-Apr-11 06:41:10 AEST) : Collectables

SUPERB VINTAGE PLOUGH PLANE No 043 MADE BY RECORD (eBay item 220760871965 end time 07-Apr-11 04:02:55 AEST) : Collectables

Record No050 Plough Plane. (eBay item 350451054895 end time 07-Apr-11 05:41:16 AEST) : Collectables

Of course the best small plough plane around at the moment is probably the Veritas.
See:
Veritas® Small Plow Plane - Lee Valley Tools



Happy hunting
SG

On much reflection I have decided to get myself a veritas small plough plane. It might be a bit more expensive but I have dealt with veritas before and their service is very good. I have bought numerous tools on ebay and done quite well. Sometimes condition is not as good as described so I have decided to get a new tool on this occasion as it is a bit more complex than other things I have bought. Just have to organise the readies, never mind I'm patient.
Thanks to everyone for your time to impart advice
Frank

Hi there,
Just to let all the kind people who replied to my thread that I have bought from Lee Valley one of their Veritas router planes and am waiting for it to arrive. On Clintons advice I did some more research and read some very good articles re router planes and for the project I am doing it was the best choice. I am making a sewing table and cabinet for my wife and it will have 6 drawers so I specifically wanted to rout grooves for the drawer boxes first.
Can't wait for it to arrive and try it out.
Once again thanks for all your advice
Cheers
Frank

nick_boo
Thank you for the link on the record planes, that will keep me glued to the screen for some time.