Thread: Which First Plane?

Welcome to the forum Nigel.

I'd recommend a Veritas bevel-up Jack plane.

The blade back is flat from the factory; you can get blades in A2 steel and keep one or two at different bevel angles to suit different applications.

I would go for a low angle block plane for end grain such as either of the two linked here

Lee Valley Tools - Important Announcement

Lie-Nielsen Toolworks USA | Adjustable Mouth Block Planes

either will be usable right out of the box

other slightly cheaper but still quality option option would be Wood River planes available from Jim Davey a forum member

Jim Davey - Planes and Sharpening - WoodRiver V3 Bench Planes & Blocks

oh just noticed your in the states but you would be able to get wood river there too

Hello Nigel and Happy New Year to you.
Traditionally a number 5 sized plane has been a good starting point for a first plane. I think that this old advice was based on the fact that jack planes were used a lot in surface preparation before smoothing later. These days most of our timber (lumber for you Yanks) comes fairly well prepared and usually only requires smoothing.
There are still times when some preparation is needed before smoothing however.
I agree with Ern, I think a low angle jack (LAJ) plane would be a good choice. These new planes come with an adjustable mouth and they have the ability to take blades with different bevels to help in working different woods.
My suggestion would be a Veritas LAJ would be a good purchase. If some further smoothing is needed she can always use the 4-1/2 to finish tricky spots, but this probably won't be necessary.
Cheers
SG

Welcome to the forum Nigel

I purchased a Veritas bevel up jack plane about 6 months ago and it is everything the other forum members say about it!!! The ability to open and close the mouth is a definite plus in my book
It is a pleasure to use

"One never knows what Krafty Krummel will make next".

Like that, is it? She deserves one of these, then......Stanley #55

A block plane gets my vote, it's the plane I use most, very handy.....trimming edges etc...if someone was to give me any LN or Veritas version of a block plane, I'd be very pleased indeed.

Veritas LAJ with all three blades. Can't go wrong. Or the LN LAJ. same deal.

Predictably.......Veritas BU Jack with a couple of blades sharpened at different angles

Followed by a Veritas block plane of some kind ........I got the DX-60, and love it

Then, if the interest develops, you can buy additional Veritas BU planes (a jointer and a nice heavy smoother) that will take the same blades as your BU Jack.

Hi Nigel,

What Ern, Scribbly and Claw Hammer said, in my view. The Veritas is quite a versatile plane, can be used on a shooting board for squaring up ends as well.

Cheers
Pops

I have just had a thought - (I know - don't go there ....) the Veritas LAJ is a fine plane but it does have a rather large handle. Now this is a recommendation of a plane for your daughter and she may have large hands, but she may be not blessed with such. If she has a smaller hand then try the Veritas handle for comfort first. Its handle is very blokey and can be quite a handful - so to speak.
The other recommended LAJ - the Lie Nielsen may be a better fit to her hand.
Both are fine planes.
Cheers
SG

Nigel

You may have to explain "Krafty Krummel" as I have led a sheltered life and it's significance is, I regret, totally lost on me. I am sure everyone else knows and they will question which planet I am from in the very next post or whether I have electricity in my cave.

All that aside it seems to be the general consensus by others on the forum that a Jack plane is the way to go. I recently was given some money by my wife's siblings (there are quite a tribe of them, much too large for a single tent) for what they descibe euphemistically as a "landmark" birthday.

I decided that a timber bodied plane would be really different for me as someone who had a number of steel bodied planes. I had become aware that they perform much better than you might think.

I looked at Terry Gordon's site and decided on a matched pair of ringed gidgee planes as shown below. I purchased the A55 smoothing and the "New" Aussie Jack plane.

If you are interested his site is
HNT Gordon and Co Classic Plane Makers Australia

They are beautifully made. I just can't fault them. The Jack plane is my preference, although I had thought it would be the smoothing plane, and I don't know how I have managed without it up till now.

It is also the easiest plane to adjust that I have ever owned and performs superbly. (No I am not related to Terry Gordon ).

Even though my wife's siblings are sufficiently numerous to populate a small town, I did have to add a little of my own cash to supplement the cost.

Seeing how this is to be a present for your daughter perhaps it would appropriate to find something a little exotic. They are to my mind almost sculptural in their form as well as practical. It is something that particularly appeals to me.

Having said that, any of the Lie Nielsen or veritas planes I am sure would also be very well received. My wife in fact bought me a Lie Nielsen for this same birthday. Everything is now plane sailing in our household.

Also you may have specialist plane makers in the states, who are producing similar quality tools.

Regards
Paul

I too recommend the Low Angle Jack plane. Of the two (Lie-Nielsen or Veritas) the Veritas is a little cheaper and has more features. And get two extra irons (blades) for maximum versatility.

Bushmiller - what lovely looking planes! But I'm not sure the OP (being in the US) needs the 55 degree pitch of the Gordon plane.

Cheers, Vann

Bushmiller - what lovely looking planes! But I'm not sure the OP (being in the US) needs the 55 degree pitch of the Gordon plane.

Cheers, Vann[/QUOTE]

Vann,

Good point. I really can't speak about the so-called low angle planes as I have never used one let alone owned such a beast. We are about to become sidetracked on to one of the great debates, but rather than become engulfed in that perhaps I could refer Nigel to a previous debate

Low angle vs. High angle Planing

Might have to put that into the search box to bring up the thread.

I suspect that the fundamental problems we have here are we don't know what species of timber Nigel's daughter will be using and we are trying to recommend one plane to suit every situation. Perhaps Nigel can provide some additional details.

In the debate mentioned above Derek Cohen pointed out that even in the same species of timber, grain and plane performance can vary hugely. Clearly, in choosing a single plane, we are looking at a compromise.

Perhaps the single biggest issue is having a sharp blade and a good quality blade. If the plane works it doesn't matter what angle we have.

I had always thought that low angle was only suitable for soft timbers, but reading the the discussion above where they refered to planing cranky grained hardwoods and burls I may have to revise my thinking.

If you go to the HNT Gordon site have a look at the FAQs. I found this one interesting in particular

"Why didn't Stanley or Record make a plane with a 60 degree blade angle?For the exact answer you probably have to ask these companies, but here is my opinion: 45 degrees is the optimum cutting angle for wood in its pure form. E.g. with straight grain. Cutting at 45 degrees also has less of a blunting effect on the blade edge, so in theory this would seem the best angle to use to mass produce a plane. However, in practice this angle is not so effective because timber is rarely the straight grained medium a 45 degree plane was designed to smooth. A higher blade pitch will start to induce an element of scraping which will reduce the likely hood of inducing tear out. Also if you increase the blade pitch to 60 degrees in any plane you also increase the effort required to push the plane through the wood, so combined with the additional fiction of a metal plane it would have made using the plane very hard work."

All interesting reading .

I use my jack plane on our dense Australian hardwoods (some of it old demolition materials) as well as softer building timbers such as meranti and pine.

Regards
Paul

There is a lot of very useful information on Terry Gordon's webpage, whether you use his planes or not

I've had one of the blades on my BU Jack up to a 60° microbevel, giving an effective cutting angle of 72°......I can confirm that it does get VERY hard to push though !

For even crankier grain, when all else fails, I reach for the LV Scraper Plane.

My previous post made reference to a debate discussing the virtues of low angle and high angle planes. When I did a search it showed zero results. Having spent a good part of the day on and off I finally found the d****d thing.

Thought I was going mad. Actually that still hasn't been entirely ruled out !

Here is the link, about 5 pages of it. Derek Cohen's coments are very pertinent as are many others. I think at the end of the day, you pick a plane you like, make sure the consensus is that it is a good tool and buy it.

https://www.woodworkforums.com/f152/l...-planing-9300/

Regards
Paul