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Next plane purchase--next 2 plane purchases?
(Eric Anderson) wrote in message . com...
I forgot to say that I would like to have a plane that is best for
working on drawers. I built a shooting board and am using the Sears
smoother with it. Probably not the best choice.
Given that and the fact that you don't have any low-angle planes
yet, I'd say that you are due for a low-angle block or a longer
low-angle smoother. The low-angle block is an indispensable tool in
my shop, as it has many uses, and performs quite well on endgrain.
The low-angle smoother has become my go-to plane for general
smoothing, with a couple of specialty planes reserved for extremely
tricky grain.
If you do not work with highly-figured wood, you might not need
another smoother, and the block would be your best choice. If you do
work with tricky wood, then a low-angle smoother or a #4-1/2 might be
a good choice. Others will disagree, but I have had excellent results
using the low-angle plane on tricky grain. It has a thick iron, solid
bedding, adjustable mouth and very precise depth-adjustment, so all
the critical elements for dealing with tricky woods are there, IMHO.
It is also easy to change the angle of attack by simply raising the
angle of the bevel of the iron. I have also used mine in a shooting
board with good success.
The #4-1/2 has extra mass which can be useful. It has a higher
effective angle than the low-angle plane out of the box, and that
angle can be increased further for tricky woods by putting a
back-bevel on the iron. This makes the plane harder to push but also
imparts more of a scraping action which can be helpful with gnarly
grain.
Interesting
responses, but I probably want to stay with a plane rather than a
spoke shave. Router plane? Hmmm. Guess I would need to have some
use examples for the unusual examples.
I use my router planes (#71 and #271) several times a year, but
that's because I do 99%+ Neander work in my shop. They are handy for
flattening the bottoms of stopped grooves or dadoes when cutting them
by hand. But, if you tend to use a routah for cutting grooves, you
can probably get by without them.
Most of the specialty planes are just that; planes that have very
specific uses, and if you do handwork exclusively, you will need them.
If not, there are plenty of other ways to get the task done. As for
choosing between a specialty plane and a spokeshave -- the way I work,
I would take a shave over my routah planes, my rabbet planes, my
shoulder planes, and my side-rabbet planes. I can find alternative
ways to do all of the tasks these planes are made for, but for curved
work, nothing beats a shave.
Chuck Vance
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