On Tue, 31 May 2005 08:36:56 +0100, doozer
wrote:
Anyway can someone point me in the direction of some decent planes at
affordable prices ;o) and perhaps tell me what to look for in a good plane?
Jeff Gorman's web site.
http://www.amgron.clara.net/planingp...planeindex.htm
A little book called "Planecraft", a '50s advertorial published by
Record. Couple of quid off eBay.
Avoid replaceable blade planes. They're a bad idea, always were, always
likely to be so. They don't work because they're intended to be sold to
people who don't plane and don't need to. If you never ask more from it
than to chamfer a bit of pineywood 2x4, then you can use this
stanleyknifeblade thing. OTOH, you could just as well use your penknife.
An alternative is to get a spokeshave instead. For a lot of rough
carpentry, it's a better tool than a plane. Find old Stanley #63 or #64
models (the little ones, sometimes seen as "kids models") which work
well, when the more common #51 or #151 models are too crudely made to be
much use. Or else an old wooden spokeshave, although these can be
awkward to sharpen if in poor condition.
IMHO, a reasonable workbench needs three planes on it. A Stanley #5, a
#4 and a small block plane. If you're doubtful, the block plane is
probably the most useful.
The #5 is the most useful for general bench use. They're common and
they're a better size than a #4. Couple of quid off eBay will do you, or
else most car boot sales. Almost any of them that aren't actually broken
or have bits missing will work fine - read Jeff Gorman's notes on how to
sharpen and fettle them.
The #4 is even more common than a #5 - you can usually find them growing
under benches in abandoned sheds. It has even been suggested they're the
rustic adult form of the wire coat hanger, well known for spontaneously
generating in dark wardrobes.
With a #4 as well as a #5, you can adjust them differently and leave
them that way. Set the #5 up as a bench plane, set the #4 as a smoother
(JG's notes again). A second #4 can even be rigged as a "scrub" plane
for rapidly shifting timber and leaving a rough finish. Use your
roughest, adjust the mouth wide open and sharpen the iron with a large
crown (curve) to the edge.
The block plane is an essential tool, even if you're mainly working with
power tools. Spend the money and buy a Veritas low-angle block plane
from Lee Valley in Canada.
http://www.leevalley.com/wood/page.a...=1,41182,41189
This is one of the best-made and best-designed modern hand tools it has
ever been my pleasure to purchase. They really are that good.
As you won't spend this money, find an _old_ Stanley or Record block
plane with a decent adjuster (i.e. not the unadjustable monsters with
the screw clamp alone).
Don't buy new planes. Stanley are rubbish. Record aren't much better.
Rolson, Anant etc. are insufferable and pretty much useless. New block
planes are even worse than bench planes. The only new planes worth
having are from the better makers - Lee Valley / Veritas, Clifton,
Lie-Nielsen etc.
So buy old S/H planes and use them - far better tools, and cheap too.
Electrolysis (Google rec.woodworking) takes rust off, plenty of other
guides tell you how to restore them.
You will need to sharpen any plane you expect to do good work with. Read
Leonard Lee's "Sharpening", or Google for "Scary Sharp" (sandpaper and
glass - cheap and easy)
--
Cats have nine lives, which is why they rarely post to Usenet.