Reply To: On Planes
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Keep in mind that how you profile the blade is just as important as the plane. If I had that set of planes, I’d probably:
1. Sharpen the #4 with a very slight camber or with Paul’s dubbed corners, set the mouth tight. This makes it optimized as a smoother and still able to do all the things Paul shows. The camber or dubbed corners means you can plane wide boards without leaving track marks.
2. I’d set up the 5 1/2 in the same way for the same purpose, but it will also be nice for leveling the tops of carcases and drawer boxes since it is a little longer without being unwieldy. It’s nice and wide, so you may find it in use lots of times instead of the #4.
3. I like long planes on a shooting board. Easier to grip. I’d sharpen the #7 dead straight across, no camber, but put a square on it, sole to cheeks, and if the #6 is more square, then I’d use it instead. This is for shooting board or straightening long edges. But you can use the #4 or the #5 1/2 instead.
4. Get $20 and buy a junk plane to turn into a scrub.
The rest are kind of obvious, specialty planes. Since you’ll never, ever want it, I’d put the #10 and 020c in a box and mail it to me. : – ). Or, tune the #10 up and you might find it helpful for tuning tenons. Paul showed us a trick of paring next to the shoulder with a chisel to get the portion that a regular #4 won’t reach, but then you grab the #4 for the rest. Does that make sense? (A regular plane can’t cut all the way to the edge.) I used a block rabbet plane to clean up the posts on cabriole legs, to level them with the apron yet still work all the way down to the shoulder of the curved part of the leg. I’ve never tried a #10 for this (or anything), but suspect it would be excellent. A shoulder plane plus a #4 or some careful paring plus a #4 would also do it. But, you have the #10, so I mention it. Just don’t use the #10 on your shooting board or, if you do, send us pictures so we can laugh.
If you have some spare blades, put a back bevel on one to fake a York pitch, but if you don’t have one, don’t worry about until you need it. I’d prep the planes in the order I listed. Get the #4 going first and start building whatever you want with it. In your spare time, tune up the others. I guess if you’re prepping by hand, the scrub plane might be second.
That’s an awesome set of planes. Do up the #4 and get building. As you build, it will all become clearer.