Reply To: Choosing a Jack Plane
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A couple of questions: is this your first plane purchase? Or do you have a specific use in mind for this plane? Are you looking for new or used? Anyway, some thoughts from a beginner:
IMHO, low-angle vs. standard jack plane is mostly a matter of personal preference. Both will plane wood. Both have their advantages and drawbacks, but to be honest, they are fairly minor.
As you noted, most low angle jacks have an easy way to adjust the mouth opening. On a standard jack, you have to remove the lever cap, cap iron, and blade to get at the screws that loosen the frog, and then maneuver a screw driver between the frog and the tote to get at the frog adjustment screw to adjust the mouth opening. To be honest, it sounds worse than it is, and you don’t do it often, so it’s really not that big of a deal.
Advantages of the standard jack is the lateral adjustment lever, and the location of the depth adjustment knob. Most low angle planes require either a hammer or set screw to make lateral adjustments, and the depth adjuster is a bit less convenient.
A low angle jack is indeed nice for shooting end grain. The lower angle of a cut of a 25 degree iron (38 degrees vs. 45 degrees) does make the low angle slightly easier to use on end grain.
However, in most cases, you can shoot end grain just as well on a standard jack. Planing end grain is mostly about having a sharp iron and using proper technique to prevent blowout, and that applies to both types of planes.
The advantage of the low angle jack is that you can use a blade sharpened to a high angle and get a cutting angle that is well above the 45 degree angle found on the Stanley planes. The higher angle can help avoid tearout on difficult grained woods. Doing the same on the standard angle jack requires honing a back bevel on the blade; I’ve never done that, but I’ve heard it can be tricky for the inexperienced. And changing blades on a low angle jack is easier than the standard jack, as you have no cap iron to deal with (although I consider that a very minor difference).
OTOH, there are other ways of avoiding tearout besides a higher cutting angle: use a freshly sharpened blade, and skew the plane to the direction of cut, and take a lighter cut each pass. My inexpert opinion is that I’m not sure there is much need for the high angle plane until you start working regularly with difficult woods.
Full disclosure: I have both, and I do actually like my low angle jack, despite what I said above. It’s a versatile plane, and for certain tasks it has a nice feel in my hands (a very subjective assessment subject to personal preferences). It’s just not really the panacea the adverts and internet forums and blogs make it out to be. Technique and keep the cutting iron sharp make a bigger difference. If you can, see if you can find a local woodworking store where you can try both out. They do feel different, and you may find yourself liking one better than the other.