Handplane Adventure

I agree with Jeff. Higher end planes are well engineered but performance wise I haven’t found them to be capable of better work than the Stanleys. Most older Stanleys can be fettled to perfection in about an hour max and thin irons DO NOT CHATTER unless set wrong and even then they don’t so much chatter as scud, which high end planes do with equal alacrity. You can likely buy all of the plane you will ever need for the price of buying one high end smoothing plane. That said, I do like the heavier planes in the longer planes and the bevel up planes and so i am grateful for these. That’s where I would go. Buy the Stanley smoothers and jacks and then shoot for say a Veritas bevel up jack or their super lightweight small bevel-up smoothing plane. These bevel up planes are really worth having but do not think they are better than the Stanley 4 or 4 1/2. The will not sub’ for these no matter the maker.

I must agree with the comments about the higher end, heavyweight planes.  I am rebuilding a boat and during this process got caught up in the desire to own these beautifully engineered planes.  I own a Clifton 4 1/2 and 5 1/2, as well as a sprinkling of Lie-Nielsen and Veritas block planes, and the L-N Low Angle Jack, all of which I love to bits.  BUT….  They are heavy, not as comfortable to use as the common Stanley 4.  So I have gone back to using Stanley, and the others languish in their cabinet (except for the block planes, which I use often).

I also recently realised why I have asthma, something I didn’t have when I started – I think it is all the dust from the machines and the dust collector.  My woodworking has become so much more pleasant without ear and breathing protection.  I am now about to move my machines outside, together with the dust collector, so that the outside space (under cover, just outside the workshop) is a milling space, and inside the working space.  I remember how woodwork was accomplished (badly) in primary school inside a normal classroom fitted out with benches, I look at Paul’s teaching space on the videos and the many Chippies’ shops in ships I’ve sailed in and now I understand how it was possible to work in these spaces – no dust-creators!

I have enjoyed using hand routers and plough planes and letting the power tools languish for a change.  Since spending time on this site, I have not used power tools in my workshop – I started putting a piece of timber through the bandsaw the other day, it wandered and so I thought (expletive deleted) it, and reached for the ripsaw and made a more accurate cut.  I very much like the minimalist approach to woodworking, focusing on doing more with less, rather than having a workshop stuffed with tools and no output.

So long live the handplane revival, and to add to the chorus, “Thanks, Paul”.

Incidentally, I find this reconnection with craft very therapeutic and chimes with something I read in one of Paul’s blogs.  There is a good book on the subject that some members might find interesting: “The Case for Working with Your Hands – or Why Office Work is Bad for Us and Fixing Things Feels Good” by Matthew Crawford.

Have a happy Sunday!

Jonathan

Hi all,

There are still some amazing bargains to be had on eBay (UK at least).  Just today I received a Record No. 5 which I paid £11.50 for plus £10.00 postage (and that was via courier ;o) ).  The sole is pretty flat and square – at first look with a combination square at least anyway.  Thanks to Paul’s advice I have managed to take it apart and very quickly (superficially) hone the blade and oil it.  I’ve never handled a No.5 before and am amazed by just how different it feels to my old (eBay again) No.4.  Within an hour of taking it out it’s packaging it’s producing full length, square, wafer thin shavings.  Love it – and love the new skills I’m developing along the way.

One of the things that the work this morning is showing me  is how I’m growing in patience.  When I took the plane apart this morning I removed the adjustment knob and gave it a quick clean.  When I came to reassemble the plane 45 mins later I couldn’t get it to go back on, despite how hard i tried.  In the past there would have been tantrums (I’m ashamed to admit) and it would definitely have been the fault of the plane.  As it was I took 5 mins time-out and came back to it, only to realise that it has, of course, an anti-clockwise thread.

I totally agree with the assertion that this is what most of should be doing instead of office work.  As another book suggestion (nothing to do with woodworking, but a real eye opener in terms of work-life balance), I would recommend ‘The Age of Absurdity: Why Modern Life Makes it Hard to be Happy’ by Michael Foley.

Cheers

Jon

Sorry Dave. I didn’t mean to rub it in!!

I guess the flip side is that new tools are generally so much cheaper in the USA than the UK.  For instance, I bought my diamond sharpening stones from Amazon.com and even including shipping and import tax they were cheaper than buying from Amazon.co.uk (or anywhere else I could find in the UK, including eBay stores).  From what I’ve seen (which in fairness is based upon quite limited searches for very specific items), the pricing seems to be more or less the same Dollar to Pound i.e. an item that would cost £25 in the UK would be $25 in the US.  You win some, you lose some I guess.