Hello amigos, I’ve been out of luck trying to find a good new or used plane in Mexico City.

In stores the selection is horrible: every new plane they sell here has a corrugated sole. You find the bad Stanleys and a host of Chinese knockoffs, ranging from somewhat decent to down right scary bad.

Buying online and shipping to Mexico: shipping costs more than the plane, and thanks to a master craftsman we all know very well, finding old planes in working order is getting more expensive every day.

That left me with a couple $10 and $20 new planes really similar to the ones Paul tested on his blog: plastic handles, unwieldy cap irons and the most baffling thing I observed when I disassembled them: the angle of the frog and the inside of the mouth (throat?) don’t match.

The frog is set at the standard angle (45º?) for Bailey pattern planes, but the angle in the sole is shallower, much more in the $20 plane, a little less in the $10 one. If the frog comes down at 45º, the angle leading to the mouth opening is at 35º.

Does this need correcting? From what I saw in wooden planes making videos, you want a consistent and continuous surface to ensure maximum support for the blade.

I think my options are filing that bevel until it matches the frog’s angle (but that would leave me with a 150% enlarged mouth), or advancing the frog so the bevel doesn’t interfere with the blade, but this could result in chatter.

Can someone point me in the right direction? Is the blade supposed to contact some part or all of the mouth opening? Or the bevel on the cutting edge will make it avoid any contact with the sole and the support ends with the frog?

Thanks in advance!