Roughing / Scrub Planes
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For those of us who prepare stock from rough or reclaimed timber there’s little need to invest in a scrub plane by Lie Nielsen, Veritas or Stanley. Here’s the type of plane I use and – whilst lightweight – they’re a gem to use when roughing stock and often show up / sell for very little on evilbay 😉
Thanks Gary, all very true buddy, but to us guys that just love tools, I can see a scrub plane on future shopping lists.
Hmmm I think I have one on mine HaHa 🙂
Ken 😉
😀 Nice one Ken 😉
I have a Stanley #40 that was resurrected by Jim Reed which he graciously gave me, it came with his famous “reed-master” blade. I also have a #5 Stanley set up with a heavy cambered blade. I do like the scrub plane a lot small light and is perfect for the type of work I work on. Unfortunately I don’t have access to a lot of rough wood except for the occasional pallet I pick up.
Steve
Steve Massie, I live in the great State of Florida, US
Hey Gary. What type of plane and size is that? And do you use a curved edge scrub style plane blade on it, or just the normal straight edge?
Hi Jeff,
It’s marked as a “#2” & “British Made”. They were very common here once upon a time, but seldom see use on anything other than roughing/scrubbing timber down to size. Irons tend to be square edged when you pick them up, but primarily because many users prefer to set their own radii (Which I did in this instance). I tend to eyeball radii for this kind of use, but would estimate the arc as being between an 8″ – 10″ radius.
The cutting iron is of minimal thickness at 1/16″ or 0.056″ and 1-5/8″ wide, while the plane itself is 8-1/16″ from toe to heel by 2″ wide. There is scope for fitting a heavier iron, but the extant iron serves it’s purpose and holds it’s edge extremely well.
I’ve a Record scrub plane somewhere, but think my son “borrowed” it for work and I need to get it back.
Thanks Gary. From the photos, it appears that its much narrower than your Record planes. The throat opening looks very large as well. Would you recommend a lightweight, narrow width, fairly small plane to convert to a scrub?
You’re very welcome Jeff. 🙂
I have a couple of old wooden roughing/scrub planes (Also small bodied) and find this small #2 metal bodied plane is definitely fit for purpose. Blade width is 1-5/8″ (Body width is 2″), size and nature of this type of plane matches it to use as a very versatile scrub plane. Especially on furniture sized stock prep. The nature of the cambered edge tends to present very little blade to the cut and makes it possible to take very heavy shavings with very little effort. 🙂
Great, thanks. I’ll try to find a something suitable and cheap on eBay. I did get a Bailey 4-1/2 for $15, but it’s too wide, and I don’t think I could ever even entertain the idea of taking a gem like that and putting it to scrub use.
Never a problem Jeff 😉
For scrubbing/roughing I err on the side of narrow bladed planes and tend to prefer blade widths between 1-1/2″ & 1-3/4″ 🙂
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I know most of us prefer working with pre-dressed stock and there’s certainly nothing wrong with that, but it tends to be more economical to buy in rough stock or even salvaged materials and work them to the dimensions needed.
I bought an old stanley #6 jack plane that I was going to use as a roughing plane. I never thought about using a smaller plane or thinner iron so it would glide easier. I will have to see how much effort it is to push or just take much smaller shavings.
I am confessing to having too many planes that I do not use. ( i also can think of one or two that I really would use that I do not have :))
my go to scrub plane is an old busted up Bedrock 605 with a cambered iron. I have two or three others that I thought I would use, but I always go for the old Bedrock. Much of the wood I buy is S 2S. So I really do not do a whole lot of scrubbing.
ron
Hi Shawn,
#6/#06’s tend to be a little on the large side for roughing/scrubbing work, but by all means use it if you find it works for you. 🙂 It should be fine for occasional use as a scrubber and will serve well for flattening and truing larger stock/panels, but it’s much heavier and wider (With it’s 2-3/8″ blade width) than a typical scrub/roughing plane.
I often use my #05’s for roughing work, but tend not to use too aggressive a setting on them. The picture shows a comparison between my scrub (Top) and #05 Jack plane set-up.
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