What 2 hand planes to start with.

Two penneth from me, jack plane and a smoothing plane, the extra width of the 1/2 types is useful. Wooden versions are also available, and just as functional as the metal ones.
Before you spend all your money on just the planes though, remember that
1. a couple of extra blades are useful.
2. a honing guide and a wider double sided diamond stone to keep those planes sharp is also a must. Leaving them dull will ruin your enjoyment, make the work harder and is generally a bad thing. Plus virtually every reasonably priced plane will need fettling before you get any serious work done.

> I am looking for advise on if I am in the right direction.

What we suggest may depend upon what you want to build.

> I am thinking a #5 L-N jack plane(like the idea of the fly wheel/thumb screw to adjust depth on the frog) would also get a 55° frog.

I have built a fair number of things of various kinds in various kinds of wood and so far have not needed the steeper frog. I was attracted by it at first, too, but it is quite likely unnecessary. You can achieve similar things by pushing the cap iron closer to the cutting edge and by how you use the plane. And, if it ever comes to the point that you really do need a steeper angle, you could but a small back bevel on your blade, but even that is something I’ve not resorted to yet.

> I am thinking this would be a good all around plane ( I like exotic’s and tear out prone wood)

I confess to working in more typical North American hardwoods, although some work was in figured maple.

> I would also get low angle jack for shooting board work to clean up 90’s and 45°.

I use my regular #4 and #5 planes on my shooting board. A long angle plane isn’t needed. I know that others say that it isn’t essential that a shooting board plane have cheeks perpendicular to the sole, “Just tweak the angle lever,” but my experience is to dislike that. I have some old Bailey / Stanley planes (cheeks often not perpendicular to the sole) and have a couple of Clifton planes. I use the Clifton for shooting because of the square cheeks. This all being said, many people are completely happy with using their stanley’s with non-square cheeks, so I would at least try.

Big question: How do you plan to sharpen? Are you going to use Paul’s methods or are you going to use a grinder to put a hollowed bevel on the iron? If you are going to use Paul’s methods, the modern planes with thick irons, even if made from O1, are a pain in the butt. There is just so much metal to work by hand. The older irons are thinner and so much easier to work with.

So, with all that as background, I would say skip the L-N low angle plane. We just saved you $300. Use that money to get an old #4 Bailey or Stanley. A #5 is good for straightening, but it can make it hard to do final smoothing with one since it forces you to a level surface rather than a smooth one. If we call that even $100, take the remaining $200, add another $60 more and get a plow plane to make grooves for drawers. A 1/4″ blade will cover your drawer and panel making, I think.

If you want to do joinery with mortise and tenon, you are really, really going to want a router plane. I’d get the Lee Valley router plane, or the L-N. You really only need the stock, straight blade.

So, that’s not two planes, but it is roughly same amount of money as you started off with. You will only have a #4 for smoothing and straightening. If you are getting started, this will be fine. And you will be perfectly fine with it on a shooting board despite what I said. I just gave my preference, not a requirement. Later, if you really decide you like this work, you could look for a #5.

If you do choose to get a Bailey or Stanley #4, see if you can find a spare blade. See Paul’s info about making a #4 into a scrub plane and modify the second blade so that you can use your #4 as a scrub plane. If you only have one #4, just keep the frog back a bit more than normal and you’ll be able to use it as a scrub and as a smoother without moving the frog every time. I’ve not needed to widen the mouth. Or, if you see a junky #4 that is inexpensive but functional, grab it and make it into a scrub plane. I know Paul is big on using a rabbet plane as a scrub, so that’s another option, but I’ve always just used the #4.

(Maybe I should confess that, for very strange reasons, a #8 was one of the first planes I bought. I don’t suggest copying me. Still, it is my absolute favorite plane for the shooting board, but I think that just says I am nuts.)

• This reply was modified 1 year, 11 months ago by Ed.

I am not as advanced as some of the folks around here, but for what it is worth, most of what I do is done with a #4 or#5, a plow plane and a router plane. Paul never uses a #7 (jointer plane) for jointing, but some folk like it, and I am one of them.

I quite like the veritas router plane and I use more than the basic blade for various things, but all the mechanical parts not so great. The depth adjusters are very sloppy and the depth stop is hard to tighten. Still I use it a lot.

I do not like my veritas #5 (or whatever it is) and almost never use it. Too heavy and somehow, no matter how sharp I get the blade, I do not like its performance. I much prefer my old Stanleys and even an old Wards Master or Sargent.

You mention the MK II honing guide. I do have a variety of honing guides including the MK II. I had it before I learned Paul’s method of sharpening. The Mk II worked fine and gave me a good edge. And as I began to sharpen using Paul’s free hand method, I did find my chisels in particular, and my narrow chisels in double particular, got out of square and I used the Mk II to straighten them. But at some point I realized I did not need the honing guide any more for anything. My chisels and planes were as sharp, using Paul’s method, as I could get them with the MK II and I never got them out of square. I guess that is one of those little successes that sneak up on you though practice.

I also recently stopped using honing guides, and now sharpen plane blades and chisels free hand. Paul’s videos are great for learning how to do that as are Wood by Wright’s. The principal advantage is that you can be done sharpening a tool in less time than it took me to set up the tool in the honing guide. Also, diamond stones followed by stropping on leather with buffing compound is a lot faster than going through a series of water stones. I found the key to adjusting to free hand is to make sure you look at the scratch pattern you’re forming after just a few strokes to see if you have the right angle, and adjust as necessary. I always try to start out a little to flat and increase the angle as dictated by what I see. By looking at the scratch pattern you can also see if your rubbing in a manner that is not parallel to the edge and avoid skewing the blade. Then you just go long enough to raise a burr, then onto the next fine diamond stone. I also remove the burr before going to the next finer stone so I can tell if I’m creating a new butt. I also use buffing compound applied to a flat piece of maple for polishing the back of the blade, switching back and forth a couple times between the wooden and leather strops. This assumes you’ve taken the time to carefully flatten the back of the blade, after which you don’t want to work it on the stones except for a light swipe on a fine stone to remove the burr. I think it now takes me well under five minutes to sharpen a chisel or plane blade. FWIW, I still prefer water stones for sharpening knives however.