Aled Dafis
Established Member
I ordered a Dakota Block plane for my Father In-Law's birthday back in September. I was about to order one form Workshopheaven, but I recieved one of Rutlands 10% + Free Shipping e-mails which persuaded me, £30 for what is essentially a Quansheng Block plane sounded too good to be true. The plane was out of stock at the time, but it finally arrived today, and what I have here is a very quick, mini review of the plane.
Firstly, a side by side view of the Dakota and my much loved Lie-Nielsen 60 1/2
The Dakota is a high angle whereas my LN is low angle, but it's the best I have for comparison. The Dakota looks quite similar ecxept for it's Chrome lever cap. The fit and finish of both planes is very similar indeed, the LN may have the edge, but the differences are very small, so small in fact, to be insignificant.
The iron was finely ground all over, and I was surprised to see that the bevel was also ground to a fine finish. The bevel was ground to 25deg, but I prefer a lower grind angle, which suits my hand honing regieme, so I hollow ground the bevel on my bench grinder to ~23deg, which again only took a couple of minutes.
The back took seconds to bring to this state, it was slightly concave, so achieving a polish adjacent to the cutting edge was no problem at all, the polished face will grow with further honings, however, I don't find this a problem at all.
The bed is accurately milled, but this is where the LN gains a slight advantage, it's bed has a slightly finer surface finish, but I very much doubt that it has any bearing on how well it performs.
The sole and sides are very nicely ground, and are definately on par, if not finer than the LN. I don't have the kit to accurately measur how flat the sole is, but I have no doubt that it's more than adequate, if planing performance is anything to go by, it's dead flat!
As with Quangsheng planes, this Dakota came in a nice wooden box. The only negative point I have is the "Dakota" sticker on the box, Lie-Nielsen sound much classier :roll:
In conclusion, I'm very impressed indeed with this plane, and will find it very difficult indeed to hand it over to my father in law when he comes over later tonight. If you're in the market for a reasonably priced block plane, please do not hesitate to order one of these, or a "genuine" Quangsheng from Matthew. I'm now converted, and really don't see the need to shell out 4 times the ammount for an equivalent (yes equivalent, and no better) LN plane. I can't wait for a Qiangsheng 4 1/2 to become available.
Cheers
Aled
Edit: I just checked my statement, and Rutlands only charged me £27 (£30 less 10%) so it's even more of a bargain that I first thought.
Firstly, a side by side view of the Dakota and my much loved Lie-Nielsen 60 1/2
The Dakota is a high angle whereas my LN is low angle, but it's the best I have for comparison. The Dakota looks quite similar ecxept for it's Chrome lever cap. The fit and finish of both planes is very similar indeed, the LN may have the edge, but the differences are very small, so small in fact, to be insignificant.
The iron was finely ground all over, and I was surprised to see that the bevel was also ground to a fine finish. The bevel was ground to 25deg, but I prefer a lower grind angle, which suits my hand honing regieme, so I hollow ground the bevel on my bench grinder to ~23deg, which again only took a couple of minutes.
The back took seconds to bring to this state, it was slightly concave, so achieving a polish adjacent to the cutting edge was no problem at all, the polished face will grow with further honings, however, I don't find this a problem at all.
The bed is accurately milled, but this is where the LN gains a slight advantage, it's bed has a slightly finer surface finish, but I very much doubt that it has any bearing on how well it performs.
The sole and sides are very nicely ground, and are definately on par, if not finer than the LN. I don't have the kit to accurately measur how flat the sole is, but I have no doubt that it's more than adequate, if planing performance is anything to go by, it's dead flat!
As with Quangsheng planes, this Dakota came in a nice wooden box. The only negative point I have is the "Dakota" sticker on the box, Lie-Nielsen sound much classier :roll:
In conclusion, I'm very impressed indeed with this plane, and will find it very difficult indeed to hand it over to my father in law when he comes over later tonight. If you're in the market for a reasonably priced block plane, please do not hesitate to order one of these, or a "genuine" Quangsheng from Matthew. I'm now converted, and really don't see the need to shell out 4 times the ammount for an equivalent (yes equivalent, and no better) LN plane. I can't wait for a Qiangsheng 4 1/2 to become available.
Cheers
Aled
Edit: I just checked my statement, and Rutlands only charged me £27 (£30 less 10%) so it's even more of a bargain that I first thought.
