Bailey to Bedrock

[GazPal]

Adjustable mouthed planes are what they are and can/should be adjusted to suit the timber being planed and degree of blade set in use. Otherwise you may as well purchase a wider selection of standard non-adjustable planes and use frog adjustment as a means of varying the throat.

But there are very few (that I know of) adjustable mouth bench planes (as opposed to adjustable frog).

Could you mention the ones you're thinking of, outside the re-incarnations of the Stanley #62, #164?

BugBear

Stanley's new incarnation of the #4 is the one that immediately sprang to mind prior to posting earlier, but the same approach can be taken with LN's #62, #164, Veritas bevel up smoother and jack, plus adjustable mouthed block and shoulder planes. The practicality of an adjustable plane compares favourably to non-adjustable counterparts and potentially reduces the number of hand planes needed within a kit.

Older examples of adjustable wooden planes include smoothing and panel planes with sliding steel nosings that are used when varying throat aperture.

 

[Derek Cohen (Perth Oz)]

I agree with Janos insofar as most will end up with one plane to do one thing. As a result we tend to have a few smoothers, each set up for different woods and finishes. I have a couple of jack planes with differently cambered blades. I have a couple of jointers, one straight blade and one with a fine camber. And a few others, here-and-there in the workshop

If nothing else, it add credibility to buying/building more planes :wink:

Regards from Perth

Derek

 

[Benchwayze]

You know.....there is a wee bit of tecknical difference between a 1980-ies Mercedes and a 1980-ies Rolls Royce and a 1980-ies Lada.

-A Bedrock plane and it's modern counterparts are the Rolls Royce of planes.
-An elderly Record or Bailey or the like are the Mercedes of planes.
-A modern Record or Anant is the Lada of planes
-A modern super-cheap Chineese plane is the eqivalent of a 40 years old beaten up Moskwith that has been owned by a hobby mechanic in the deepest countryside of Mongolia where the only spare parts avaiable were barb wire and empty tin cans.

So......for those of us who are ordinary woodworkers doing ordinary work a secondhand Mercedes class plane is good enough in my oppinion.
A Lada may do it's job reasonably well if well fettled and maintained and technically improved by a resourceful owner but no matter what you do it will never ever become a Rolls-Royce and not even a Mercedes.

Therefore I tend to buy high quality eqipment and because I am poor I look for secondhand stuff which is usually more or less broken. I repair it and get good equipment within my tight budget.
Just my oppinion.

If I made planes of the Bailey pattern they would ALL have an adjustable mouth. Since I bought my LN LA Jack, most of my other planes lie idle. No they are not for sale. (well maybe a Clifton later in the year!)

Regards
John :wink: