Plane Questions

[Smudger]

I've just found a plane in my loft that I must have bought about 25 years ago and never seem to have managed to work properly. Either that or I collected it from a dead relative's shed. It is a Salmen's, looks longer (and narrower) than a Stanley No 5. It's pretty rusty and filthy - seeing other comments on this company's planes, is it worth the bother of restoring it, or should I buy either a new or secondhand Stanley - ie OK for my quality of work...

 

[Smudger]

Sad or what, replying to my own post...

I've been on eBay and there is a similar plane at £3.99, so I guess that answers my question about quality. I'll clean it up a bit as a practice piece and use it for sharpening skills development...

Now - I'm almost completely unskilled with hand tools, but I want to be able to use them with enough panache to make passable stuff in a primitive style, if you see what I mean. My workshed is at the bottom of the garden so evening work needs to be hand tools, quite apart from the extra fun.

What do I do for planes? I'm not going to commit to the serious stuff for the moment - as a newbie I may end up hating using handtools or may just be useless with them. So I'm looking at Stanley stuff, and I know that secondhand (pre electric planers) stuff may well be better quality than new. It's a bit of a lottery, though, in terms of condition.

New is easier to use? Or will a new Stanley need fettling?

What sizes? I am going to be dimensioning wood for making bookshelves, small cupboards, box-drawer units etc. Not fine furniture making. I hope to be sourcing some French oak, possibly some ash, but it will probably be kiln dried rough sawn.

My thought is towards a 5, possible 5 1/2, will that be a good start?

There are lots of cheap No 4s on eBay - is there a reason for that?

What about rebating and routing planes? Are they really of use for a newbie like me?

Come on, guys, there's a potential galoot here - let's have some encouraging answers!

 

[bugbear]

What do I do for planes? I'm not going to commit to the serious stuff for the moment - as a newbie I may end up hating using handtools or may just be useless with them. So I'm looking at Stanley stuff, and I know that secondhand (pre electric planers) stuff may well be better quality than new. It's a bit of a lottery, though, in terms of condition.

New is easier to use? Or will a new Stanley need fettling?

There is no "one royal road" to cheap and good. New and expensive is good - LN CLifton. New and cheap is pretty dreadful (Groz, Anant). Depressingly, new and mid price is horrid (Footprint, Stanley, Record).

There is good potential quality in CLEAN, older, second hand - early Record and UK Stanleys, if you know what to look for, and how to clean them up.

Only "new and expensive" avoids fettling, I'm afraid. In fact the older planes often need less (which is how BAD the new ones are, in both materials and machining).

What sizes? I am going to be dimensioning wood for making bookshelves, small cupboards, box-drawer units etc. Not fine furniture making. I hope to be sourcing some French oak, possibly some ash, but it will probably be kiln dried rough sawn.

My thought is towards a 5, possible 5 1/2, will that be a good start?

With apologies for link rot, here's my thoughts:

http://www.geocities.com/plybench/plane.html

BugBear

 

[Smudger]

Thanks for that, appreciated. I'll go for some of the clean old stuff if I can.