Planes and their uses.

[jlawrence]

Hi all,
OK, I'll be honest, until 3 days ago I'd never used a hand plane (or at least not in the past 20 years).
I picked up a faithfull kit at a local shop (#4 plane, 60 1/2 block lace, spokeshave, square + a couple of other bits) - for £40 it seemed worth trying out.
Now I only thought to try it because my planer blades were dull and I'm awaiting a jog for sharpening them - come on Axminster chop chop please.

I sharpened up the #4 and wow.
OK, it's a bit more work than using the planer, but it works.
I can plane something fairly flat (ish) and get it roughly square.
I also find that I get a lot less snipe (ie practically none) with the plane when compared to the planer - this could be down to the planer blades not being sharp enough though.

I have an issue with one side of the plane consistently taking too much off - not sure why. Any pointers would be good. As far as I can tell the blade is sitting correctly.

I've noticed that the sole isn't exactly square to the sides - so I assume it wouldn't be ideal for shooting with.

I'm now convinced that I need some planes . But what planes are for what job ?
I believe a block plane is used for end grain - but what are the various other numbers for.
eg, what's the difference between a #4, a #4 1/2 & a #5 ?
I can see that a #7 would be handy for jointing bigger boards but I can't see it being much use for smaller ones.

What planes do people use and for what ?

TIA,
Jon

 

[Ironballs]

I've seen that Faithful set, whilst it's a good intro I think that the quality is not too good and you'll want to upgrade fairly soon. It is however a good place to start.

There's another good thread in this section asking about smoothing planes that goes on to talk about other planes and there are many other threads that discuss various planes and they're uses.

I would recommend getting hold of Working With Handplanes from Taunton Press (Fine Woodworking), excellent book. In the last year there were some articles on using planes in Furniture and Cabinetmaking which would be worth ordering the back issues for.

Re your problem with uneven planing, first job is to use the adjuster to alter the angle of the blade, it may be skewed. If that doesn't work then remove the blade and cap iron to see if the frog is mated correctly with the bed/throat. If still having a problem then check your planing action, most folks will tend to favour or lean on one side compared to another, this pressure can cause more material to be taken off on one side.

Lastly, ignore Mike Garnham, you need as many planes as your bank balance will alow. And then maybe a couple more...

 

[jlawrence]

Thanks ironballs for the pointers.
As far as I can tell the iron isn't skewed.
I suppose I really need to come up with a way of checking that there isn't slightly more iron sticking out at one end - ie making it cut deeper rather than being skewed.
The reason (and only reason) I'm thinking it's the plane is that I'm lucky in that I can use most tools with either hand. To my mind that should (hopefully) eliminate my own personal action - as it's likely to come from pressure applied more with either right or left hand (I think). It's always the same side of the plane which is taking more off - regardless of which way I'm planing (left or right). I suppose I could be twisting in some weird way - but it seems a bit too consistent for something like that.
It's only an annoyance really as so long as I check things regularly then it is fairly easy to compensate for - by taking a half cut off one side.

The quality of the planes likely isn't that great - better than a silverline one I found in a box in the loft though - but it's a good enough start that I now know planes actually are useful and not just to those who don't have the power tools.
I always assumed that you needed quite a bit of skill in order to use most hand tools - perhaps I'm now learning that you can get decent results with hand tools just by trying.