What should my first plane be??

[Barry Burgess]

These visits to philly are very costly!! He has at least 40 planes or more and I don't own a single one. The last time I used a plane was about 45 years ago at school. If I were pressured into buying one or two what would you hand tool guru's suggest? I was having flash backs to my school days at Philly's on Saturday.
Barry
ps Don't get me going with Alf's many saws - Philly also has a collection. I hope the rest of you don't have that many??

 

[mr]

No answers yet? Shocking. At the risk of being boring I'd plump for the Veritas low angle jack. Though Im sure more knowledgeable types will have more useful things to say
Mike

 

[ByronBlack]

I would recommend a pre-war Stanley No.5 Excellent tool and versatile, and it will get you upto speed on how to fettle and hone and all that malarky which is needed to get the best out of a plane!

 

[DaveL]

Barry,

So what do you want to do with your new toy, er tool. :twisted:

Putting chamfers on small things calls for a block plane, also useful for trimming end grain.

Flattening boards, you need a #5 or #7 depending on the size and how out of true they are to start with.

For putting a good finish on boards a #3 or #4 or #4½ would be useful.

Then you have to chose old or new? If you buy old are going to fettle yourself or get one thats been done? If you buy new do you want it to work out of the box?

So lots more information is required

 

[Paul Chapman]

Hi Barry,

Nice meeting you on Saturday. Despite its reputation as a sort of general purpose plane, my advice would be don't by a #5. In practice, it's neither one thing nor another. I have one and hardly ever use it.

All my planing is by hand and I tend to prefer longer, heavier planes. After years of using Record planes, I now have three Clifton bench planes, #4.5, #6 and #7. They are beautifully made, quite heavy and I really do make extensive use of the bedrock frog feature which enables you to adjust the mouth without dismantling the plane.

I've also recently bought a Veritas low angle block plane which is very nice - much better than my Record and Stanley block planes.

I only need to add one more plane and that is the Veritas scrub plane - I tried out Philly's on Saturday and it really is good for initial preparation of rough, sawn timber. After that I feel I will have (for me) the ideal bench plane set-up. Of course if you have a machine planer your needs might be different.

Hope this helps :wink:

Paul

 

[Barry Burgess]

Barry,

So what do you want to do with your new toy, er tool. :twisted:

Putting chamfers on small things calls for a block plane, also useful for trimming end grain.

Flattening boards, you need a #5 or #7 depending on the size and how out of true they are to start with.

For putting a good finish on boards a #3 or #4 or #4½ would be useful.

Then you have to chose old or new? If you buy old are going to fettle yourself or get one thats been done? If you buy new do you want it to work out of the box?

So lots more information is required

Dave what did you start out with??? I just wanted to get started using more hand tools and thought the plane would be a good start but then confusion set in. Watching you all get so fired up over Philly's collection got me going. I don't want something that will just sit in the cupboard.
Barry

 

[Barry Burgess]

Paul thats where some of my confusion comes in. Philly's got loads of planes and an old thicknessner even before he got that new big thicknesser. Do I go for a thicknesser/planner or do I go hand tools??
I deemed the minimum to be a 4 1/2 and a block or apron plane as a start but am I starting on a slippery slope?
Barry

 

[Paul Chapman]

I deemed the minimum to be a 4 1/2 and a block or apron plane as a start but am I starting on a slippery slope?

Actually that sounds like quite a good place to start - and yes, probably :wink: Add a #7 and you could probably meet all your needs.

What we were getting fired up about at Philly's was how he gets away with it :?

Paul

 

[Philly]

He, he! Sorry to get you all excited, Barry :wink:
A low angle block plane is a good place to start-it has a million uses around the workshop and is easy to use.
Welcome to the slippery slope,
Philly

 

[LyNx]

BB

You should get the LV LAJ and the apron plane, whilst your ordering, grab yourself a LA smoother and a scrub too, you know you want too.

 

[Alf]

Ah, and the decent begins... :twisted:

I'll vote for a low angle block, simply 'cos even if you come to your senses and step back from The Slope it's still useful for the Normite. If you want to get into planes a bit more seriously, then I tend to come over all Charlesworthian and say a #5 1/2 - or rather the low angle version of same. I'm not a gambling person, but if I was I'd be almost tempted to say "get the LV low angle jack; I'm so convinced you'll like it, I'll buy it off you for full price if you don't" - but it'd be just my luck if you were a contrary so-and-so who didn't like it so I won't :wink:

Cheers, Alf

 

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[ajbell]

Barry

Alas I have also come down with hand tool fever.

Maybe it was something Mrs P put in the juice
and coffee and sandwiches and clotted cream and jam
scones!

I guess it depends what you want to do with the planes.
Do you want to do tasks by hand that you currently do with power
tools Or/ do you want to be able to do tasks you currently can't do.

E.g. Currently you could joint boards with your router table OR you could buy a jointing plane and use that instead.

I have a couple of planes (which I have only now started to use)
but want to expand. According to Rob Cosman a good starting point is:

A smoothing plane (e.g. no. 4 or 4 1/2)
A small angle block plane
A rebate plane
A jointing plane

AndyB

 

[Mittlefehldt]

As stated a few times above, if you get only one plane to see what it's all about, first buy a good one, not a Stanly Record etc, but say Clifton, Lee Valley or Lie Nielson. Then buy a good general purpose plane, and for that as also mentioned above I would suggest a low angle block plane it has a mulitude of things it can do, and will give you an idea what a plane is capable of.

Also as Alf said above even if you do not go any further the block plane is still useful, so no worries there. I suspect though you may find it seductive.

 

[Mirboo]

I'd go for a low angle block plane. My first plane was a 60-1/2 low angle block and although I've added numerous other planes to my woodworking arsenal since then, the 60-1/2 is still my most used plane.

 

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[Nigel]

Barry
you could come over to my place and try a couple of my slope purchases and see what you may like to try as a first
they are not set up as fine as Philly`s but it will give you an idea

Nigel

 

[ike]

I'll also vote for the LA block. I have the Veritas with ball tail - very handy (although I would like a smaller plane too when I can afford one).

I use the LA smoother, not the LAJ the most for general carpentry.

Ike

 

[MikeW]

Hi Jacob,

Whereas I would put a couple planes in front of a block plane, I think the point is if the desire for using planes per se dies out, having a block plane is still useful for nearly every cabinet maker I know who relies on powertools.

I personally would elect to get two planes. If I were building longer or bigger items, it would be a good #5 plane. Vintage at that. I believe Mr. C has a new video coming which details fettling one for good use but there is also a lot of information on the web and we are here to help as well.

For what I build, a good #3 is more useful for smoothing and can still clean up the edges after ripping to width.

And, of course, a decent block plane. A new one is good, but a vintage one isn't much and a thicker iron can always be added. And they are cheap.

I would also recommend getting and learning to use hand-held scrapers. They can smooth out problem areas that a thicknesser may not. And they are very cost effective and can fairly easily be made from old handsaws.

Take care, Mike

 

[Mirboo]

I've bought a second blade for my 60-1/2 and I've honed the bevel on this extra blade to 40 degrees, thereby producing a cutting angle of 52 degrees. With the 40 degree blade installed the 60-1/2 functions quite well as a small smoother.