Wooden planes. Worth the effort?

[Richmo]

Greeting fellow woodworkers. I make small Krenov style cabinets and at the moment use good quality metal block and hand planes. Any of you had experience of using Krenov style planes or japanese planes? And are they worth the effort? I have read that setting them up etc can be quite stressful.

 

[matthewwh]

It takes a little bit of practice but stetting a plane with a hammer isn't that hard, with common sense and plenty of tapping and trying you get a feel for it quite quickly.

 

[Beau]

High Rich. Yes I made a Krenov style plane many years back. It was a jointer as this saved me the most money. It's all I had bigger than a No 4 for some years. The mouth would wear quite quickly even with a lignum vitae insert and had to replace this occasionally. It suffered at the hands of my damp workshop and would need truing occasionally. It now sits on the shelf and only comes out for doing work with the shooting board. Used a standard Record blade which worked fine and soon got used to the tap and try set up.

 

[Richmo]

Thanks guys I found your comments very helpful. I think I will try the Japanese planes first as I've seen some amazing things on youtube with regards their use and setup. I will post again and let you know how I get on. Richmo.

 

[thetyreman]

I'd say japanese planes are the best, because of the quality of steel... the sharpness you can achieve is ridiculous frankly.

 

[swagman]

You don't a Japanese Plane.!!!

Learn to make your own tradition wedge abutment bench planes. Shavings were taken from both grain directions with no tear-out.

 

[Trafalgar]

Greeting fellow woodworkers. I make small Krenov style cabinets and at the moment use good quality metal block and hand planes. Any of you had experience of using Krenov style planes or japanese planes? And are they worth the effort? I have read that setting them up etc can be quite stressful.

There will be no discernible difference in the Krenov cabinets you are successfully making now with the good quality metal hand planes that you already own. None whatsoever. Wooden planes are slightly less fatiguing to use, an old wooden jack is useful if you hand prep stock from the rough (which Krenov certainly did not do except on exceedingly rare occasions; his was an unapologetically blended operation). Beyond that, it would be ludicrous to swap out what reads to be a more than adequate kit of metal planes with wooden ones and create an unnecessary learning curve even if short/flat. I'd keep building what you're building with the tools you have unless you can identify with absolute certainty a capability you don't have that can only be found in a wooden plane.

While Krenov was certainly an advocate for the wooden planes that he made and used, his real genius was in designing around interesting stock that he spent a lifetime acquiring. Several of his early and some say his best pieces were in fact done with metal planes. Of course neither wood nor metal planes will do your design work for you. If you're lucky enough to have that sort of talent, and well on your way to a collection of fine, interesting, and relatively rare woods to go with, nobody in the world will know if it was a metal or wood plane that touched a project last, nor will they care, nor does it add or detract one bit of legitimacy to the project one way or another.

 

[MIGNAL]

I've tried a lot of wooden planes. Never really got on with the Japanese type though. If you are accustomed to western metal planes then the western wooden plane is hardly a difficult transition. Nearer still is the transitional and the Marples type are a real joy to use IMO. I never had much problem adjusting wooden planes with a hammer but that Marples design is very good.

 

[D_W]

edit...........

 

[D_W]

The push for wooden planes comes more with the heavy work than the finish work. If you do a lot of that, wooden tools are worth tracking down, but I would stick with tools with handles if you're going to do that (japanese tools work well for jack work, their intermediate planes lag in practical use a little bit on large cabinetry vs. a western plane for several reasons).

There is a learning curve with japanese tools, and the sharpening economy isn't quite the same with them as it is with western tools (i.e., there is no easy zip across the grinder and a couple of licks on the stone - when they wear, you work the primary bevel with a coarse stone, and if they take damage, same thing - it can take a fair chunk of time to get an iron back in good nick - 10 or 15 minutes - if it takes on some damage). They also have less clearance to work with, and setting a double iron on them isn't as convenient (which becomes significant if you start working figured wood).

All of that said, if you want to make a krenov plane, it doesn't take long. I don't personally understand the virtue of the design, other than that it's easy to make, but some others seem to like them.

Setup on japanese and other wooden planes is trivial once you have used them for a while. There are a lot of tutorials online that suggest an hour of time and constant conditioning, but that kind of stuff isn't really necessary for a plane dialed in. you might spend an hour on your first japanese plane, but my recent experience has been more like 10 minutes with a bed scraping tool.

 

[bugbear]

Thanks guys I found your comments very helpful. I think I will try the Japanese planes first as I've seen some amazing things on youtube with regards their use and setup. I will post again and let you know how I get on. Richmo.

Not recommended as a first wooden plane - I'd aim for a jack (or a scrub). Maximum benefit, minimum trouble.

BugBear

 

[custard]

that Marples design is very good.

Do you mean this one?

Looks like a very cool 1930's locomotive.

I've got a jack version of those with a closed tote (which I think let's down a bit), plus I'm never entirely confident about a frog that's screwed a wooden sole. I've thought a few times about making one from Indian Rosewood with an open tote and a more robust frog to sole arrangement, but building furniture keeps getting in the way!

 

[MIGNAL]

That's the one. I've made two, a jack and a smoother. Can't say I had much problem with the frog mounting, other than having to cut the legs off a Stanley type and flatten what was left. I think it's a combination of the open tote, the weight (or lack of) and that 30's loco front that makes it such a nice plane to use. The only difficulty I found was room for fingers around the adjuster. I started using my left hand thumb and right hand index finger to adjust the depth, that seemed to solve it. Great plane for medium density hardwoods and relatively easy to work timber. I think wooden planes tend to excel at that type of timber, heavy metal planes better for hard cranky grain.

 

[custard]

That's the one. I've made two, a jack and a smoother.....The only difficulty I found was room for fingers around the adjuster.

Nice one (or two)!

I agree about the depth adjuster, and the closed tote that's on mine makes it even worse. If I ever do get around to making one then fixing that so it can be adjusted on the fly, like with a Bailey, would be top priority.

 

[Jelly]

Worth the effort learning to use, absolutely.

Worth having, if you have space.

Worth making, only if you're planning to do it for enjoyment.


I tend to use traditional British pattern wooden planes, mainly because I inherited a good set when I was just starting out. They're not appreciably better or worse than metal ones, I find them easier to use but that's not a widely held view.

I do have metal ones, they're infinitely better suited to planing the edges of things that are abrasive like ply, MDF and OSB, or wood with stuff embedded in it.

 

[lanemaux]

I'm not anywhere near the level of expertise of some of the previous respondents , so not going to offer advice. I will however state that I have gotten yeoman use from a little cheapy Japanese smoother I got on the Bay. Small as a block plane and quite a bit lighter , it may be carried in a pocket comfortably with the blunt end of the blade sticking out. The steel is surprisingly good and takes and holds a terrific edge. It is my go to tool for rough and ready work away from home (I use some pallet wood and like to see what it will look like for example). Once you get used to tapping the blade or body to set the iron it becomes surprisingly intuitive and soon becomes second nature. Wouldn't part with mine.

 

[rafezetter]

I'm also not a time served expert by any means, I've only been hand planing with reasonable regularity maybe 4 years or so but after using a wooden jointer for a few times about 2 years ago I stopped using my metal pre WW1 bailey #7 altogether - which was my most used plane. After that I bought a jack, 3 coffin smoothers, turned one into a scrub and a badger that I made into a shooting plane; I love using all of them.

The adjustment "fiddling" isn't really much bother to be honest, the only real downside is making sure the sole is trued up properly more often than a metal one - but as it's significantly quicker doing that too, especially if you make up a dedicated lapping station it's no biggie.

One thing to remember is not to store a woodie with the blade "set" as it puts the body into tension and a woodie will react to this much faster than a metal plane.

Having said all that - I do still have a vintage metal 5 1/2 jack, a cheap faithfull #4 for 1st cleanup of salvaged boards and a lovely #4 1/2 bought from Pete Maddex of this forum, all of which get used; so I would echo that woodies can have a place beside metal planes.