Which plane next?

Re: Which plane next?

Richard Gillespie

>I don't own any of the LN planes. I do have the LV LA Smoother. I've bought two of the high angle blades to go with it. One comes from the factory giving you a York pitch and the other I reground to achieve a 60 degree pitch. I am very pleased with that plane.

However, what you describe as your goal requires two other planes in my experience. They are a scrub and a jack plane. The scrub can be made from a #3, 4, or 5 plane. Set the mouth wide open and grind the blade in about a 6" radius arc. You then want to have a #5 set up as a jack plane. This one the blade is set 0.006" - 0.010" back from the leading edge of the mouth.

You scrub off large amounts of wood and then use the jack to bring it to a reasonable amount of smoothness. After that you use your smoother.

The scrub and jack plane can be bought for a small amount of money from Ebay, flea markets, etc. You get whatever smoother you want to use.

Re: Which plane next?

Frank Mutchler in Colorado Springs

>I'd get the LV low angle jack with the xtra high angle blade. This one plane will serve as many planes depending on how you grind the blade. An xtra blade or two and you're in business with money left over for other 'necessities'.

Depends on project

jim_reed@marietta

>If you work with rough lumber, you need smoothers. If you have alot of joint fitting, you need a shoulder plane. If you do mouldings, you need moulders. If you do lots of different things, maybe you need a combo plane. I like the suggestion of scrub. I use mine more all the time. I sense a certain slipperyness in the slope. Good luck on you journey.

Agreed

Robin Frierson

>I second the recomendation of the LV 62 1/2 and an extra blade or two. Great end grain plane, great smoother, great all purpose plane. I am still new to the plane but the more I use the more I like it.

For your second plane I would get a short one like a #4 for getting into the small tearout spots and small pieces. The LN # 4 HA in bronze is wonderful but blows the budget. Alernatives include the LV #4, Clifton # 4 or a Bailey or Bedrock with an upgraded iron and chipbreaker.

Re: Which plane next?

dave caudill

>I'm thinking with $300 to $400 you could buy more than two planes. They may not be LN but will be very seviceable and useful planes. That way you could actually end up not having to make as many tough choices. There is nor reason you can't buy a really nice jack plane for $50. Also a scrub plane can be had for less than $100 and it doesn't matter what brand it is. I see them all of the time in the $70 range for a Stanley #40. Thats $120 total now. With that in mind you could buy a nice #4 for $40 - $60 and still have money left over possibly for a shoulder plane a nice beader, spokeshaves, etc., etc. Most of the planes I use are Old Stanley planes and they do a great job. Don't let anyone tell you that you need a LN plane. Are they nice, absolutely, I have a few of my own. But my everyday working, 3, 4, 4 1/2, 5, 6, 7, and most others are Stanley and they work wonderfully. I'm not saying the LN tools are not worth the money. In fact I just bought a set of their chisels and they are great. I also have the #164 and it is a great plane so don't discount them completely. But if I were on a budget and wanted to get a good set of working tools together I would go with the older models used and get more bang for my buck.

Get you LN planes later when you have soem extra cash to spend but get your woodworking needs taken care of now. You will always have time to upgrade. Most of us do it continually and it is part of the fun.

Dave

Re: Which plane next?

Adam Cherubini, NJ

>Hi Marcus,

From your post I got the impression you weren't interested in roughing planes. I suspect you have a power planer for roughing, so you may not wish to use a scrub plane at present.

I'm thinking you want to be able to remove cup from a wide board, or a glue-up perhaps? Traditionally, only two planes were used for this and you already have one of them!

Get yourself a spare blade for your #7 and grind a gentle curve on the edge like a smoother, but more curved. Use that plane (traditionally called a try plane) to flatten broad surfaces. Work across the grain at a 45 degree angle. The size of the plane's mouth won't much matter then.

The other plane you need is a short smoothing plane. Folks here like low angle planes with high angled bezels, or any plane with a high pitch. You could try using your block plane, but I recommend leaving it as it is and purchasing a dedicated smooth plane. LV has a nice one, as does LN. You need a tight mouth and a high angle if possible. Don't get a plane that's too long. Otherwise any plane will work. Maybe this is time to try out a wooden plane. One of our friends here (Steve Knight) makes very fine wooden planes at very reasonable prices. Wooden planes can be every bit as good or better than metal planes. They also have a different feel, which I like. But I don't like using them to rip off yellow glue drips. So if that's what you have in mind, stick with a metal plane!

Good Luck!

Adam

Re: Which plane next?

Dave Thompson

>Over the past two years, I think I've hand surface jointed about 300bf. That was partly for the exercise, but also because until recently I only had a 6" power jointer. I'd say about 95% of that was done with a 1940's vintage Stanley #5 that I bought for $15. The other 5% was with an LN#5 and/or LN#5 1/2wHAF used only on very highly figured wood. Used #5's are so common, that they're probably the best bargain on the market.

If you do much tenon joinery, I would recommend a shoulder plane (after the #5). I haven't found anything that works quite as well for sizing tenons. The LN shoulder plane is a good deal when compared to an equivalent Preston or Clifton.

Re: Which plane next? *LINK*

Jonathan Peck - N.Y.

>I recently asked myself the same question for the same reason. I just placed an order for this plane and have not tried it out yet. It's a wooden jack plane that comes with two blades, one straight and one cambered. Crown calls it a jack scrub and it costs $150-. I'm not sure what I'll use the straight blade for yet, but I wanted a longer plane with a cambered iron for removing cup/twist on wider boards. I am also starting to favor wooden planes over their cast iron counterparts. Maker's like Crown, Knight and Clark & Williams, just to name a few, shouldn't be overlooked. My Knight jointer and jack plane are just a pleasure to use, and I find myself making reasons to use them. They both have a tight mouth and are set for a fine cut, and leave a finish that looks and feels like it's been smoothed.

I won't give any smoother advice ever again. I do not now, or have I ever cared what the ultimate smoother is, and I find that all the planes I have leave a surface that's smooth enough for me. What I do recomend is a scraper plane. I don't have any sucess with a hand held scraper, so I like a scraper plane.

Now that I'm done with my rant, the LA jack might suit your needs. It's a versatile plane that will do alot of things. I like the concept of the bevel up plane cutting angle being the sum of the bed and bevel angles. Aesthetically, it does not give me as much pleasure to use as my vintage Stanley's, Spier's, or a woodie by a modern maker, but then again...the slope is very slippery. Enjoy!!




Crown Plane Co.

Re: Which plane next?

Ernie Miller Topeka

>It looks like the slope is as wide as it is steep after reading you post. Many planes that can do the same thing and all take you down the slope

I second Dave's comments

Dave Anderson Chester,NH

>There's a lot to be said for deveoping a full arsenal of tools by careful purchase of used stuff. Careful in this context meaning tools in good condition or easily cleaned up and equally importantly of sound design and construction. As an example of tools to avoid, would be the whole Kunz offering in their yucky red/green, Modern Buck Brothers stuff from HD, and most Stanley tools after about 1960. This leaves you tons of reat choices from a lot of different makers.

Crown Plane

Don Thompson, Cutler Ridge, South of Miami FL

>Please do post your thoughts about the Crown plane after you receive it and use it a bit.

Thanks.

P.S. Do I understand you correctly that you like a jack plane with a very tight mouth?

Rob Cosman's Choices:

Don Thompson, Cutler Ridge, South of Miami FL

>I'd like to flatten pieces that are too wide for my jointer. I'd also like to achieve very smooth surfaces. I own a jointer plane (Stanley #7) and a block plane (LN adj. mouth). I can afford to purchase one nice plane (>$250) and one decent plane (<$100).

I just saw Rob Cosman's new DVD Rough to Ready, which covers flattening, thicknessing, squaring-up and smoothing a board. He does it all with a scrub plane, a #8 bench plane, and a 4-1/2 bench plane and a #9 miter plane (all LN, of course). But, he shows that one can use the jointer just as well with the miter board for squaring the ends of the board.

Now, you already have a #7, which should do as a substitute for the #8. You can get a LN 40-1/2 for $135 postpaid from the Fine Tool Journal folks. That leaves $215 in your budget. For $180.50 + shipping you can get a Veritas Low-angle Smoother, plus a spare high-angle blade (LA smoothers with high-angle blades are said to be the Bee's Knees nowadays).

Voila! You are all set.

ECE scrub

Jack Guzman from Maine

>You can get a decent scrub plane from ECE for pretty cheap money($50-$60).It is a well made very easy to use tool. A scrub doesn't need to be fancy.That will leave you lots left over for other planes.---Jack

Re: Which plane next?

Greg Sloop

>Let me hop in a sec...

I've got the LN62 and like it. When I want to hog off stuff for removing cup/twist, I use the toothed blade. This is esp. helpful in wild grain situations - like some QS Sycamore I did a while back. Trying to take a lot with even the 45 deg cut would tend to create some deep gouges that took a lot of fine work to remove. Doing it with the toothed helped keep the massive tearout down so I could hog off a lot and still keep the clean-up time down.

The LV 62.5 sounds very nice as it reportedly has a longer nose and that makes smaller/shorter boards a charm. This is probably the only beef I've got with my 62 (jack). It may be my ability, but it does irritate me even though I can overcome the problems - it's just annoying sometimes.

But, I don't think that LV is doing it with a toothed blade, so if you want that, it's out.

Personally, I can live with only the longer jack. A smoother would be nice, but if you're willing to flatten things more, always a good thing, you can get them just as smooth with the jack. You could do the same with the #7, but it would have to be really really flat! *grin* (Short boards would be really fun eh?)

I've used the LN164 and like it, but if I had to pick betwixt the two, I'd probably pick the 62. More versitile for what I want.

I don't know how LV would feel about this, but I'd get the 62.5 from them and see how you like it. If it's up to par, you saved some cash, and if not, return it. With this tack, you could get both the LV 62.5 and the LN 164!

Best of luck,

Greg

Re: Which plane next?

Robert Weber

>Hey, Greg,

How exactly does a toothed blade work? I assume it's like a normal plane blade but with some sort of serrations at the cutting edge. Does it leave a surface that looks like a plowed field? Obviously you are having success with it or you would not be using it.

Thanks for the info.

Rob in Peoria

www.geocities.com/momentsoffaith2004

Re: Which plane next? *LINK*

Greg Sloop

>Does it leave a surface that looks like a plowed field?

What a nice description... *grin*

Yes, though it must be the "really tiny people, with really tiny plows.."

I think the proper procedure is to plane at 45 deg to the grain and then swap going 90 deg to the first pass. I don't actually often do this, but it does work. The real end result is that it looks like a rough sawn board as all the "plow" lines get jumbled up. It's then pretty easy and quick to clean it all up with a regular high angle blade.

In really hard wood etc, having a toothed blade just makes it easier to push and easier on hard grain wood.

LN has a page on them...

Cheers,

Greg


LN Toothed blade page...