Which plane to buy?

Re: Which plane to buy?

Dan Clermont in Burnaby

>Hi Ken,

I own the LN #62 with two blades and it is a wonderful plane which I use for smoothing, jointing and shooting. It is a great multi-purpose plane.

I also own the LN 5 1/2 york pitch which I picked over the 4 1/2 as our Canadian LN rep (Rob Cosman)said it is the plane which should take care of most hardwoods without tearing out cause it has more heft. I also got the york pitch blade. This plane will go through anything and leaves a nice polished surface when it is done.

If you see yourself only buying one or two planes in your lifetime get the Low angle jack. If you want to have dedicated planes for dedicated tasks get the LN 4 1/2 or the 5 1/2

Dan Clermont

Re: Which plane to buy?

ray k

>I'm a long time lurker on this side of woodcentral and have just a beginner's view on hand tools. But after three years of dabbling with LN planes, I'd have to agree that a low angle jack or smoother is a versatile tool. The adjustable mouth and low angle really work well with lots of woods. Plus, I just tested out a trick I learned from one of the guys at the LN showroom in Maine--honing a 38 degree secondary bevel on my low angle smoother effectively makes my plane cut at a 50 degree angle (12 degree bedding angle + 38 degree secondary bevel). It took me a second to understand how that works, but I tested this out on some beautifully quilted maple and no tearout at all! I was also told that if you have a regular bench plane 4, 4 1/2, etc (not low angle), this trick of setting a very high secondary bevel won't work and you'll have to purchase a york pitch frog (an additional $75).

Good luck.

Re: Which plane to buy?

Joe Rogers, Northern Virginia

>You can add a back bevel to the blade of a bevel down plane blade. The effective angle becomes the bedding angle plus the back bevel that was added to the back of the blade. Just sort of ruins the work of polishing and flattening the blade back though.JR