Est. 1998 — 27 years of woodworking knowledge
Wooden planes
John Hoffman
>Hi, I want to buy a wooden plane 16 to 22 inches long and saw a number of them on ebay. Most of the sellers are not woodworkers and couldn't answer questions like does the plane take shavings?
Anyone have advice they would share on where to get a wooden plane and what to look for?
Thanks
JH
Re: Wooden planes
Jerry Nicholson
>Having purchased a few wooden planes on e-bay, I would say you have about a 25% chance of getting something that is actually useable. You are right - most of the sellers are not knowledgable or at least don't want you to know they are.
The wood is often split and warped, totes are typically broken or have been repaired, and the iron is usually rusty, chipped, and misground. Many of the irons have been whopped with a steel hammer and are mushroomed on the end. With work, all these problems can be overcome.
Jerry
Re: Wooden planes
R.J.Whelan
>John ... you can't go wrong with Clark and Williams (www.planemakers.com).
The planes aren't inexpensive, but once you see the quality and do a little research on how these are built you won't begrudge them their reasonable profit. I've had my coffin bodied smoother for 6-7 years and it is still the last tool to touch any hardwood surface upon which I am working ..... rj
Re: Wooden planes
Paul in NJ
>I see a lot of wooden planes that size at flea markets. They come in all types of condition. As long as the stock is sound, it does not matter if it has minor checks or the mouth is large. You can patch a mouth to close it, buy an extra junker for wood. The important thing is that the wedge abutments are in good shape and not split out. You can make a new wedge or handle but why settle for ones that are damaged; there are plenty of planes in better shape. Lastly you want a usable blade and chip breaker. The blade should not have severe pitting and it should have some sharpenable length to it.
Most used planes are a kit to some degree and jack, fore, and try planes are good place to wet your feet. I think you will like the steel in the old laminated blades and the slickness of the wooden sole. Take the plunge you will not regret it.
Paul Dzioba
Patrick Leach
Ed Mulligan, Cape Cod
>Mr. Leach sells wooden planes. Send him an email describing what you're looking for. His website is at supertool.com.
Ed
they are very easy to make
bill tindall
>Get Finck's book, follow detailed instructions and you will in a short time have a successful plane. Best of all you can make a variety for various purposes- short, long, low angle, high angle, normal angle etc- and swap irons among them resulting in a very low cost collection of useful planes.
Steve Knight
Jack Guzman from Maine
>If you decide to go new,check out Steve Knight's website. He makes nice planes.---Jack
Ditto
Steve Kubien
>I am a real fan of Steve's work.
Thomas Bruce, the user's favorite *LINK*
Christopher Schwarz
>Check out Thomas Bruce's website. He has four jack/try planes on the site for peanuts right now. Thomas never ever lets me down. Good user stuff that always exceeds my expectations at a fair price.
Check it out.
Re: Thomas Bruce, the user's favorite
mikew
>Amen...one of the best people with which to do biz with.
Mike
Re: Wooden planes
Todd Hughes
>Even in the old tool hell i live in wooden planes like this are very common at flea markets and auctions,. Often they are firewood but I see a good many that would make good users with out too much work. Sometimes you see them priced high in antique stores but wouldn't be to hard to get a nice one for $5 - $15 I wouldn't think.I pass on lots because I buy tools to sell mostly and just not much of a demand for antique wood planes like this and they don't go for enough to make it worth my time.
.......I buy lots of tools and had to smile at your asking sellers if the plane takes shavings. If I had to confine myself to buying stuff off people that actually used it [or even knew what it was] I would probably have to confine myself to buying used CDs !
.......Look for cracks, splits, wood rot, insect damage and signs of excessive wear. Wide mouths from excessive wear or from being opened up can be patched but extra work. On a plane this size I don't know how important a real tight mouth is anyway. I would think if you ask most ebay sellers about these things , instead of it the plane makes shavings, you should be able to weed out the junk. While not always the case but clean bright wood planes are useually in good condition, dried out, dull and dirty ones are normaly firewood. Same with planes that are lower in the front or too "thin" both signs of excessive wear and to be avoided. ...Todd
Re: perfect answer
paul womack
>
And don't forget HNT Gordon. *LINK*
Derek Cohen (in Perth Australia)
>
HNT GORDON PLANES
Re: they are very easy to make
ThomD
>Frink's book is cool, but this is all you need to know for starters:
http://www.crfinefurniture.com/1pages/sitelinks/howplane.html
Just build the basics, and then apply the tune you like, for instance I do some Japanese things to this type of plane to give it longevity and better performance.
Make everything clean, and put in a good blade, and there isn't anything similar you can buy that is better than what you can make. You have to settle the details in use whether you buy them or build them.