Damn right
James Watriss
>I've spent the last year and a half at school buying planes off of ebay, tuning them up, and using, using, using them. God Bless North Bennet.
My personal notes on it all are like this:
-Steel. Blade steel is what makes the cut. The rest of the plane is there to hold the iron. If you are insistent on old steel, look for hte stanley sweetheart blades. They're the best thing I've found shy of hock high carbon. Then comes A2. Then comes S53. A2 is more than enough, S53 is wonderful, but expensive and harder to sharpen. The thicker the blade the better, and YES, the new chipbreakers from L-N and Hock do make a world of difference. Don't buy the thicker L-N A2 blades for an old plane, you get a lot of backlash.
-Planes. There are a lot of old stanleys out there. I would recommend the sweetheart vintage, there are a lot of 3's and 4's to be found for short money on ebay. Failing that, just look for a frog that has a smooth face, as opposed to more recent ones that were relieved. Also, buy the first Charlesworth book, and do everything he tells you to whenit comes to tuning hand planes. I have an old sweetheart #4 with a replacement hock iron in it. It works just as well as my L-N, for $200 less, and some time and effort.
My personal favorites out of my old planes are the 3, 4, and 5 1/2. The three for miscellaneous small-plane work, the 4 for general smoothing, and the 5 1/2 for anything of a bigger size. I do have a #7. I had a #8. I never used the 8, so I sold it. I also have an old mathieson infill with a Holtey blade in it... it's very, very quirky. But now that we're more intimately aquainted, I really love the thing.
If I had to make a recommendation for new planes, I'd recommend the bevel up stuff, from either company, and if you're looking for a smoother, take a serious look at the high-angle frogs from Lie-Nielsen. They're one of the few features of the new planes that I haven't seen on the old planes, and for that reason alone, I think they're worth it.
Planes I've tried:
-3, 3c. I love this size of plane, it fits my hand very nicely. I very much favor the sweet-heart vintage. I had a more recent 3c, it doesn't work as well.
-4, 4c, Bedrock 4c, L-N high angle 4c. Love them all. The high angle does make a difference, though, and is definately noteworthy, but that said, the other ones work very nicely.
-4 1/2. One was a wwII vintage, one's a low-knob 4 1/2c
-5 1/2c. (old style, with a 2 1/4" blade, instead of the 2 3/8 that the 4 1/2, 6, and 7 used.)
-Veritas 6, briefly. It still need a little bit of flattening side to side, and I never got around to getting that done. I think it's very well put together, but the arch in the middle flexes when the blade engages, and when the sole flattens out, the blade really digs into the wood. It's been in my basement for almost 2 years now, in the box, unflattened.
-L-N low angle Jack. yes, this thing is a workhorse. But it's a horse that's been beaten to death on this forum, so I'll leave that to the others to bounce around. No, North Bennet doesn't like or approve of htis plane, and I've had to defend it a few times as a result. Don't care, it works for me.
-I've also tried a few wooden planes. I started out by tuning up a transitional plane once upon a time, and while it does have some issues, I think these planes do have some potential. A year ago I put up a posting that got people begging for an article, and I'm still working on that, becuase my wooden-plane building has put it off, and given me some new insights. Hopefully I'll get it done sometime soon. But it will now be a two-part article. One on tuning up old while retaining the original beech block, and one on making a new block. I've also had the joy of using a Clark and Williams coffin smoother at a molding plane workshop given by Larry Williams at school. I took a two-day wooden plane making course at my local woodcraft store, taught by a Doctor whose name I really must remember... he's a friend of Karl Holtey's, and is very knowledgable about planes. And I've made a few attempts at chopping out solid-body wooden smoothers myself. For some reason the Krenov planes look marvelous to me, but also look a bit simple to really grab my interest. Dollars to Donuts, I'd bet that I'm making a silly assumption... I'm sure there's much more to them than meets the eye, and I plan on building one sometime soon.
If you've never, ever bought a plane before, and you have access to a good class or workshop, I'd recommend buying an old Stanley and tuning it up. It's not as hard as it sounds. If you're more interested in just buying a working plane, go for L-N or Veritas, but keep your eyes peeled for older planes, too, and don't be afraid to learn more about them as you use them.
