Best bang for buck

[Bill Schmitz]

As a relatively new woodworker (making simple furniture), I'm looking to add to my tool collection with some hand planes, but I'm having trouble deciding how to spend my money. I would like to keep my purchase under $150.

My initial investigative foray into this world of hand planes seems unbelievably confusing (far more so than buying power tools, frankly).

It seems that one option is to start with a single, good, high-end plane, i.e. Lie-Nielsen or Veritas. And, if so, what would be the first one you would recommend? Low angle block plane? Standard block plane? Jack plane? Smooth plane? Note: I already have a Grizzly 6 inch jointer.

Or, alternatively, I could get a less expensive set of planes. I found a set of four planes (low angle, standard block, bench and jack plane) from Footprints Tools for $129 at Sears. I have no idea how well made these are, but the price is certainly right . . .

Opinions? Ideas?

Thanks in advance,
Bill

[Justin Cavender]

When buying tools you get what you pay for. I have gotten quite a collection of older pre WWII stanley planes, But I just recently got a veritas bevel up smoother and it is head and shoulders above any of my stanley planes.

[Tim Put]

Most people will recommend either vintage planes (mostly Stanley) or a new high end plane, like a Veritas block plane (not a bad choice at all). Most new inexpensive planes are absolute junk.

I'd recommend Mujingfang wooden planes, they preform incredibly well, have the best blades money can buy, and are far less expensive than good modern iron planes. You can get them from Lee Valley and Japan Woodworker.

[Tony Zaffuto]

What are you going to use the plane for? You have a jointer, do you also have a planer? Do you buy your stock already surfaced or do you need to go from rought to finish?

Maybe something like a good block plane and maybe a LV low angle jack. A block plane is useful for all kinds of tweaks. The LV LAJ can do duty as a smoother, as well as a jack, etc.

T.Z.

[Jacob Mac]

Here is my opinion, not that it is worth much. I am new to hand planes as well. And I decided to buy three old planes from brass city toolworks and one relatively new plane. Here is my experience:

The firts two planes I bought from brasscity have been pretty nice. They work as advertised and I have no complaints. I also bought a #7 from there that has been nothing but trouble. Bad parts, wrong parts, etc. But to brasscity's credit, Walt has been exceedingly helpful and responsive. And I have no doubt he will resolve the problems and I will get it working.

I also bought a relatively new plane from a fellow creeker that had been tuned. It is a fairly new Stanley. It does not work well at all. I showed it to someone else here on the forum, and he concluded it is not salvageable. So basically I wasted $50 buying a plane that I can't resell in good conscience.

So basically, I am batting 500 with used planes. My advice would be to take into consideration how much you like messing around with tools, and how much you just want to use the plane. With handplanes, you need to learn how to sharpen, tune the plane, and then use the plane. So the question you need to ask yourself is how much time you want to spend tuning old planes.

Obviously there really isn't a right answer. What matters is your time, money, expectations and what you like working on: tools or wood. For me, I am going to keep the two old planes that work, and replace the two clunkers, with brand new LV planes. But that is just what I want to do.

[Bill Schmitz]

What are you going to use the plane for? You have a jointer, do you also have a planer? Do you buy your stock already surfaced or do you need to go from rought to finish?

Maybe something like a good block plane and maybe a LV low angle jack. A block plane is useful for all kinds of tweaks. The LV LAJ can do duty as a smoother, as well as a jack, etc.

T.Z.

What am I going to use the plane for? Hmmm, isn't that the question. . . I'm exposed already!! Well, I do not have a planer, and I do buy my stock already surfaced, usually S3, so . . .

I am planning on working on a coffee table as one of my first "bigger" projects. So, I need a good tool to handle the jointing and planing necessary to make a nice panel for the top. I've noticed my Grizzly jointer does an adequate job in getting me a basic square face, but there's always some snipe, and still doesn't seem like a perfectly glue-ready surface. Also, once the panel is glued up, it seems I'll need something to get the panel flat.

So is there one tool you would recommend?

Bill

[Barry Rowland]

I know it's over your 150.00 budget. But I looking back, I would buy the
LV Bevel Up Jack. It is 70.00 more than your budget, but it is a very versatile plane. And an excellent one to get you started. Once you learn how to sharpen and then hone the blade for touching it up between sharpenings,
you will be able to do everything from light roughing out, shooting, jointing and even smoothing, with the correct blade camber and mouth settings.

I have all 3 BU planes from LV and only bring out the jointer for long boards
and flattening large panels. And the smoother comes out for things like striped mahogany, and birdseye or curly maple, which are difficult to tame the tear out.

I first bought a cheapy reworked stanley off ebay and it was really more trouble than it was worth. When I got my first LV plane I realised the error of my ways! Two different worlds or ease of use and maintenance. I almost quit trying hand planing because of that first plane!

[Casey Gooding]

As stated before, early Stanley planes with replacement irons (Hock or Lie-Nielsen) offer your biggest bang. They take more work setting up than new premium planes, but can work pretty darn close to as well.
IMHO, the major difference is block planes. I think that the Lie-Nielsen or Lee Valley block planes are far superior to the early planes they are based on.

[Danny Thompson]

Sounds like you need a Jack Plane.

Generally considered the most versatile:

Veritas Low-angle Jack (aka, Lee Valley Low-angle Jack or Bevel-up Jack): currently $219
http://www.leevalley.com/wood/page.a...=1,41182,52515

[James Scheffler]

As a relatively new woodworker (making simple furniture), I'm looking to add to my tool collection with some hand planes, but I'm having trouble deciding how to spend my money. I would like to keep my purchase under $150.

My initial investigative foray into this world of hand planes seems unbelievably confusing (far more so than buying power tools, frankly).
Opinions? Ideas?

Thanks in advance,
Bill

You're starting out in the right direction, anyway. I don't understand how people, even hard-core machine woodworkers, actually do woodworking without at least one or two planes.

I have a few old Stanleys (No. 4, No. 5, No. 31 jointer, and No. 9 1/2), and I find that they all work well. All took some work to get them tuned up, though. You can buy "user" Stanleys for $40 +/-, so you could get three or more within your budget. I bought a Hock blade for my No. 4, and it's a workwhile upgrade, but the original Stanley blades are certainly servicable. I also bought a LV blade for my 1960s No. 9 1/2, and that was a big performance upgrade for that plane (much thicker than original blade).

I have a Stanley "contractor" grade plane that's just a few years old, and it really isn't made as well as the old ones. I don't think it can be tuned up to give equivalent performance.

I recommend to buy a No. 5 for the first one, which will allow you to accurately thickness stock. (you need a marking gauge too). That way, you can buy rough lumber instead of S3. Surfaced lumber is convenient, but it's common to get some warping after the wood is purchased and brought into your shop. If it's already 3/4", you'll have to take off more stock to true it up, and you'll end up with boards that are too skinny. Better to start off thicker than you need to avoid this problem.

The LV and LN small block planes are both $90 to $100, and they're very impressive. I recently played around with the LN low-angle block plane and it would be an upgrade from my 9 1/2. So you could get a LV or LN block plane and an old Stanley No. 5 within your budget, and that would be a great start.

I bought some of my old Stanleys here: www.workingtools.biz I've found his descriptions are right on, prices are fair, and shipping is swift.

Best of luck,
Jim

[Brian Kent]

Most people will recommend either vintage planes (mostly Stanley) or a new high end plane, like a Veritas block plane (not a bad choice at all). Most new inexpensive planes are absolute junk.

I'd recommend Mujingfang wooden planes, they preform incredibly well, have the best blades money can buy, and are far less expensive than good modern iron planes. You can get them from Lee Valley and Japan Woodworker.

Tim has a really good recommendation. The Mujingfang planes are the only inexpensive planes I have bought that were outstanding and beautiful go-to planes. Especially the Rosewood Jack and the High Angle Polish plane. (Smooth plane is fine, High angle Block plane is excellent and the rosewood rabbet plane was unusable).

If you are going used, I would recommend starting with one that is already tuned up. Then use that as a standard to get a couple more from e-bay and tune them up yourself.

Take away the price limit and I would recommend a Lee Valley Low Angle Jack and an adjustable mouth block plane from Lee Valley, Lie Nielsen, or old Stanley.

[Danny Thompson]

FYI, you can find the Mujingfang planes at Japan Woodworker. The Jack is currently $38:

http://japanwoodworker.com/product.a...&dept_id=13602

[David Keller NC]

"What am I going to use the plane for? Hmmm, isn't that the question. . . I'm exposed already!! Well, I do not have a planer, and I do buy my stock already surfaced, usually S3, so . . .

I am planning on working on a coffee table as one of my first "bigger" projects. So, I need a good tool to handle the jointing and planing necessary to make a nice panel for the top. I've noticed my Grizzly jointer does an adequate job in getting me a basic square face, but there's always some snipe, and still doesn't seem like a perfectly glue-ready surface. Also, once the panel is glued up, it seems I'll need something to get the panel flat.

So is there one tool you would recommend?"

In a word, no. Trying to do everything with one plane is likely to be a frustrating experience. Regardless of whether you buy your lumber as S2S or S4S, it's not going to stay flat long enough for you to get the joints cut and assembled into a piece of furniture without re-surfacing. The simple reason is that it's extremely unlikely that they're haven't been relative humidity changes since the mill surfaced the wood, and changes in RH mean changes in the wood's moisture content, which in turn generally means that the wood doesn't stay flat and square. This means that you will generally have to 4-square any wood that comes in your shop, S4S or rough. That can be done by powered means (a jointer, planer, a table saw, and sanders) or by hand tools.

At this point, I would suggest that you not buy any planes. If you're a total noob to this way of working and you're on a very tight budget, then your best bet is to find someone in your general area that uses handplanes on a regular basis, and buy the beer (or the lunch, or whatever) for an afternoon of demonstration in his shop. And yeah, $150 is really tight for even one new, moderately-priced plane that's worth having.

What that experience will do is help you resolve an important question - Do I really want to get the necessary handplanes to surface my stock from rough? If the answer after spending an afternoon with an experienced user is "yes", then you require 2 planes at an absolute, bare-bones minimum - a roughing plane, and a jointing plane. The roughing plane can be a jack, or it can be a fore plane. Typically, the jack is identified as a Stanley #5 (or a lee valley or Lie Nielsen equivalent), and the fore plane is a Stanely #6. This plane is set up with a pronounced curve on the iron and is used to hog off wood in a hurry. It's followed up by a jointer - either a #7 or a #8, which straightens out the humps and bumps and prepares the board for use in a project.

Typically, show surface boards are then prepared for final finishing with a smoothing plane - typically a #3, a #4 or a #4-1/2.

So, as you can see, a 2-plane kit is really an absolute minimum for prepping boards from rough to ready-to-use, and really a 3 plane kit is what most of us own at an absolute minimum.

The reason I say all of this is that you may be better off buying a powered planer, at least for now and until you gain a bit more furniture-making experience to decide if it's really something that will occupy most of your free time, or something that you'll get around to once every 6 months.

Generally speaking, getting set up with the bare minimum hand tools to effectively 4-square and smooth rough boards takes the 3 planes I mentioned above, a marking gauge, a panel gauge, a square, and a workbench (and by that I mean a real one - with a sturdy vise and a flat, thick top).

Your total investment here is going to be about $700 if you buy all used (antique) tools, used vises, and you make the bench yourself, or about $2000 if you buy new vises, new handplanes from reputable makers, and you build the bench yourself. If you buy everything, it's about $3500.

[Charles Shenk]

Maybe start with a new LV or LN adjustable mouth block plane and learn to get it really working. After a while, start looking for antique Stanleys numbers 4, 5 and 7. If you are patient, you can get the three antique bench planes for well under $100.00 at estate sales. No better way to learn about planes than to jump right in. The startup costs are minimal IMHO.

[James Owen]

As a relatively new woodworker (making simple furniture), I'm looking to add to my tool collection with some hand planes, but I'm having trouble deciding how to spend my money. I would like to keep my purchase under $150.

My initial investigative foray into this world of hand planes seems unbelievably confusing (far more so than buying power tools, frankly).

It seems that one option is to start with a single, good, high-end plane, i.e. Lie-Nielsen or Veritas. And, if so, what would be the first one you would recommend? Low angle block plane? Standard block plane? Jack plane? Smooth plane? Note: I already have a Grizzly 6 inch jointer.

Or, alternatively, I could get a less expensive set of planes. I found a set of four planes (low angle, standard block, bench and jack plane) from Footprints Tools for $129 at Sears. I have no idea how well made these are, but the price is certainly right . . .

Opinions? Ideas?

Thanks in advance,
Bill

Bill,

Before you spend any money on hand planes or other hand tools, try this book: Restoring, Tuning, and Using Classic Woodworking Tools by Mike Dunbar (A FWW contributor and the guy who revived Windsor Chair making back in the 70s).

This book tells you everything you need to know about reviving classic tools, including wooden and metal Bailey-style hand planes. It also has a good deal of information on testing them to make sure that they are properly tuned, and on effectively using them.
_____

On your other questions: it's my opinion that you should have one premium quality plane in your tool box, if for no other reason, to show you what "right" looks like. For (about) $150, my pick would be the LN low angle adjustable mouth block plane. With a larger budget, I would look at a Lie Nielsen #4-1/2 or #5-1/2.

If you decide to go with vintage planes, as others have mentioned, you need a roughing, a jointing, and a smoothing plane: a #5, #5-1/2, or #6 for the roughing plane; a #7 or #8 for your jointer; and a #3, #4, #4-1/2, or #5-1/2 for your smoothing plane (I like the #5-1/2 as a smoother because it serves as a much less expensive version of an infill panel plane....).

Tuning vintage planes that are in basically decent shape (i.e., not damaged and have all the proper parts) is not difficult and usually does not take that much time; for a moderate cost and time investment, you can frequently end up with a plane that delivers 85% to 95% of the performance of a premium plane on most woods that most people use for furniture building.
_____

Don't worry too much about getting all the "right" tools at the same time so you can build stuff. One of the great things about wood working is that there are usually several ways to get something done, depending on your tool set and skills.

For example, with an open mouth, a #5 can be used as a roughing plane to remove lots of wood quickly; hone up the iron a bit and close the mouth fairly tight, and you have a long smoother; open the mouth up a bit, and you have a short jointer. Neither of the two last uses are the ideal use for a #5 (which of course was originally designed as a roughing plane), and a #5 is certainly not the ideal plane to use for jointing or smoothing; nevertheless, it can be made to do a decent job of either, if it's the only plane you have.
_____

So, do some more research (check out Astragal Press and Cambium Books for lots of hand tool books); decide what you want to use your tools for -- that will guide you to the tools you need; buy tools as you need them for a project -- this will help prevent buying unnecessary tools that will collect dust; buy the best tools you can afford; have fun.