Which LN plane?

[Matt Stiegler]

I'm not seeing a sale. Is this maybe a local sale?

Joe, see this thread in the deals section here.

[Doug Shepard]

I appreciate everyone's feedback so far. Finding the LA jack suggestion persuasive, with an extra blade I think.

Good choice I forgot to mention, that you can lay this one on it's side for use with a shooting board too. Very handy.

[Phillip Pattee]

Boggs spokeshave. Every handtool woodworker can use a good spokeshave.

[David Keller NC]

Matt - from the standpoint of complementing your power tools, you will have to consider whether you wish to build bigger projects that will include boards wider than your machines will accept, or glued-up panels that are wider than your machines will accept.

If that is the case, you will want to process boards by hand, or flatten glued-up panels by hand. In this instance, you need a fore or roughing plane, and a jointer. For show surface boards, add a smoother. A fore or roughing plane is simply a medium-length plane with a heavy camber (curve) to the cutting edge and an open mouth. There are lots of options for this, from the low priced end of a wooden fore plane found at a flea market or e-bay, to a relatively high priced option of a L-N #6. A jack (#5 or #5-1/2) can also serve this purpose. This is, however, one application for which a low-angle BU plane is not well suited because of the heavy camber requirement, clearance angle under the blade, and length of the blade that's unsupported.

The jointer is, of course, a longer and more finely-set plane for removing thinner shavings off of the face of the board or panel after the foreplane has roughly leveled it. This one could be a BU or a BD, your preference. In LN, the #7 will accomodate a high angle frog to better deal with highly figured grain, if a BD is your preference.

[Matt Stiegler]

I think I"m going to go for the LN LA jack. That will give me a block, a 4 1/2 smoother, and a jack. I'm going to pick up a used Stanley #7, too. Down the road, I'm going to pick up a LV shoulder plane and, as David suggests, a fore if I start wanting to take on larger projects. And probably some spokeshaves, a router plane, handsaws, and all the rest.

Sound reasonable? (Then after that I'll lose my mind entirely and buy another 23 planes and spend every waking moment scouring ebay and flea markets ...)

Again, thanks everyone for your insightful and patient guidance for a newbie.

[David Colafranceschi]

Buy a #8. I love mine and use it for everything especially in a shooting board application.

[Richard Niemiec]

Matt: Since you got the #7 from me ... ... which I used to finance a LN #140 .... ... (drive by gloat on my purchase), what I would seriously suggest to you is to get a LN large router plane, very useful to size tenons, clean out dados, and many other uses; another very useful, at least to me, plane is the LN low angle rabbeting block, Sargent made one a long time ago and they are hard to find in the wild. An alternative is a scraper plane, once you have experienced using a scraper to finish off work you'll never go back to sandpaper.

There are many, many ways to spend money on planes......

PS: You'll like the #7.

Rich

[David Keller NC]

I think I"m going to go for the LN LA jack. That will give me a block, a 4 1/2 smoother, and a jack. I'm going to pick up a used Stanley #7, too. Down the road, I'm going to pick up a LV shoulder plane and, as David suggests, a fore if I start wanting to take on larger projects. And probably some spokeshaves, a router plane, handsaws, and all the rest.

Sound reasonable? (Then after that I'll lose my mind entirely and buy another 23 planes and spend every waking moment scouring ebay and flea markets ...)

Again, thanks everyone for your insightful and patient guidance for a newbie.

One comment - if you're going to buy the LN LA jack, you may wish to pick up a plane hammer. A "plane hammer" is simply a hammer with a brass face (the other face is usually a wood block). What you want this for is adjusting the lateral position of the blade - the LN design does not have a lateral adjuster. While it is possible to adjust the lateral position of the blade with one's fingers, then tighten down the lever cap, it is considerably easier and more precise with a small brass hammer.

And yeah - 23 planes is a relatively small number for those of us that work most projects exclusively with hand tools, but most of those 23 planes are joinery planes, not surfacing (bench) planes. In my case, I've approximately 250, but all but about 30 of those are wooden molding and joinery planes.

[Cliff Polubinsky]

I'd get a 7 or a low angle jack. Either these will come in really handy even for a power tool guy to do stuff like fit drawers and doors and clean off machine marks before edge jointing, etc.

Another vote for the LA Jack. With a straight ground blade it's good for shooting. With a cambered blade it's good for flattening. And with a cambered blade ground to a higher bevel it good for eliminating tear-out on nasty grained wood.

Cliff

[Matt Stiegler]

(Then after that I'll lose my mind entirely and buy another 23 planes and spend every waking moment scouring ebay and flea markets ...)

Just to be clear, my only intent there was self-ridicule at the notion that I need 23 planes. I am aware that there are lots of folks here who in perfect sanity have and use a goodly number of planes.

[Joe Close]

Thanks for the "Sale" tip. I'm adding a Skewed Block Plane to the stable. I even called them and got free shipping to boot!