Help me spend $150

[Archie England]

Have you considered awls, marking knives, combination squares, etc.?

Old style marking gauges, especially with cutters, are tremendous for setting up dovetail cutting lines, along with establishing saw to lines for tenons. A bird cage awl (see Czech tools) is a great investment, as is just the awl. Along that line, I also like to use a spring loaded punch for marking wood and metal.

Do get a good, dedicated marking knife (Czech Tools, Blue Spruce, LV, etc.), too. I use mine all the time. Of course, I made my first two from jigsaw blades. I'll soon buy one of these better ones (mine have too much flex).

Just some other, smaller priced suggestions,

Arch

[Chris Griggs]

Hi Arch,

I have a good Pfeil marking knife, a Veritas marking gauge, and a couple of good squares. I agree, very important tools; I use all of the above all the time. Wouldn't be able to do dovetails without this stuff.

Have you considered awls, marking knives, combination squares, etc.?

Old style marking gauges, especially with cutters, are tremendous for setting up dovetail cutting lines, along with establishing saw to lines for tenons. A bird cage awl (see Czech tools) is a great investment, as is just the awl. Along that line, I also like to use a spring loaded punch for marking wood and metal.

Do get a good, dedicated marking knife (Czech Tools, Blue Spruce, LV, etc.), too. I use mine all the time. Of course, I made my first two from jigsaw blades. I'll soon buy one of these better ones (mine have too much flex).

Just some other, smaller priced suggestions,

Arch

[Graham Hughes (CA)]

Yup. Sometimes you can use the knife edge from a marking gauge (and reapplying it periodically) to avoid the kerf issue. Adam Cherubini did a bit on that at WIA last year that included some startlingly aggressive chisel work; I believe it is at http://sandal-woodsblog.com/2010/01/...dam-cherubini/ at around the 23:10 mark. Adam uses a plow as a marking gauge (something else you can do with the LV router plane, since it has the fence, although it's not quite as useful as the real thing) but a marking gauge will do just as well.

[Eric Brown]

You might want to try making your own router plane (see JR Strasil posts) but I would also recommend a good quality LABP. The Stanley 60 1/2 can work well if tuned up. If you look at old ones look closely for cracks at the back of the mouth. I've never heard of either LV or LN version cracking but both companies would fix it for free if it happened.

One option I would strongly consider is the new LV skewed block plane. It's like the Stanley #140 but really beefed up. (No side plate to lose!)

Books are tools too.

Enjoy.

Eric

[Chris Griggs]

Smart move. I have a POS Stanley (UK) and I'm on the second set of cutters. If I bought a new one it would be the LV I think. They hit a home run with that plane.

Once I get it and learn how to use it I'll let you know what I think. First, task will be to plow a groove for the back panel of the small cabinet I'm working on. Not the ideal task for this plane I know, but it will be interesting to see how difficult or easily it accomplishes it. I read Derek Cohen's review this plane and it was very informative about how to use the plane for a variety of tasks. In his review he used it to plow a stopped groove and it seemed to function quite well at this task. Of course, if I'm really feeling confident I'll try hanging the shelf in the cabinet with a sliding dovetail, but given that I don't have a dovetail plane or dedicated rabbet plane I'll probably hold off on this task. I'm not sure how easily the sliding tail can be cut without one of the tools, and I'm not very confident in my ability to do it just with chisels and a back saw. Still I'll definitely try my hand at a sliding DT on some scrap to see how it goes.

[Jim Koepke]

Hopefully the router plane will find a lot of use in my shop. It will certainly help me to do things by hand that I haven't yet been able to do with out my tailed router. And if nothing else it will be valuable for precise fitting/trimming. Jim, I know your right about block planes being very useful. I'll probably still order a premium one in the future, but right now I'm quite excited about the No 18 knuckle joint that David W in sending me.

The #18 is a good user plane. I sold mine a few months ago. It is a standard angled block plane, 45°. If you enjoy using the #18 you will really love a low angle block plane. For my case, small bench planes seem more comfortable and get more use than standard angle block planes.

Kind of interesting that LV now has a block plane to bench plane adaptation. Where in my case it is kind of a bench plane to block plane adaptation.

If you can, try to handle and use some of the block planes before you commit to buy. In my accumulation are a #65 and a #65-1/2. They are basically the same plane except one has a knuckle cap and one has a lever cap. I like the feel of the lever cap better in my hand. One thing I like about the knuckle cap is it is easier when I want to change the cutting depth. The #60-1/2 is a smaller plane and is sometimes more convenient for its size.

No matter how well or poorly a tool works for me does not mean you will have the same results.

Even if you do buy them all it is hard to always pick one over the other.

jim

[Deane Allinson]

60 1/2 is my go to for most everything. It even sharpens pencils. End grains mostly but it eases edges, chamfers, etc. I picked up an English Stanley up in the early 80's because it was recomended for solid surface material. I haven't worked with solid surface in years but it is still my cheapest and most used plane. It was very well made. Get a cheaper low angle and spend the saved money on a high end tool of you choice.
Deane