LV Cabinet Makers Trim Plane vs. LN Chisel Plane

[Richard Shaefer]

A while back I had a Sargent rabbeting block plane that broke (like they all do) and I initially thought to throw it away, but it used it once on a lark to clean off glue and scrob out the corner of a stopped rabbet. I eventually gave it away to someone who wanted the blade and adjuster parts. I missed that plane, so I made a new one out of some Sapele scrap, a $3 Buck Bros. replacement blade from Home Depot, and an old brass door knob for a handle. It's a useful plane, but given how easy they are to cobble together and the limited applications in which they can be used, I understand how they wouldn't be big sellers in the retail market.

[Jim Koepke]

Karl,

Thanks for the comparison and the write up.

This will certainly be a help to anyone pondering the purchase of one of these.

jtk

[Chris Fournier]

I use a chisel. Chisel planes are not on my list of must haves by any measure. If I was given one...

[george wilson]

I used a boxwood chisel plane I made when planing the sides of harpsichord keys. The regular type chariot plane would plane up to a short distance to the head of a key. The chisel plane would do the rest of the way. Needless to say,if a chisel plane is not adjusted just right,it will dive like a submarine,or slip up out of the cut. My plane was not very sophisticated. Another tool I left at the shop. I must go there and do a roundup some day. They were supposed to replace my tools,but never did.

[John T Barker]

Patrick Leach said that it was originally marketed to cabinetmakers and piano makers. I can understand piano makers wants maybe a little better, because the inside of a piano needs to look better, especially if it's intended to be displayed, than does most inside cabinet work.

I almost bought one when I first started because I had a tendency toward the rare, unique and expensive. And it seemed like it would be the ideal tool for cleaning up a glue line. Thinking back on it, I can now envision that it might lift hard drops of glue and pull wood up with them.

I think the #97 has use for cabinet and piano makers because of it's ability to be used in tight spaces and get close to corners, as the Stanley catalog mentions. I'd hazard a guess that only piano makers and well trained musicians would know what the appearance of the guts of a Steinway would be.

I usually use a small cranked neck chisel for clean up of glue. Since glue abuses the hell out of an edged tool it is a good idea to pare it off when it has dried firm but not hard. Never had it pull up wood that way.

[Tony Zaffuto]

I have a LN chisel plane (small one), mainly because for a number of years, for every gift giving holiday, my wife would go into my shop, look over the LN tools she could recognize and when she saw what I didn't have, that is what I would get. Far better than shirts, shoes and similar stuff like that I would not wear! For this past Father's Day, since the last time we were at a flea market together I was looking for a 3/4" dado plane, she came up with a virtually unused Stanley #39 in that size (I did not dare say I was looking for a woodie).

As to the chisel plane, it is a tool I rarely use, as my previous methods still serve me well. I have better control with a wrestling with a paring chisel, but the LN remains in the cabinet just in case! I did follow a suggestion in this thread to put a convex bevel on the blade and I will try that out for the next trimming task.

I suppose this is a good time to mention that though I have many, many tools (as most here probably do), the ones I use all the time do not number very high - same #7 jointer, same #3 smoother, same block planes (LN 102 and Stanley 65), same chisels, same saws. Funny thing is, most are also vintage.