My First Plow Plane

[Cory Waldrop]

As I am currently on my journey to explore the realm of the neander, I decided it was time to pick up a plow plane. The most exotic specialty plane I have used so far is the router plane and shoulder plane. But lets be honest, once I got the bug up my butt, I wouldn't stop until I had the tool. Sound familiar?

So I contacted Patrick Leach for his wares and was promptly sending him money in exchange for a good conditioned complete Record 44. Yay......

A few days later it arrived and was packaged in the original "cardboard" box complete with the original dust. The dust was in mint condition and the plane was in pretty good condition too. It was what I expected from a nice user plane. The set came with the plane, fence, short rails, long rails, depth stop, and all 8 blades. The blades and rails had a bit of surface rust, but nothing a little elbow grease and abrasives couldn't fix. I also noticed someone performed some wonky sharpening of the bevels and they would need to be reset to the original bevel angles. A little internet research yielded a 35 degree angle so I grabbed my honing guide, diamond stone, and water stones and went to town.

Plane Parts as I received them:
Plow Plane Parts.jpg
Blades with a bit of surface rust:
Surface Rust.jpgOriginal Condition of Blades.jpg
Initial flattening of the backs (took about an hour for all 8 blades):
Flattening Backs.jpg
Final polish on backs and bevels (took about an hour and a half):
Bevels Polished.jpgBacks Polished.jpg
Polished up to 12,000 grit on shapton. Crappy Picture but you can see the reflection:
Phone Reflection Polished.jpg

It was a bit of work but very satisfying. These blades have a ton of life left and I wont have to do any bulk sharpening anymore unless I change bevel angles or have to grind out dings.

On a side note, Patrick was a joy to deal with and I will be giving him more business in the future. Now on to some tests......

[Cory Waldrop]

I decided to first try to see what I could accomplish with this plane cutting rabbets and dados across the grain. I knew this would not be ideal as this plane has no nickers, but I wanted to get a feel for it. I grabbed a couple boards of pine and walnut and on we go.

I used the board itself for the initial thickness gauge as seen below. Followed by a sharp knife and square to score the cross grain fibers.
Dado Layout 1.jpgDado Layout 2.jpg

The board was 5/8 thick so I loaded the plane with a 5/16 blade and set the fence to cut the stock closest to the end first. Then I reset the fence and cut to the line on my second pass.
Dado Cut 1.jpgDado Cut 2.jpg

The end result wasn't too bad. There were a few spots of tearout as you can see, but if this wasn't a critical rabbet, I would be content with the results. Afterall, this plane isn't supposed to excel at cross grain cuts.
Final Dado.jpg

Now to try a dado cross grain in walnut. YIKES! So first I grabbed the stock and marked on either side for thickness and transferred the lines with a square and knife. I then grabbed the appropriate blade and carefully set the fence and went to town. Well that went as I expected it would. The side with the skate did fairly well, but the side without didn't fair so well. Tearout city. Now I acknowledge that my technique isn't the best and I think my results will improve the more comfortable I get with using the plane. I also might have been slightly off with setting my fence. Ultimately it was a fun test.
Walnut Dado 1.jpgWalnut Dado 2.jpgWalnut Dado Finished.jpg

So I guess all that is left is to test what this plane was designed for. Plowing grooves with the grain. I set the fence and let-r-rip. It performed as advertised with a nice clean groove.

Overall, I am pleased with this plane and very pleased with my buying experience. If I decide to want to cut dados and cross grain rabbets, I will probably use a chisel and shoulder plane or even router plane. This plane might work well for hogging off duties. Heck I might even catch the bug again and go looking for a dado plane. Such is life. I did notice that it is super important to make sure the blade is lined up exactly with the edge of the skate. If it isn't, the wall of your groove will be sloped one way or another with each pass. I will have to practice more with this and improve my initial setup routine for best results.

Cheers,

Cory

[Chris Griggs]

That's a nice plane Cory. The cross grain results aren't surprising. As you pointed out, it has no nickers and is really intended for long grain use. If you plan to use it cross grain, you may be best off sawing out the dado walls first.

Very very nice though.

[Zach Dillinger]

That's a nice plane Cory. The cross grain results aren't surprising. As you pointed out, it has no nickers and is really intended for long grain use. If you plan to use it cross grain, you may be best off sawing out the dado walls first.

Very very nice though.

+1. I wouldn't try a plow for a dado. Backsaw and chisel, followed by a router plane if absolutely necessary.

But that plane should serve you very well when used for its intended purpose. Nice buy! Patrick is a prince.

[Jim Koepke]

Looks like a nice little plow plane.

For the cross grain work it might work better if the knife score was just a touch wider than the blade.

Do I dare ask how much it cost?

jtk

[Federico Mena Quintero]

Cory, I got the exact same plane from Patrick a few months ago. It is indeed a joy to use. I haven't used it for cross-grain work yet, but on grooves/rabbets with the grain, it performs superbly.

Is it just me, or does it seem like leaving the long rails on the plane all the time is the most convenient thing?

[Cory Waldrop]

Federico,

At the moment I don't have much room to store it so I put the short rails on so it will still fit inside the box for the most part. I also used the short rails because my test cuts were close to the edge. But I do think that I will eventually just leave the long rails on and call it a day. I will be surprised if the short rails see much use in the future.

Jim,

I think you are right about the knife lines. I have a tendency to rock the plane a little as I push so until I can control the plane a little better, I think using either a smaller blade to make a couple of cuts or making the knife marks a bit wider than the blade will yield the best results. I also like Chris's recommendation of sawing the walls of the dado. Of course one could argue that if you saw the walls, why not just grab a chisel to hog out the waste instead of taking the time to set up a plane to do it. Either way I think I will enjoy this plane. I'll send you a PM on price. I don't want to advertise Patrick's prices in case he minds.