What to buy for $300?

[David Weaver]

These kinds of threads are so hard to answer. What you'll want to make a short run of moulding and what you'll want to do more work by hand are entirely different.

I agree with derek that a few scratches are probably in order for applied mouldings. Hand tooling is about choosing how far you're going to go. If you have a good power jointer and never have an interest in using a plane for jointing, then there's no great reason to buy a jointer. If you want a plane that will joint edges and and make it easy to final thickness or joint the faces of door panels or glue-ups, then a 7 is enormously useful.

I'd do what brian suggests, and I'd make a scratch as derek suggests. Scratch stocks just require you to buy the files and spring steel (or you can rob spring steel from an old saw, as long as it's not pitted).

Carving a moulding, or at least carving to get close may be a tall order to start off with, but it's a good skill to have. Even if you're carving bulk and scratching to final dimension. That'll give you a good skill for curved mouldings. Finding inexpensive and good carving tools is another challenge entirely, though.

[Pat Barry]

Funny, I though he was talking about the applied moldings on the face of the drawer? I'm confused. Assuming it was the face work, I think those essentially require carving.

I also thought he was referring to the little C shape on the upper left front of the drawer. Nice work on that little detail by the way.

[Mike Dowell]

All you guys are just amazing. I have to take a second to thank everyone for their input on this. I know it was slightly ambiguous and I really appreciate this huge TON of feedback!

I was speaking of the curved "c" shaped molding. I'm going to take all of you up on your suggestions! This type of advice is something no wood worker should be without. With so many planes on the market, who would have thought to get a stanley from pre-war era? I'm going to do a bit of shopping this week if I have any more questions, I'll pop back into this thread.

I had a feeling that a good, all-around hand plane would be a heavy hitter in the shop. I've wanted a plane for a while. I do what I consider exceptional work given my skill level and I'm really sort of romantically involved with hand tools at this point.

SHOPPING TIME!

[Moses Yoder]

I would save the $300 until you need something and then buy that. When you buy stuff, try to buy things that are used for various things, not specialized. Also of importance is your overall budget; is it normal to have an extra $300? If not, then you want to be extra careful to buy stuff you will actually use, which really depends on what you are building.

[Mike Dowell]

I would save the $300 until you need something and then buy that. When you buy stuff, try to buy things that are used for various things, not specialized. Also of importance is your overall budget; is it normal to have an extra $300? If not, then you want to be extra careful to buy stuff you will actually use, which really depends on what you are building.

Well, the truth is - I use my chisels ALL THE TIME. And the blade gets chewed up really fast. I suppose this is the mark of a cheap chisel. I don't know what it's like to work with high end hand tools so I can't speak to that. I've also come across situations at least a few times month where I say "I really need to get a hand plane" - but I never do.

The budget is what it is. Actually, this money was a gift anyway, but in the broader sense, I am running a successful business which is growing every month. I don't mind spending money on tools as I can write that off for tax purposes anyhow. Plus, I'm very sensible and, if I think I can do what I do better with better tools, I'm all about it. I'm still getting by with a $300 Dewalt portable table saw. While I don't mind investing in tools, I don't have an extra $3000 to drop on a cabinet saw, or, $1000 for a nice Rikon bandsaw to replace my Harbor Freight model.

[John Sanford]

Using your chisels all the time, upgrade those. Get the Narex or new Stanley Sweetheart 750s. Best if you can actually get your hands on them, because the handles of chisels make a big difference.

The other thing would be, as noted, a good block plane. The LN 60 1/2 LA Adjustable Mouth can't be beat, although it can be equaled.

[Hovey Moore]

Narex makes a good chisel at a great price. Yes there are better but they cost a lot more money, and even then sometimes its nice to have a set your aren't going to worry about.

Get a card scraper if you don't have one. Cheap, simple/easy to use, and works wonders. Maybe a couple and a curved one or two as well? Maybe a LV cabinet scraper could be handy depending on need?

Learn to make scratch stock to match molding. You can buy a tool to hold them or make your own.

The LV apron plane is a great block plane for a great price.

I know I'm in the minority here, but I don't think getting a prewar Stanley as a first plane is a great idea. Most of the ones I have seen need some work to function properly and even then still aren't as easy to use as a LV/LN (yes I know they still can cut just as well). All of that is assuming you know what to do to get it working in the first place. I would save up and buy ONE LV/LN first so you know what you are trying to get the older one to work like. I fooled around for a number of years with a bad older Stanley and almost gave up on hand tools as a result. Only experience can tell you if you are getting a good plane or another project. Disclaimer: I love my LV BUS and would never trade it for any prewar Stanley as it is so easy to use and always works well.

Get equipment to sharpen the above if you don't have it yet.

[Chris Hachet]

If nothing else old saw blades can be cut into temporary scrapers. But scraping will save you a huge amount of time over sanding.

[Mike V Campbell]

I would save the $300 until you need something and then buy that. When you buy stuff, try to buy things that are used for various things, not specialized. Also of importance is your overall budget; is it normal to have an extra $300? If not, then you want to be extra careful to buy stuff you will actually use, which really depends on what you are building.

This has been my tool buying strategy for the most part. I save my tool buying money for when I find a void that needs to be filled but I'm also an opportunist. If you have the time and the patience you can find most of your hand tool needs on Craigslist and estate sales at prices that are a fraction of what you can find on ebay or from dealers. You do have to spend some time cleaning and tuning but that is a lot of fun to me.

As you wait for good deals I would buy other tools as you need them for projects. Getting an old no. 5 or 4 plane and a 9 1/2 or 60 1/2 should be considered a more urgent purchase. Like someone said above, having a few good planes is really a game changer. If you are willing to learn you can tune them up to work as good as a brand new tool Paul Sellars on Youtube is a great source for that.

I decided to stick to the scary sharp method for now because of the high cost of stones. I'd rather add more tools than expensive stones. If you only have $300 a set of lapping papers will stretch your money a lot farther. I don't use a honing guide either, I am able to get a REALLY good edge on my irons and chisels with Paul's method as well. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vvTcReENk9g

From my experience a good set of chisels is hard to come by at estate sales. That will be my next purchase of new hand tools.

Great discussion topic, thanks for posting it!!

[Mike Dowell]

So, for a guy who knows little able planes, what's the difference between the LV Apron plane and the LN 60 1/2 LA plane? Besides price obviously - I think the LN is twice what the LV is.

[Mike Dowell]

All in all, how much of a step down are the Narex chisels form those on the higher end? I'm trying to quantify this in my mind. I want to make sure the Narex are AMAZING compared to the Buck Bros ones I have. I mean, I don't want to drop an insane amount of money but the Buck Bros chisels look saw-toothed after just a few uses. What have I to gain by spending at least double on something better than Narex?

[Sean Hughto]

They are all strips of modern steel with handles. None are magic. The things to consider are your personal preferences as far as:

- length
- handle shape and material
- style as far as tang vs socket
- handling of the edge bevels
- grind and hone -ability of the steel
- how durable the steel is as far as time between sharpenings

[paul cottingham]

The lie-Nielsen has an adjustable mouth, and may be a little wider. Personally, I rarely find the lack of an adjustable mouth on my apron plane to be a problem. I can't remember the last time I adjusted the mouth on my larger standard LV low angle block.
This is a very personal observation.

[Jim Koepke]

The adjustable mouth on the LN 60-1/2 helps around tight curves. A wide open mouth lets more of the edge being worked into contact with the blade.

LVs Apron plane does have lateral adjustment. My fingers or a small hammer to tap the blade seems to work well for many folks.

LN also makes #102 and #103 planes that are similar to the LVs Apron plane. Not sure if either has a lateral adjuster. One is low angle and the other is high angle.

jtk

[Christopher Charles]

My LN 60 1/2 was a gateway experience that showed me what a good plane can be. And remains plane I use as often as several others combined. End grain is not very forgiving after all..

Good luck!
C