starting a collection of hand planes

[Peter Choi]

I've decided to start a collection of hand planes to start squaring up lumber for furniture. Probably mainly s4s and if I can get my hands on s2s, I would get some s2s. Since I can't use power tools in my apartment, I was planning on getting #4, #5, and #7 to start out with.
I was looking at stanley's and I was getting mixed reviews. I was looking at the lie nelsen's, but they're a little too expensive to buy all 3. I could probably afford one but not all three. I was wondering if theres any in-between the stanleys and lie nelsens. Or I've heard the vintage stanley baileys are great, should I just look for vintage ones on eBay?

[Judson Green]

The 4 5 and 7 is a great place to start, not sure that you'd really like a 2 - try it before you buy. If you went vintage you could easily buy em all on a limited budget, might need a clean up. EBay, restore shops, antique stores, garage sales and flea markets.

I read in your other post that you don't have a workbench, that should be your first project. Doesn't need to anything spectacular, just able to securely hold the work.

[Kees Heiden]

The in between choice is the Woodriver range of planes. They are made in China but they are good quality.

[Chris Hachet]

Start with a vintage #4 Stanley and learn to tune it, $25 would easily buy a plane in need of a little work.

Were I to do it, I would get a vintage Stanley pre war #5. I have used one for 30 years (same plane). Works fine, no need for a more expensive plane. I added a hock blade to mine recently, plane works even better.

You might try a low angle Veritas jointer plane if your going to spend big money on anything. $300 but a nice low center of gravity that makes edge jointing even easier, and the PMV-11 will stay sharp forever.

The Veritas low angle smoother is sweet and a hundred bucks cheaper than a L-N #4, PMV-11 will stay sharp much longer than regular A-2 in my experience.

Also on the table might get a Veritas low angle Jack. One can joint quite well with a jack with a little practice, you could shoot end grain, and it will work fine as a smoother.

Any of the above will work just fine. And as someone else mentioned, nothing wrong with the wood river planes.

[Frank Martin]

I would suggest Veritas planes from Lee Valley. Especially given you are new to hand planes, you may be better served with the bevel up versions.

When I first started I got several Stanley planes from eBay which amounted nothing more than frustration. Veritas planes were very easy to setup and use.

[Chris Hachet]

I would suggest Veritas planes from Lee Valley. Especially given you are new to hand planes, you may be better served with the bevel up versions.

When I first started I got several Stanley planes from eBay which amounted nothing more than frustration. Veritas planes were very easy to setup and use.

One plus to the Veritas planes for me is that they corrode much less rapidly in my garage workshop than either Stanley or Lie Nielson tools. Not sure what is in the steel, but for a garage workshop in Ohio, they are the bomb.

[Jim Koepke]

Peter,

Welcome to the Creek. Your profile doesn't indicate your being in NYC as stated in your post in the Power Tool conference. Old guys like me have trouble remembering such details.

If you are handy with mechanical things, finding and restoring old hand planes can not only save money, it can be quite satisfying.

That said, if you get the opportunity you should take advantage of a Lie-Nielsen tool event next time one is near to you. You will be able to see how a fine tuned plane acts so you will have a target to reach with your own planes.

If you haven't found the archived posts in Neanderthal wisdom/FAQs you should pay that a visit:

http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthre...al-wisdom-FAQs

There are a few posts in there about fettling planes and other tools.

Another item of interest is learning how to date (often referred to as type) a plane. My own preferences are fairly easy to spot.

Here is Johnny Kleso's informative site on Stanley plane types (date of manufacture):

https://home.comcast.net/~rarebear/p...ing/typing.htm

It should be possible to put together a set consisting of a #4, #5 & #7 for about $100. A #2 seems to be a "collector's favorite" and will set you back in the neighborhood of $200 for one. Unless you plan to make a lot of small items or have real small hands, the #2 is of little use to a beginning woodworker.

jtk

[Bill White]

I have Stanley #3, #4, #5 1/2, and #7 as well as a Stanley low angle block plane. Aside from the collector "woodies", those plane have done all I've needed, and all were bought as old users. Don't recall for sure, but I might have $150.00 invested.
Bill

[Kees Heiden]

The Woodriver #4 is 145 dollar. The #7 is the most expensive at 300. And for a #5 I would look for an old Stanley. A jackplane isn't very critical as it is used for coarse work.

so for less then 500 bucks you are all set for the rest of your life.

[Chris Hachet]

The Woodriver #4 is 145 dollar. The #7 is the most expensive at 300. And for a #5 I would look for an old Stanley. A jackplane isn't very critical as it is used for coarse work.

so for less then 500 bucks you are all set for the rest of your life.

Agreed....I actually like the feel of the vintage Stanley Jack planes. They work really well IMHO. And for $300 you can also buy the veritas Low Angle Jointer....or your $50 out from the Lie Nielson low angle Jointer. I bought a used wooden Ulima Jointer for $85 shipped and ahve never looked back.

There are lots of deals on decent used hand planes.

[Mark Stutz]

The 3 planes you mentioned will get you off to a great start. There were two things that helped me get started more than any other. The first was getting some hands on help from an experienced galoot. Besides, you can always blame him for your fall down the rabbit hole! The second was to get to use well tuned plane, so that when I started on my Type 20 #5, I knew what I was shooting for. That is still a favorite plane. If I was going to buy only one new one, it would be the jointer. Harder to come by in the wild, and more difficult to to and learn to use, unless you have prior experience.

[Dave Parkis]

If you get up near Albany, you are welcome to stop by and try out any size plane you want. You might also want to consider coming up to Saratoga later this month for the NWA Showcase. Lie Nielsen is usually there and so is Lee Valley. There are also a couple guys there selling vintage tools.

[Jeffrey Martel]

I would buy new for the #4/Smoothing size. I think a smoother would benefit more from the higher tolerances of newer manufacturing. I have a LV Low angle smoother. Having played with Woodriver tools in the store, I didn't like them as much as my LV plane. All of my other planes are vintage. I currently use a #6 for jointing, but I am refurbishing a #8c at the moment as well.

[Peter Choi]

First of all, this place is amazing with all the information everyone provided! And I updated my profile to put brooklyn! 😜

hmmm I think I'm gonna go the route of buying vintage Stanley's. Mainly just the thought of working with vintage tools and only using hand tools seem to go hand in hand. they won't be too expensive and I do have to buy some sort of sharpener and that seems expensive. Since I'm still in school and work on a limited budget. When I run into more money I can venture into lie nelsen and veritas. The wood river still seems like too much if I buy all 3. I'll just practice with the vintages and go from there.
I was reading through the faq page and someone restored their vintage tools with a buffer. I'm I don't have a buffer what else do you guys recommend?

sounds really interesting! Maybe if I have the chance to go upstate I'll visit the showcase but seems a little far fetched.

What years do you recommend for the vintages on the 4,5,7. After I get used to these 3, I'll try to figure out what else I need!

for the Bench I may just use power tools for that or I was thinking of buying the black and decker stand and use that as my temporary bench. For a nyc apartment my place is a pretty good size. The living room will fit a dining table and the work bench. No sofa tho. But never even had one in nyc!

[Kees Heiden]

That's a very good choice. Everything pre war is fine. Mine are mostly UK made after the war and need more work, but doable too. When you refrain from buying expensive after market blades (the original ones are perfectly allright), then I can recommend oilstones. Those are fine for the old kinds of steel and for O1 which is used nowadays too. Oilstones are not so expensive. Have a look at this website for really good information: http://www.antiquetools.com/sharp/