I would contact Robin Lee if I needed a new spoke shave.
My shop is still upside down. I think I will go look for my shaves . . . . . . .............
I would contact Robin Lee if I needed a new spoke shave.
My shop is still upside down. I think I will go look for my shaves . . . . . . .............
Hi Phil, I own some Faithfull tools. Their blue handled chisels are good, basic tools. Steel in them is harder than the typically very soft contractor chisels. Also have a 778 rebate plane and it works well, a clone of the Record, however the cutting iron was so soft I had to replace that (now I would ask advice and see if I could improve it before swapping it out). A Ray Illes iron dropped straight in (high-lighting it's close relationship to a Record). I have used their #4 plane and it was fine, however I saw a #7 and the sole was very concave! Their sole and frog also seemed clones of very late Records, not such a good thing.
If have seen that pair for sale and have been tempted but have not had a project to force my hand. My gut says I could get them to work well, and if I was not happy I could send them back.
So much for that "KUNZ" hysteria.....might be a UK made knock-off of Record planes? I remember Paul Sellers may have done a blog about those type of planes a while back....
As far as I know the stuff is made in India. For about 10% more attention to detail they would be quite decent budget options.
That is probably the way to go, Phil. With hand tools by the likes of Kunz and Faithful, the issue is their variable reliability - it is not the design, per se, since the design is by Stanley. You may get one that works out of the box - many years ago I had a Kunz #80 scraper plane, and it was better than the Stanley original - on the other hand, you may get a boat anchor that requires a good deal of tuning. As with the premium planes, part of the cost goes into material and machining, and part goes into quality control. It seems to me that these cheap brands are counting on some planes working as intended, and others returning those they do not work ... that the savings in (absent) quality control make the tool cost effective to manufacture and sell at a low price.
Regards from Perth
Derek
At times it seems some of them are counting on people buying it, not getting it to work and setting it on a shelf in the garage.It seems to me that these cheap brands are counting on some planes working as intended, and others returning those they do not work ... that the savings in (absent) quality control make the tool cost effective to manufacture and sell at a low price.
It is sad if someone wanting to do some woodworking buys one and gives up figuring it is their fault the tool will not do as expected. This even happens with the premium tools at times. Sometimes it might be a problem with the tool and at times it is a new owner not knowing how to adjust or use a tool. We have had a few of each over the years.
This is one of the great values of forums such as this. In many cases users have been helped figure where the problem may be.
jtk
"A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty."
- Sir Winston Churchill (1874-1965)
Look pictures of the Faithfull and Kunz shaves side by side. They are indistinguishable in all but color, including cosmetic details like the radii of the blade tops, handle profiles, etc. These are simple objective observations, not "hysteria". Those sorts of similarities don't happen by accident. These are closely related tools in one manner or another.
Of course it's possible that the "relationship" is that the underlying Indian manufacturer of the Faithfull shaves simply ripped off the Kunz designs. They're optimized for low manufacturing cost to begin with, so they wouldn't be bad choices for that sort of thing.
Usual....didn't read a thing from the OP.....These are knock-offs of RECORD made planes. The only one that seems to think they are related to Kunz..is ...you.
Of course, it could be that Kunz is a knock-off of RECORD as well.....but that is not the question the OP had....
Maybe some relatives of Marianne Faithfull; they seem to have had money. Their tool catalog is huge, and everything I looked at was their brand so they don't specialize in any one area (might be a warning of lower quality, but you won't know until you find a good reviewer).
They sell some rebate and block plane replacement blades, so if the steel is good and you can figure out which known brand (if any) they are based on, it could be a source of blades at least.
I'm sure, apart from Graham, there have to be plenty of UK users who have reviewed these tools; there are just so many of them they look more like a big box store and it might be that level of quality.