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James does high quality work, if i didn't already have a 5 that one would be mineOriginally Posted by Lloyd McKinlay
disclosure I have a 3,4,4 1/2, 5, block plane, 3 little planes already from James. My wife has them on display they look that nice. I am supposed to be able to borrow them to use when I finally get back down in the shop.
Ron
Contributor
I will be sending him a plane. Millers Falls #14 (like Stanley #5). Will ship on Monday.
Member
I totally understand the OP's concerns. Rehabbing old rust is a hobby of its own. I've done probably 8 now, counting the oddballs and block planes. Some barely need any work and some have really wonky castings. The trouble is the box of chocolates... You don't know if it's somebody's cast off pile of misfit parts or a gem until you lay the cash down... And there are no refunds once you start lapping.
I haven't specifically tried Grizzly premium planes. I can tell you that all the Wood River planes I've tried have been very good. None of them needed any work. Lie Nielsen and Lee Valley planes are also fabulous.
Any way you go, you'll need a good way to sharpen your irons.
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A "before" of a Stanley No. 5 Jack plane..
Junk-n-the-box jack, assembled.JPG
$5? and the "after"
Today's Rehab shop, side view.JPG
Appears to be a Type 14/15....
Thurs. Shoptime, leveling up,down.JPG
Cambered iron, was leveling out a high spot ( a Knot)...
Have had a Standing offer for years: IF someone sends me a "Rusty & Krusty" plane, with postage both ways....I can rehab that plane as close to "like new" as I can....and Sharp...and that is all it costs, just the postage.
A Planer? I'm the Planer, and this is what I use
Contributor
Thats a nice restoration and shows what you can do with rusted stuff.
My rat rod works fine if can cut a .0005 shaving. Hours into that that I dont have right now but the photo shows what can be done. I have to learn more about the irons. Seems to be the weakest part of hand planes how quick they lose sharp.
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BTW: I was using a Stanley No. 5-1/2, Type 11 last week....
FEB BOX Project, better size.JPG
And a Type 11 No. 3
A Planer? I'm the Planer, and this is what I use
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Some Stanley blades are softer than others. One way around that is to change blades.Seems to be the weakest part of hand planes how quick they lose sharp.
It also depends on what kind of stock you are planing. Some woods with a high abrasive nature have dulled my blades rather quick. Some soft woods can go quite a while before the blade needs attention.
jtk
"A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty."
- Sir Winston Churchill (1874-1965)
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yeah do have some different steels in some planes that is how they came the two wood long ones have better steel., I kind of thought of the metals planes have steel made from Campbell soup cans. Maybe a bit harsh. Im doing teak or woods with sand in them. I know a friend has his fathers metal planes from Latvia and I remember that a different steel was welded or brazed on. Ill have to look. I didnt try them just saw them sitting and new they were his fathers past.
The wood planes I have work well especially one and it sounds great, loud as hell. I dont like the tap to adjust thing and also find them very tall being used to metal planes and hands down low. I have one Ulmia Wood one almost new someone gave me and I cant work it worth a damn yet pick up the rat rod and it just sails.
1.JPG 2.JPG3.JPG
Last edited by Warren Lake; 03-03-2024 at 7:14 PM.
Member
Honestly, I had really good luck with simply replacing the cap irons with Hock units. The original Stanley irons are generally quality units.
Contributor
This guy is an excellent cabinetmaker. He should have a lot more views all considering.
At 3 minutes in he is hand planing he planes at an angle often and at times in circles and the old guy i know planed in circles at times. So the question is can you do this with planes like i have or does it need to be the higher end stuff different blade angles and all. Ive had no issues with hand planes but Ive not hand planed my work. It would not suit some of it, depends on what it is. Ive seen some rough planed stuff from Kennebec and I really the look but its got deep scallops in it compared to this. Rough looking but nice character compared to clinically perfect.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZzXwmqxMbxs
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The nice thing about going at an angle to the grain.....it is a slicing cut, instead of just plowing along.
A Nov. Pro., Thurs., Planed.JPG
Stanley No. 4-1/2, type 11....
A Planer? I'm the Planer, and this is what I use
Member
I have done that with cranky grain and hard wood where I was trying to get a thicker chip without tearout. Circles were handy when trying to knock down a high spot.
Ultimately, I made my own "Toothing" irons by grinding shallow slots into the bevel of a cheapie with a Dremel cutting wheel. Then, I would run a couple passes to "tooth" the surface. Followed up with a sharp normal iron and it let me take significantly deeper cuts in hard stuff with minimal tear out. Finished up with a fine shaving using a well set plane.
Now, I just use a drum thickness sander.
Contributor
Any decent plane can go in circles. You typically do that to work a smaller area and/or get more of a slicing cut. I do it all of the time for end grain planing. There are lots of techniques to planes that you'll figure out with experience. It's not uncommon to push (or pull) your plane at an angle, to get that slicing cut that reduces tear out and generally makes things easier. The downside is you're not referencing the plane as much in the long direction, but are referencing more in the across direction. Sometimes you want that, sometimes you don't. So try it and see what happens. You'll figure out what changes and eventually when to do different techniques.
The thing with blade angles is the more shallow the angle, the easier it cuts. The downside is it also lifts the wood up further away in front of the blade. This is how you get tear out. Since tear out isn't an issue in end grain, you usually want as low of an angle as you can get, because end grain is tough to plane through anyway. With a higher blade angle, the plane becomes harder to push. However, it doesn't lift the wood as far in front of the blade, so you get less tear out. A 45° angle, standard pitch for most planes, is a good compromise between low enough to not be too hard to push, and high enough not to cause tear out in most cases, so long as you're planing with the grain. And there are other things you can do to control tear out, like taking a more shallow cut, closing the mouth of the plane (so the bed of the plane holds down the wood in front of the blade and reduces tear out), keeping your iron sharp, pushing the plane at an angle, and moving the chip breaker closer to the edge (which kind of does a similar job as a high angle blade, in that it pushes the shaving up at a higher angle and reduces the amount of separation happening in front of the blade).
Paul Sellers says the only plane you ever need is a No. 4 Stanley. And he's not wrong. But, using the right plane for the job does make the job easier. Especially for a beginner. It takes a bit of skill to plane well, and that skill it only going to come through practice and observation. So my advice is to just get started and figure it out. Just try to stay away from any dense, figured, or interlocking grained wood in the beginning. Once you've gotten good with stuff like Douglas Fir and Southern Yellow Pine, and gotten the basics of planing down, you'll be ready to up the difficulty with fancier and more expensive woods. Or start off on the expensive stuff, but give yourself time and the patience to mess up and learn.
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thanks for the response, I get how planes work and done the circles enough times. What I dont get not ever having a high plane if they are needed to do the work he is doing there take a full consistent very thin shaving from end to end. i guess I could go to lee valley one day and ask to try some planes. What type of plane is he using at 3 minutes in or what brand?
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The high angle Lie Nielsen smoother? Gotta be sharp too...
~mike
happy in my mud hut
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