Low Learning Curve Plane

**Tom Miller** · 01-03-2007, 01:13 PM

A rabbeting block plane, as a first plane, strikes me as a little specialized, and perhaps tries to do too many things in one.

Also, I don't think the low angle is necessarily what you want for smoothing figured wood.

About a year ago, I picked up a Lee Valley low angle (bevel up) jack plane, and couldn't be more pleased with it for the following reasons:

1. Ease of use -- because it's a bevel up plane, there's no chip breaker to deal with. The correct fettling of the chip breaker is very critical, for planes that have them, and probably the most overlooked, poorly understood components of a plane. Also, the mouth opening is adjusted in a straight-forward manner, rather than by adjusting the frog, and blade protrusion, in combination. All you deal with are blade protrusion, blade angle, and mouth opening (which doesn't even matter for endgrain work).

2. Readiness out of box -- you might want to hone the blade, but you can be sure the sole is flat, the wings are perpendicular, and the bed is flat.

3. Versatility -- in addition to using this plane for jointing (when not using my Jet

), I use it with a shooting board for trimming to length, and trimming miters. It makes whispy shavings of end-grain. I recently bought the higher-bevel angle blade, which combines with the 12* bed angle to yield a 50* (York pitch) angle for better smoothing. It does a really nice job of smoothing with this blade. There's even a higher bevel angle blade (50*?) for smoothing really difficult grain.

This plane, and my low angle block plane (construction grade Stanley, but it's well-tuned), are the workhorses of my planes.

Regards,
Tom

**gsmittle** · 01-03-2007, 01:53 PM

Originally posted by Jeffrey Schronce

I honestly don't want to dive into the pool of handtools. I have gathered a decent collection of card scrapers and can put a mean burr on one. I enjoy using card scrapers, though I still like my stable of Bosch 1295 sanders. I don't want to drop $300 on a Tormek or Jet and I don't want to buy $100 worth of stones to sharpen this thing. I want a very good, functional plane that requires minimal fuss.

I'm with Jeff on this. I have a couple of old planes I inherited from my father, and I haven't a clue how to tune/fettle/make them work. I bought a Groz low-angle block plane (before I knew better) and I can get a decent shaving out of the thing, but I really don't know what I'm doing.

Has anyone seen an online tutorial for hand planes?????

g.

**ChrisD** · 01-03-2007, 01:55 PM

Jeff, a good portion of this thread focuses on the pros and cons of a rabbet block:

http://www.bt3central.com/showthread...ht=lie+nielsen

**dlminehart** · 01-03-2007, 06:45 PM

g.: A book you might consider is The Handplane Book. See http://tinyurl.com/y9czhr .

**cabinetman** · 01-03-2007, 07:23 PM

I have an affinity for garage sales, flea markets, and yard/moving sales. If you keep your eyes open for them, you can make a killing. Most all of my planes were bought that way. I bought a Stanley block, and low angle, and a bull nose plane new. All the rest were used, and some very old.

You can also buy the kits to make your own wood frame planes. If you just first get a block plane like a Stanley 9 1/2 or a low angle Stanley 60 1/2 and just get used to using it, and fine tuning the adjustment for developing the "feel", with practice. Getting used to using one and learning how to sharpen it will get you totally hooked.

A THING OF BEAUTY IS A JOY FOREVER - John Keats

Low Learning Curve Plane

Low Learning Curve Plane

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