WoodRiver Planes

[pelligrini]

Has anyone else tried out the new WoodRiver planes from woodcraft?

I treated myself to a new tool for my birthday, and picked up the #6 Fore plane from woodcraft. I got it for a little bit less than the $129 though. Someone gave away the wood box for it at the store so they knocked off $15 and then I got another 10% off with their birthday card.
I haven't used it a whole lot yet, and I'm still fairly new to planes.

The fit and finish is really nice. Not as nice as the Lie-Nielsons, but it doesn't have their pricetags either. It is as straight and square as could be, as far as my machinist squares and a light source can tell. The totes are nicely finished and comfortably shaped rosewood species. It came with a light oil coating, but it wasn't caked in the thick stuff.

The blade and chipbreaker are both 1/8" thick. It cut OK out of the box, but it moved very smoothly after I honed the blade and slightly flattened the chipbreaker.

I'm pretty pleased with it. I finally put it to some real use last night on a section of my benchtop glueup. I was getting some really long translucent curls out of the SYP top with ease.

[scmhogg]

Have you experienced the nirvana of the "whoosh"? Sweetest sound in all of woodworking.

Steve

[pelligrini]

Don't know about the nirvana of the "whoosh" yet, but the sound and feel of the ziiiips I was getting last night was really, really pleasant.

I can't wait to be able to work a long board on a solid bench. There's nothing more frustrating than trying to deal the work moving, or the support tilting over.

[SARGE..g-47]

I've looked at all of them. Nice looking but you will probably have to fettle a bit. You need to take the machine marks off the back of the iron and the face of the bevel if any and I suspect there are. I have several LV's and 3 Anants and I can tell you you shouldn't have to fettle as much with the WR as those 3.

But... I will say that once I did and changed to a Hock iron.. they deliver regardless of what the purist say about them. Sometimes I think the on-line hand tool purist do more talking than using? Just an educated guess.

Good luck with the #6. Remember it is just short of a 7-8 jointer so when you use it on hardwood.. you will know if you really got it sharp. The hardwood will be the test for chatter also as the pine cuts rather smoothly.

Regards and congrats...

[pelligrini]

I did do a bit of lapping to the iron and polished the bevel of the chipbreaker too. That made a big difference. It could probably do with another session. The rain finally stopped when I was working on the plane and I could once again make sawdust.

It is a world apart from a Groz pair I picked up last year. The adjustable mouth low angle block plane works fairly well. I do grab it for use a lot. I have yet to get the #4 to work right. I was really tempted to use the 10lbs fine tuning hammer on it this last time. I still chalk a lot of it up to my inexperience.

[SARGE..g-47]

How was the bottom on your #6. Funny thing about the Anant's. My #4 took little preparation as the bottom was flat.. sides flat.. minor work on frog. I changed iron and it does it's job. The #5 jack took about 4-5 hours as the sole was concave and took some major effort to flatten. It still has some concave but the toe.. heel and front and rear of the mouth got ground out with several hours of back and forth on 80 grit and plate glass, Fine now and cuts well but it was a PITA.

The #7 Anant Kamal (improved version) has a thicker blade but the engineer forgot to open the mouth wide enough to accomodate it so I had to file it out. The bottom was not a good as the #4 but much better than the #5. They did go to brass knobs and thicker hardware on the Kamal. So.. once you piddle you can make those Anant's work fine.

I doubt I will get a WR as I also have a LV low angle smoother.. a LV medium shoulder... and my old orginal Stanley block and low angle block from way back when before the down-grade in Stanley's. That all the planes I need as I sold a LV #6 fore and my LV 4 1/2. The Anants are fine and I used the proceeds to upgrade other things I needed. At this point I really don't need anything with the exception of fresh glue.. sand-paper and wood.

Gool luck with your hand plane journey as mine started originally in 1964. I guess you could say I am a frequent flyer even though I depend mostly on power these days but... every project I do has a situation where a hand plane and numerous hand tools are used.

Regards...

[pelligrini]

As far as I can tell the bottom is as flat as it could be. I don't have a really good straightedge that long, but my 48" level matched up flat. I couldn't percieve any twist either. My 8" machinist square agreed to the flatness as well.

I picked up a #3 stanley-bailey and what looks like a Stanley 110 block last month off craigs list. I probably shouldn't have spent the money on them, upon closer inspection they need a lot of work. I look at it now as an investment in higher plane learning.

[SARGE..g-47]

Some prefer to have a plane that is ready to roll out of the box as the LN and LV. But.. you will pay extra for that and IMO.. fettling will teach you much more about what makes the plane work and not work than just using one pre-tuned.

Enjoy...