Tweet
I have seen several ask this question on various forums.. but few responses with the exception of the Kamal #10 rabbet. I don't think many others have been sold and probably because of the bad responses about the standard Anant.
I can answer the question about the Kamal #7 jointer at this point. The Highland WW header says it is better machined and a step up from the standard Anant with a thicker iron. And.. the thicker iron resulted in a tighter fit and less gap in the throat opening. But.. not much more than that as to any significant detail.
I was given a new #7 as a gift and told to exchange it if I didn't like it by my FIL and BIL who know little about hand planes. They had over-heard me mention I needed a #7 jointer and owed me a few markers.
So... the sole was flatter than the Anant's I have had my hands on. The biggest discrepancy was about .003 and the sides had as much as .004 at the top. That good news and improvement but... the machines marks were deeper than the standard Anants I have en-countered so.....
The Kamal has nicer wooden handles and a brass adjuster knob as opposed to the zinc on the standard A. The iron is thicker even though I cannot say at this point if it needs to be replaced with a Hock. Just how good the grade of steel is in the iron is questionable.
But... the buck stops there as I see it!
With the throat opening on this plane, it was so tight I was not able to take a medium shaving. I prefer to be able to take both fine and medium with a jointer. This was a problem to me as the fix is not as easy as an LV with an adjustable throat. But.. I can't afford the LV jointer.. so the challenge was faced in lieu of returning it.
This plane had a relatively flat sole but... the machine marks were deep and I prefer polished. $15 worth of 80 grit adhesive sand-paper got it to the point of moving up the steps in grit to 1200. I did the same with the sides but could not get all the machine marks at the top out which I left. This took about 7 hours of push and pull sanding on a tempered glass plate. Another hour to go through the remaining grit. Whew...
I had to square the inside of the rectangle that receives the fore-aft adjust bar. About 15 minutes. The Bailey style frog had to be filed to flat to take out a few high spots and machine marks to mate properly to the back of blade. The same with the rear throat on the sole to ensure a continuos bed. Another 45 minutes or so.
Another 45 minutes to flatten and polish the iron back and the same with the bevel. Put it together to run some shavings as I suspected it would clog with medium shaving as the throat was that tight. You guessed it if you guessed I was correct. Another 45 to an hour to file about 3/64" off the face of the throat. The chip breaker and cap iron needed another 30 minutes to flatten.
That was yesterday and today is today. Would I recommend it to someone in need of a cheap plane? NO.. Time invested would put the cost of the plane beyond an LV IMO. And I would not recommend it to anyone who doesn't understand the importance of how the frog.. throat.. chip-breaker.. cap iron works in conjunction.
Will I keep the plane as my keeper? Yep.. as today it is as good as any other with the way it cuts. But... only after I basically re-surrected the plane from the "dead" with over 12 hours work. It was free and now it is useful as opposed to useless when I took it out of the box.
Fine shavings... medium shavings are illustrated below.. after a lot of work. That's all I would have ask for in any plane. Sometimes you just have to weigh the value of the journey.
Hope that helps anyone considering getting a Kamal that is on a budget or just beginning.
I can answer the question about the Kamal #7 jointer at this point. The Highland WW header says it is better machined and a step up from the standard Anant with a thicker iron. And.. the thicker iron resulted in a tighter fit and less gap in the throat opening. But.. not much more than that as to any significant detail.
I was given a new #7 as a gift and told to exchange it if I didn't like it by my FIL and BIL who know little about hand planes. They had over-heard me mention I needed a #7 jointer and owed me a few markers.
So... the sole was flatter than the Anant's I have had my hands on. The biggest discrepancy was about .003 and the sides had as much as .004 at the top. That good news and improvement but... the machines marks were deeper than the standard Anants I have en-countered so.....
The Kamal has nicer wooden handles and a brass adjuster knob as opposed to the zinc on the standard A. The iron is thicker even though I cannot say at this point if it needs to be replaced with a Hock. Just how good the grade of steel is in the iron is questionable.
But... the buck stops there as I see it!
With the throat opening on this plane, it was so tight I was not able to take a medium shaving. I prefer to be able to take both fine and medium with a jointer. This was a problem to me as the fix is not as easy as an LV with an adjustable throat. But.. I can't afford the LV jointer.. so the challenge was faced in lieu of returning it.
This plane had a relatively flat sole but... the machine marks were deep and I prefer polished. $15 worth of 80 grit adhesive sand-paper got it to the point of moving up the steps in grit to 1200. I did the same with the sides but could not get all the machine marks at the top out which I left. This took about 7 hours of push and pull sanding on a tempered glass plate. Another hour to go through the remaining grit. Whew...
I had to square the inside of the rectangle that receives the fore-aft adjust bar. About 15 minutes. The Bailey style frog had to be filed to flat to take out a few high spots and machine marks to mate properly to the back of blade. The same with the rear throat on the sole to ensure a continuos bed. Another 45 minutes or so.
Another 45 minutes to flatten and polish the iron back and the same with the bevel. Put it together to run some shavings as I suspected it would clog with medium shaving as the throat was that tight. You guessed it if you guessed I was correct. Another 45 to an hour to file about 3/64" off the face of the throat. The chip breaker and cap iron needed another 30 minutes to flatten.
That was yesterday and today is today. Would I recommend it to someone in need of a cheap plane? NO.. Time invested would put the cost of the plane beyond an LV IMO. And I would not recommend it to anyone who doesn't understand the importance of how the frog.. throat.. chip-breaker.. cap iron works in conjunction.
Will I keep the plane as my keeper? Yep.. as today it is as good as any other with the way it cuts. But... only after I basically re-surrected the plane from the "dead" with over 12 hours work. It was free and now it is useful as opposed to useless when I took it out of the box.
Fine shavings... medium shavings are illustrated below.. after a lot of work. That's all I would have ask for in any plane. Sometimes you just have to weigh the value of the journey.
Hope that helps anyone considering getting a Kamal that is on a budget or just beginning.
Attached Files