Wood Planes

Hello,

Thank you for that. I am just trying to get an idea for some good planes which I can get some good use out of which wont fall apart within 2 minutes of me using them. As I haven't used hand planes before I was thinking something which is goo but not too expensive. Hence the Faithful ones look alright and have been recommended. Would these be good as a first hand plane set and cover my needs?

I presume for jointing long board the electric would be better? Or would I need a longer one for this purpose?

Thanks

James
 
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.....I was thinking something which is goo but not too expensive. Hence the Faithful ones look alright and have been recommended. Would these be good as a first hand plane set and cover my needs?
Good, but cheap? Hmm. A Faithful will require quite a bit of fettling to make it useable, it will always have a sloppy adjuster and the blade isn't very good quality, so it won't really hold an edge that well or for that long. Believe me, I've fettled a few of these for apprentices and I wasn't impressed. They are far nicer if you throw away the recyled bean can plane iron and drop in a decent aftermarket replacement blade (such as Ray Iles, Veritase, etc) - tbut that will double to price you pay, and you'll still have needed to spend a couple of hours fettling your plane, after which a Quangsheng (useable out of the box with just a quick hone) equivalent look more attractive. Yes, I'm critical, but my hand planes are there to earn me a living and stuff that only just about works simply isn't good enough for me

I presume for jointing long board the electric would be better? Or would I need a longer one for this purpose?
Electric planers are really only for fast planing-in when installing joinery work (e.g. planing-in oversize PVCu windows, fast roughing in of doors when hanging new ones - fine tuning still requires a hand plane) and really don't have much of a place on the bench. You'd be better off with a portable saw, a straight edge and a smoother or jack plane (to take the last pass or two off) if you want to joint timber. Otherwise the real tool for the task is a static machine called an overhand planer or jointer
 
Thank You. What would you recommend in the good but cheapish category? As you say doubling the cost to changing the blade which is not feasible cost wise.

Thanks

James
 
I think that out of the box there's good, and there's cheap - but never the twain shall meet in my experience. If you want to learn how to plane properly and how to get decent results you need a properly set-up plane with a decent-ish blade. You can take almost any cheapish plane and fettle it so that it performs passably well - do stuff like lapping the sole flat, filing the mouth square and making sure that the frog is properly aligned - but the things you can't do so much about are things like deal with sloppy, inadequate blade adjusters and improve a poor quality blade. I've long sourced secondhand stuff for the apprentices, but without already knowing what makes a plane a "good 'un" it's just as likely you'd end up with a lemon as one worth keeping (and in any case, even old planes aren't necessarily good ones because quality started to slide in the early 1960s and went over a cliff in the 1980s). All of which is why I suggested a Quangsheng block plane as a starter - reasonably affordable (£60), requires minimal work to get going (just a light hone of the blade) and works well.

Once you've had one plane which works properly it sets the standard you will aspire to should you buy a cheapie or second hander as your next plane. There is tremendous satisfaction in being able to take a thin semi-transparent shaving off a piece of wood leaving a silky smooth surface - there's potentially great frustration at attempting to use a poorly made, inaccurate, badly sharpened plane with a blade which won't hold an edge for more than a couple of strokes. This mzy be why so many people shy away from using hand planes

Remember: buy cheap - buy twice!
 
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