Anyone Use A Hand Plane?

[Skr4ped]

Does anyone here use a hand plane (non-electric) to plane their body blanks? I've heard some people say they get more accurate results with a hand plane than with an electric planer. How big od a plane do you use? 9.5" bench plane?

[Devon Headen]

9.5" is really short for truing work like body blanks. I use a No.6 Stanley for truing work. I believe I posted a thread about an extra plane I had awhile back. If you're interested in one drop me a PM.

[Dugz Ink]

I use hand planes for shaping... from block planes down to finger planes.

But when I need a big piece perfectly flat, I take it to somebody who has an big planer.

But that's just me.

D~s

[johnsilver]

On my first guitar last year, my alder body blank had a twist in it. I don't have a jointer or planer, so I had to break out an old Stanley plane (9.5") and go to work. Turned out to be very enjoyable and worked well. I then bought a 14" Bailey plane and now I use them in combination, first the Stanley then the Bailey. They are also useful for flattening neck blanks before attaching the fretboard.

[thedoctor]

I use a pair of 14" Stanley planes(metal body) to taper wrist/arm flats in the top of all solid bodies and an old Nicholson 18" wood block plane to prepare wings to go on neck-through guitars and basses. I set one Stanley deep for fast stock removal and one shallow to flatten and smooth. Sharp and straight are the keys to clean planing. I sharpen the blade on a fine grit belt sander and finish witn an oilstone, just like a knife or chisel. It doesn't do the work by itself like a power tool but if you keep looking at your progress and take it slow it does the job.