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Hand Plane


jch4v

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The "you get what you pay for" adage is never more true than when it comes to planes. Personally, if I had $50 to spend on tools I would use it on somthing other than a Lowes/Home Depot plane. I'm not sure if you would actually even be able to find somthing adequet there anyway. If you want to do it by hand you would ideally want a jointer plane with a loooong sole, somthing like this; Jointer plane. The shorter the sole the harder it is going to be to keep your surface flat and true. How much experience do you have with hand planes? If you havent used them much and want to start I would highly reccomend that you practice on some scrap before you attack the body wood. Also look around for some info on sharpening and setting up a plane for use. Planing looks easy enough but trust me when I say you can plane a hell of alot of wood off before you come to a good straight surface. I know that it took me a little while before I was comfortable with a hand plane. I'm still not to the point that I totally trust myself yet though. Honestly, if I was in your situation I might try to find a cabinet shop or similar and have them run the pieces through their jointer. Let us know how it turns out!

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Hey Guys,

So.... I went to Lowes today. I almost bought a $10 plane.... First of all, the guy there (that I had to HUNT down) said there were no hand planes that could joint a board accurately.... He said that they are only good for things like shaving off the bottom of a door.... I suspected that he was talking out of his ass! So I looked at the planes and ended up buying a Bench Plane made by Stanley. It was like $40. I was worried that I would not be able to use it properly because of all the words of warning I had read about hand planes. WRONG! This is the best tool I have bought so far... plus, it only took me like 5 minutes of playing around with it before I was shaving away at the wood. It cut through the walnut like it was butter. AS far as the jointing goes, I only did a little bit of work, but I can already see that it is going to work pretty well. The only problem is that I also want to plane the wood... and I can tell it is going to take me a good bit of work before it is perfectly flush... NO big deal though.

Firstly, I am not ready to lay out $200-500 on a jointer and then another $200-500 on a planer. I am not going to be processing enough wood to make it worthwile AND I really like the idea of using hand tools. It's not that I am against power tools or anything... they make a lot of jobs a lot easier... but some things I think it is good to go OLD SCHOOL on... if you know what I mean. I am going to do some more work on it tomorrow and I will let you guys know how it comes out... I am working on wood that I purchased last week and posted about in the main forum...

J

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  • 2 weeks later...

Dude, I had the same problem a while back when truing up some basswood and I bought a cheapo planer I was using and my father left me a 14" Stanley Plane when he passed away a long time ago and it was the best by far and made you feel like you acomplished something. The old school way is sometimes the best way if you have the tools in front of you.

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The old school way is sometimes the best way if you have the tools in front of you.

I'm glad to hear that somebody is interested in hand tools. The "old school" tools are great to use and hone your skills. Too many people think that if they buy good machinery they will be great craftsmen...You have to learn how to work using the traditional methods before you completely understand your craft.

You will find that when you dull the edges of your planing irons, there is an art to sharpening them......the sharper the better......you should actually be able to shave the hair of of your arm with a properly blade or iron. Well honed tooling is almost effortless to use.

Good Luck!

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