Woodworking Hand Tool - Bench Planes

Under my bench right now I can see three bench planes. There is a long one, a medium distance and a short one. The long plane is used for truing edges and dead flat surfaces, the medium sized one is an everyday bench plane and the short one is used for smoothing complete carcasses and final truing up of surfaces. A number 6 is for a reasonably well built male is the thorough everyday plane, quite oftentimes referred to as a Jack plane.

If you are a strong dude then you may go for number 7, or if you are relatively light of frame a number 5 or 5 1/2. The number is the indication ordinarily of the distance of the plane, though some planes are slightly narrower than others, so start with this plane and just get that one plane to start off with. Later on you can add in a number 7 or number 8 plane for a long jointing plane for jointing edges and flattening dead flat surfaces, and you can later on add a smoothing plane, a number 4 or 4 1/2 plane.

Saw Bench

Don't buy whether of these unless you have to. Start off somewhere in the middle. We've seen many students buying hundreds of planes over the years and it's come clear to us that the Lie Neilson brand and the Clifton brand are the two ones to go for. Veritas have made some enthralling new planes however their bench planes have given a consolidate of our guys problems with flatness and with the adjustment mechanism. When they get this sorted and I am sure we will we will start recommending them.

We have had students who have had problems with the Clifton planes not being as flat as their own specification demands but we are assured by the manufacturers that those problems have now been overcome. however I think if I were buying a plane right now I would be buying a Lie Neilson plane. They are the most expensive ready but they have been reliably flat which is the vital quality that you are finding for in a plane and the machining of the blades and back irons have been acceptable. I would however turn the blade to a high carbon forged steel blade from Clifton. The Victor blade fits real easy.

In our sharpening workshop we have a large granite covering plate ordinarily used by engineers.We bought this when we had to argue with some tool suppliers that their planes were not as flat as they said. This covering is flat within a measured number of microns and has a Warrantee signed by an inspector to prove it. Lee Neilson and Clifton have been the most dependable suppliers though we have had planes of both returned as being covering their own specification. "Tom will be upset", she said, I categorically dont care, my pupil was even more upset having spent lots of money and lots of time with a tool that was not to specification. You can buy less expensive planes but you will spend an awful lot of time faffing around with flatness and manufacture the blade sit securely within the mechanism of the plane.

Dont waste your time. Buy a decent plane and learn how to use it properly.

York Pitch

When buying bench planes you need to understand what is general and what is "York" pitch. The overall cutting angle that the blade is set to the sole of the plane is ordinarily 45degrees. This is thorough and fine. The front plane below is at thorough pitch. Look at the smoother plane behind it this has a slightly higher pitch at about 50 degrees. This is York pitch and is usefull for finishing difficult grained timber such as cherry. You can buy a separate "frog" the block of steel that the blade sits on to give you "York" pitch.

Low Angle Bench Planes

Not To Be Confused With Low Angle Block Planes. We've recently had a spate of these low angle bench planes in our workshops. Again these are Lie Neilson and Veritas planes and we can recommend these only partially. The attraction of these planes is that the blade is set at a very low angle with hold to the cutting edge quite near that cutting edge. These blade have the bevel facing up and do not have a back iron manufacture the planes more easy in construction. These planes are giving exceptionally high quality quit to the timber even on very figured timber. They are however not a replacement for a general bench plane. The adjustment of these planes are very critical. They need setting up once and leaving alone, so we would only recommend one of these planes as an expanding to your armoury. Maybe bought after a few months on the job. In that case the favourite in the workshop seems to be a number 6 or a number 7 low angle plane, again manufactured by Lie Neilson though Veritas are also good and recommended.

Woodworking Hand Tool - Bench Planes