I’d seen this particular block plane on a shaping supply site and on a whim I ordered one along with some other things I needed. Didn’t need it but saw it and was intrigued. I thought it might be an alternative to other planes that I use. No such luck. Its a pain to adjust, the throat is too wide and the angle of attack for the blade is too steep. This tool will end up in the bottom of a tool box along with a bunch of other misfit and forgotten tools bound for a yardsale 20 years from now. Save your money or buy a David, Wilkro or vintage Stanley or vintage Craftsman low angle plane.
To date these are the most useful block planes I’ve found for shaping. The first is a vintage Craftsman 3732. I have a similar stanley but the Craftsman adjusts nicer and has a better blade. The second is a vintage Wilkro razor plane. You can find these on eBay for about $10 and they work great.
Build quality in the photo looks ok to me, so if I were walking through a hardware store and saw one of these I wouldn’t know any better not to buy it.
Any tips on how to tell on what to avoid? 'Guess a large part of it would be picking it up and actually handling it; using all the adjustments on it, checking for movement in it’s operation where there shouldn’t be any and vice versa.
I am not sure how this plane wound up on my shelf, but there it resides.
I am keeping if for when I have to defend myself and launch something at an attacker’s forehead. Heavy enough to stun, not kill.
Buck brothers 3 inch model maker plane
The angle is too steep, the part which holds the blade, is too thick and ends about 5MM from the blade causing the shavings to break into 5mm chips. It just tears wood.
FWIW the Stanley RB5 and that low end spokeshave have played a role in every board I’ve ever made, for finishing up shortboard wood stringers. I also have the Wilkro razor plane pictured above, tried and tried but could not not make it work. If someone wants it shoot me a PM
If you are struggling with the WilKro either the blades you have are too flimsy or you are trying to use it where you need a bigger plane. I use the Wilkros primarily for fine tuning foam and stringers around the nose and tail. I have two of them. One set up flat and one set up for working curved surfaces. Set up for curved surfaces it works great for the deck side nose of short boards.
I have the worst luck with my spokeshave from greenlight. I want it to be a good tool for me so badly. I try to use it on the deck in the curve of the nose on like every board, but it just doesnt cut well for me. I clearly need to get the blade sharper and adjust it. Would you guys say it does not come out of the package sharp enough to use and needs to be sharpened right away?
Like most I have found my david razor plane to be a lifesaver.
It’s funny, sometimes my el cheapo spoke shave works so well I almost end up making the board too thin because I’m enjoying shaving down that in-situ stringer than came with my Clark/US Blanks/Common PU blank. However, I’d say about 30% of the time, I can’t use the little bugger. It catches, pulls too deep, skips areas and chunks foam. I know the carpenter isn’t supposed to blame his tools, but it feels so good to do so sometimes.
The Mini Spokeshave, comes with a poorly sharpened blade. At least mine did. A proper sharpening, and proper adjustment of the blade setting, is all that is needed to make it quite useable.
I am thankful to work at a widget factory with a tool and die shop and happy machinists who sharpen blades for an occasional box of doughnuts to share with the crew at break. No complaints about the little spoke shave and mini block planes after being touched-up at work.
Hey Stoneburner, Its just the David Combi razor planer, easy and cheap to replace blades but they last quite a while too…
The other one is an Ibex round stringer planer:
THE FINEST MINI PLANE AVAILABLE, HIGHEST QUALITY - PERFECT SHAPE, SIZE AND WEIGHT FOR PRECISION PLANING OF SURFBOARD STRINGERS, THE ROUND BLADES ALLOWS SHAPERS TO PLANING THE STRINGER ON THE ROCKER OF THE BOARD IN BETWEEN THE CONCAVES. CAST IN SILICON BRONZE WITH HIGH TENSILE, CHROME VANADIUM BLADE. ROUNDED BASE AND ROUNDED BLADE PERFECT FOR SHAPING STRINGER ROCKERS INTO THE NOSE. 18MM ROUND BOTTOM, ROUND SIDES, 47MM IN FULL LENGTH
