I am sure this has been posted before…Im wondering cheep vs. spendy hand planes… how are the cheep alLoy ones you get on the EZ foam site? blade steel, is that the main difference? or is it just a fancy handle? what do you guys use…name/cost…and again yr all a big help.
Everything in life is relative and depends upon budget, but when it comes to tools, if your work matters your tools better. I believe in the old adage that the most expensive tool is the cheap one that you have to replace because it failed or did a poor job. I’ve been a furniture maker for 30+ years and I cherish fine tools. I take special care of them, keep them tuned, and try to “invest” in the best. Quality tools are a joy to use and I believe experience has proven over and over that the quality of a tool shows in the products we make. Cosmic stuff aside, I would surly have a Stanley or Record block plane in the quiver (Stanley standard apx. $35 and Record a tad higher). I especially like the adjustable mouth or adj. throat versions for about $45. The adjustable mouth opening allows you to open it for taking aggressive cuts or close it down for really fine slicing. If you’re not into “fussing” with it ignore the adjustable versions. The weight (“heft”)of these planes are superior to cheaper planes. If price is no object (congrats if it isn’t)and you want to invest in the very best heirloom quality, I really like the Lie Nielsen block plane and “low angle” block plane ($150). Internet purchase sources for all these planes include: Highland Hardware (has the Stanley on sale now), Woodworkers Supply, Garret Wade, Rockler, The Woodworkers Store. Finally, with any new plane (except not so much with the Lie Nielsen) you will need to “tune it up” before use. By this I mean you should “lap” the sole (get it dead on flat), and lap the back side of the iron (blade). There are other things you can do that may ooze into over-kill for shaping surfboards, but I really wouldn’t ignore the items mentioned or you may as well opt for a cheapo plane. The tune up process is important. The difference between planing right out of the package and taking the little time to tune it, yields dramatic results unkown to those who don’t take this time and effort with their planes. should just take an hour or two, but then you have it right for the long haul. If you want further info relating to tuning and lapping, let me know, but “Fine Woodworking” magazine or their online site can steer you. Good luck!
A PS to my previous novel: I hope I didn’t jump to conclusions, but my info relates mainly to working down your stringers. If you’re not doing blanks with a lot of stringer work, you won’t need to get too anal on your planes. I still say, if you’re going to invest in a plane go ahead and get one that I mentioned - it will last your lifetime, do the job perfectly, and if you tune it and take care of it, some young future craftsman will be glad you got a nice one.
WOW thanx for the responce…Im all about the good quaility stuff…stuff that lasts… this “throw away” country we live in is not me…Richard what are your 2 main planes for shaping? size? P.S. I also use a marine farring board with a hook and loop paper…its flexable and is hard to go “overboard” gutting the shape out(dont eat too much foam at once)
TJ, I would invite an experienced shaper to jump in here. I’m a furniture maker 1st though I’ve done a couple of multi stringer balsa wall hanger trophy boards, so a seasoned foam guy is best to answer your latest question. If we’re still talking hand planes, if I could have only two planes in my shop, (aside from the luxury Lie Nielsen planes - THE best) they would be the Record brand model #09-1/2 block plane(6" x 15/8") and the Record model #04 Smoothing plane(9 3/4" x 2"). If you’re doing shorty boards with lots of nose rocker I’m sure the experienced pro shapers are going to suggest smaller scraper or razor planes to get up in the hollow. I believe you mentioned Foam E-Z, Brad and the guys can help you select what’s best if you don’t get a response here from a seasoned shaper. Hope this helps you out.
Home Depot sells a little Buck Bros. 3" plane that i think works great. It’s about 7$ and has a buck knife quality blade that once tuned and trued up as mentioned above is a great value. I flatened and rounded the sole edges to help some too. -Jay
the home depot has alot of stuff. I try not to buy my personal stuff there its like a walmart… putting the small friendly local out on the streets…thats another story… yea I looked at that plane I figured 7 bucks it cant be worth the hassle of going into one of those places…thanks for the imput I will take another look. ya really cant go wrong for 7 bucks… Fine day TJ
You could do a lot worse than checking the local yard sales, old tool shops, junk shops and so on. Just about any old plane is likely to be made with better steel and iron than most made now and is likely to be better designed, being as back then ( you know, when I had hair on top of my head ) the things were intended for daily use by somebody who didn’t have power tools available. Chances are you can pick up something for a couple of bucks ( no pun intended ) that won’t need any more tuning and sharpening than a new one and maybe less and be a far better tool once you’re done. Things to look for and avoid? Really crudely cast parts - oh hell, they say it’s worth a thousand words, so… hope that’s of use doc… 
Hey Doc: I love to boot up Illustrator or Photoshop whenever I can… usually to fix some artwork for a co-workers report, that probably is fine as is in the first place. … but I enjoy it anyway. My point is that you always seem to post some great illustrations that compliment your posts, and no doubt your going out of your way to fabricate them, even for the simplest of discussions. As they say, a picture is worth a 1000 words. It’s appreciated. Thanks.
de nada… though I’d think it’s more a function of my rather mediocre writing skills. For what it’s worth, that and the others were done with Windows Paint rather than Photoshop or Corel Draw or something like that, as frankly I haven’t got past the finger painting stage with those. The process for this one: Start writing response, discovering literary limits rapidly. Have a Bright Idea - this is the dangerous part. Go to ebay, search for ‘block plane’, score and save a couple images. The nice one, dammit, was in bitmap format - PITA. Open both with Windows Paint, resize 'em appropriately and save as jpgs. Open new image, paste jpgs into it, write captions/comments/my usual drivel, save, upload, check to see if I’ve screwed up the address while uploading as I usually do. Spend a moment in open-mouthed amazement when I discover I actually got it right. Complete the response and paste in URL for the pic. Preview Message to see if I screwed up as I usually do. Repeat moment of open mouthed amazement , especially about the way it was spelled right. Post message. This, being as I got a little crazy last year and went for the cable/broadband internet connection, really doesn’t take all that long. Read message and realise that yes, it’s fine, but it only applies to block planes ( 'cos of the adjustable throat bit) , not anything bigger or anything different such as jack planes, jointer planes, bullnose planes and etc ( which typically don’t have adjustable throats - you adjust that with other stuff, depending on the plane. The rest applies, mostly ) and cuss my idiocy again. See a response ( and thanks for the kind words, man. ) and realise that this is an opportunity to make that correction. Sigh in relief. doc…
Doc and the guys nailed it.If I had to go with only two planes it would be a low angle block(Record or older Stanley) and a Stanley Modelers Plane.Probably around 50 bucks total.I like the old pre world war two stuff but its hard to hit flea markets etc.But like the boys said its all in the tuning.
Doc…you always go out of your way…thats so great the pics and descripion are worth a hundred thousand words… planes are the neatist tools and I thank you for what seems to be hard work in helping another shaper…you rock!!
Again, de nada. When The Old Man taught me about tools, he mentioned that I had an obligation to pass what I knew on. Heh…it’ll be your turn, sooner than you think… doc…
As you’re a plane guy, you may enjoy this- principally various flavors of the Stanleys with some very nice tuneup tips. Encyclopedic in scope. Patrick is a valued contributor to the rec.woodworking newsgroup. More links and such available through http://www-2.cs.cmu.edu/~alf/en/ - the Electronic Neanderthal Woodworker site. enjoy doc… http://www.supertool.com/StanleyBG/stan0.htm
hey doc i was looking at the website you posted and one of the planes looked really familiar. so i went and woke my dad up and got him to pull out the antique box. sure enough it was a stanely model Bailey # 3. Not only that but he said i can give it a whirl. SAWEEET.
I have a couple of wooden body planes that make even the old Stanleys look ultra modern. Could post a picture or two if anybody’s interested. One is about 2 feet long and the other is a curved blade oval shaped body one… found 'em both at the swap meet.
Yeah, that sounds like a plan with the pictures - I have and use an old wooden jointer plane like that and also a hollowing plane as you describe- when cleaned up a little and sharpened you’d be surprised how well they work for making long surfaces very, very straight and making a nice concave surface, respectively. Though adjusting the plane iron that’s held in with the wooden wedge is kind of a neat trick. Oh, and Austin - the No. 3 is a very nice all around size unless you’re doing a hell of a lot of joinery, when you’d want a longer and heavier plane - you can make things straight or hog off a good deal of stock. There’s one that lives in my going-to-the-job toolbox and sees regular use - used to be my grandfather’s, come to think of it. Try a little Butcher’s wax ( a paste wax that comes in 1 lb cans at the hardware store) on the sole of the plane, I find that makes it slide along better. It’s also good on wooden planes to prevent them checking and make 'em feel good in the hands. For that matter - maybe it’s just how I came up in the trades, but I’m of the opinion that it’s best to learn with hand tools rather than power tools. The hand tools are safer, they are slower and cut away less( which promotes learning both technique and learning how to do a job efficiently ) and using 'em gives you a better idea of how that particular process ( planing for example ) works so when you do get your hands on a power planer you tend to understand it and do a good job with it far sooner. hope that’s of use. doc…
When I started teaching wood shop over 21 years ago, I had all of the first year students make their first two projects using only hand tools. It wasn’t until the second half of the year that I introduced power tools. I think that they were better off for it. They definitely learned a reverance for wood, there were less accidents, and they appriciated the power tools when they were shown the proper way to use them. The old masters would make many of their own tools, planes being one of them. The book The Fine Art of Cabinetmaking by James Krenov covers the subject of plane making quite well. I often thought of making my own block planes to take down the stringer. Oh well- some day.