Anant Model #77 (not the tiny A77). I was thinking of getting one of those for myself for Christmas for shaving large tenons/shoulders. I don't have a block plane, I suppose the #77 might work in a pinch for one of those as long as I wasn't cutting end grain. It's about $70 including shipping. 1.125" blade all of the way to the side (of course...), removable "bull nose".. Go ahead--talk me out of it! : )
I did order the book: "Tool-Making Projects for Joinery and Woodworking: A Yankee Craftsman's Practical Methods", by Steve Olesin, today. I'm pretty sure I'm going to enjoy it--easy to spend $16.50 for that at Amazon. I think it would be easy to buy the plane too if I "save up" for it. : )
One of my crazier thoughts this week was thinking about the Roy Underhill-style "spring pole lathe". He writes that he modeled his after a German design. Just thinking about the mechanics of the thing is an interesting enough sideline for now. Even more interesting than the "stick deer" that some people in my neighborhood put out for Christmas--it's not easy to keep up with the Jones' out here in the midwest!
That's about $68 too much money to spend on it. Unless you just want to learn the hard way about planes and planing, goto eBay and find some rusty old arn with a Satanley name on it, Bill. Half of 'em are still in tune from the last guys who owned 'em.
Again, check
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and then search
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or
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for cheaper copies. I seldom spend more than $5 on a book, often just a penny, plus $3.99 s/h.
Roy has written half a dozen great books on handmade tools. Check those out for Christmas presents from your family, too. Submit your Amazon/eBay/ISBN.nu wishlists to them often and early! DAMHIKT
-- Education is when you read the fine print. Experience is what you get if you don't. -- Pete Seeger
I finished reading his first book, published in 1981, a few days ago ("Practical Guide to Traditional Woodcraft"). That's why I was hungry for a new book to fill its place. As you know, he starts many of his projects with fresh green wood, I mean trees, which gives the modern urbanite a different point of view. He describes two different ways to build a log cabin in about 10 pages or so. He also described how to build a shaving horse and discusses blacksmithing.
Which of his books stands out in your mind regarding handmade tools? Did you make any?
The penny thing on Amazon is a case of folks being too cute for their own good. What I suspect is happening is sellers are using software to maintain their price one penny less than the previous low. If you get two or more of them doing this, the price quickly drops to a penny. I've seen it in action when I tried to sell something. If you are a seller and run into price lowering competition all you can do is hope a buyer shows up before the guy's software kicks in.
Yuppers. I made a shaving horse, too. I cheated (with a tubasix) and made legs from some of my Lombardy poplar cuttings.
Yeah, I made a spokeshave from a Spokie(tm) kit, a froe from a leafspring and a piece of my own poplar. Spokeshave was an old Wrecker who hasn't posted here in eons (that I know of.) And I fixed a Knight shoulder plane which had delaminated. It was one of his first test planes way back and he either used the wrong glue or forgot to de-oil the bubinga sole just before gluing. I didn't make many of the suggested tools in Roy's books, though. I started a screwbox (Woodwright's Workbook) but found one so cheap I bought that instead.
-- Experience is a good teacher, but she send in terrific bills. -- Minna Thomas Antrim
Cool! Good idea using a 2by6--extra trees are not overabundant in my neck of the city either. Though I'm going to start opening my eyes wider. Make anything with your shaving horse?
Don't know anything about this brand, but I threw away about as much on a Groz... Spend a little more and get a Stanley 93, Lie-Neilsen, or Veritas. I'm leaning to Rabbet Block Plane, though the Veritas Large Shoulder plane is sweet (and the minature is not only unbelievably cute, but as someone noted here, emminently usable). The Groz is now usable, but it's taken some work correcting the shape of the mouth and the chip breaker. The bullnose position for the blade remains totally useless. The tool just has no feeling of balance.
Sounds interesting, though Larry Jacques' online suggestions have merit.
Don't forget, Bill, you are near a Half-Price Books location -- Almost never do I leave with fewer than three good purchases, and that's just counting the woodworking books. Today, I sublimented those with a mystery set in Venice... since it's doubtful I'm going to be able to get back to Italy in the near future.
Forget the decorations unless you build them. As for Underhill's books, see my last paragraph. You might find one -- stock changes quickly.
A couple weeks ago we had a thread that was similar called "Block Planes". Here was my take on it. The same holds for your question. You are considering a plane kit. I have not fiddled with this particular plane, but if it is similar in quality to their other plane kits, you have one hell of a lot of work to do on it. I have the LV medium shoulder plane and love it, but don't use it that often.
See comments below.
Low angle planes are a definite plus when it comes to end grain. I like the adjustable mouth to take fine shaving and I think it helps reduce tearout when planing long grain.
As much as I love the LN and LV planes (I have the LV medium shoulder plane), if money is any type of an object, I would recommend buying a user grade Stanley 65 / 65-1/2 or 60 / 60-1/2, the older the better for your block plane. The older they are, the more metal there is in the mouth for support. You might also consider an apron plane like a Miller Falls #5..
If you search the bay regularly and are patient, you can snare a decent user grade 65 for $35 or so, delivered. 60 is less.
Expect to have to clean, sharpen and fettle virtually any plane you buy, new or used. LV, LN or Clifton and other extremely high quality planes will require minimal tuning. Remember, when you buy a plane, you are actually buying a kit. LV, LN and Clifton are just very, very well done kits.
You didn't ask about bench planes, but after you have your first plane, you have started down a slippery slope, so here's take on bench planes. The Stanley types 9-14 were probably the best they made. Numbers 3, 4 and 5 (smoothers and q jack plane, Jeff) are available on ebay at excellent prices if you are patient and willing to do some rehab.
You should be able to find one of these for $30 or less, and it is a better made plane than any I have seen offered by the major woodworking chains until you get to the quality level of a LN or LV. Yes, you have to spend a few hours flattening soles and fitting the frog and cleaning and maybe gluing up the tote. But you have to do that to anything you buy that costs less than the LV or LN (except for gluing up the tote).
One thing I have noted about the well-used planes I've acquired. They were well used by the person who owned them and made a living with them. They often are well fettled. I have a #5 Stanley that arrived in fine fettle. Not a machine mark on the top or bottom of the frog or the mating area on the sole. The sole is flat, the sides are square and the lever cap operates with just a bit of pressure and that is all that is needed since it is so well tuned. No need for a Hock blade on this plane. Half the japanning is gone, the tote is chipped and had a crack repaired, and overall appearance is rather ugly. But it sure is a pleasure to use.
(I do not collect planes either, I do not collect planes either, I do not.....)
Roy, I read your post on block planes the first time it went around. I took notes from it and it ended up filling an entire evening looking at ebay planes, Patrick's Stanley site, etc.! Good stuff! The game continues and is alive and well here! I hope you are still not-collecting planes. :) Some of tonight's posts have caused me to pull down Hack's book on Hand Planes. I read it about 6 or 7 years ago, but I'm sure I'd get something new from reading it again at this point. I went to Martin J. Donnelly's Antique Tool Auction earlier this month and found a whole room full of non-collectors!
I take it for granted that you mean a *vintage* Stanley 93. I'll be looking. I think the Veritas is $145 or so. It pushes me to the point of pondering how good of a (wooden) plane-maker I could be! :)
I think the simplest wooden planes are the Krenov planes. Have you read Krenov? IIRC he shows how to build one in his first book. Title escapes me at the moment but someone will know.
Yea, but shipping can be a killer. I got a set of plough plane irons and a dovetail saw from the UK. Shipping was as much as the purchase price. I thought about the lower surface rate, but that can take up to 90 days. If you buy something really light it is not too painful usually. We won't talk about the stateside whackos that want $15-20 to ship a #65 that will fit in the $5 box with packing if you disassemble it.
I'm rather disgusted with the bay lately since they have made it so difficult to send questions to sellers with their audio-only message verification process. On the plus side for buyers, I'm not driving the price up on a dozen or more things each week.
(I do not collect planes, chisels, saw vices, saws, saw sets, plumb bobs, etc......I do not collect planes, or folding rules, forgot the folding rules for a minute there, chisels, saw vices, saws, saw sets, plumb bobs, etc.....I do not collect planes, oh, and braces, and bits, and pliers, and probably a couple other things, but they are all users, honest, chisels, saw vices, saws, saw sets, plumb bobs, etc......).
Can't find exactly what you want and feeling Galootish? Build your own!
I belong to a subgroup of members in the local woodworking club who like old tools. We call ourselves a Splinter Group (I'll pause while all y'all recover from that bit of woodworking humor there) and specialize in hand tools. We celebrate 5 years as a splinter group in January.
We're fixing to start our second round of building wooden hand planes. This is a bunch of links for "How-To" info. The Krenov style are not that difficult to build. Put a Hock blade in it and Bob's your uncle. Search the web for price comparisons on the blades.
_____________________________________________________________ Finally, here's my list of How to Build a Plane links. There is a lot of good info here. The Popular Mechanics site has a very good plan.. Popular WW also had a good article Free stuff listed first, books at end.
Wooden plane - Krenov technique
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plane
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style jack plane
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spill plane
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central. Lots of info. Lock your wallet before entering.
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lots and lots to read here. New to me.
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wood scraper plane
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November 2009 issue of Popular Woodworking pages 45 to 47 has an article titled "Making Totes & Knobs for Handplanes". Great little jig design to help things along is included. Also, Lee Valley Tools Ltd have (free) detailed drawings of each of the Stanley totes on their website - different plans for the different Stanley numbered planes. Much easier to print and start making the tote as no tracing of the old tote is needed!
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kinds of hand tool links
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to build 3 basic hand planes (GREAT PLANS)
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link to plans:
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style - Jim Hinze
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your own plane
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book for the money. I have a copy. Goes far beyond the Krenov style planes.
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$25 from the author, $75 on Amazon. The bible for making Krenov style planes. I don't have a copy, but Mark does.
> Great book for the money. I have a copy. Goes far beyond the Krenov style > planes.
Thank you for all of the links/info. I saved a copy on my desktop. I've recently been reading one you mentioned above: "Making Traditional Wooden Planes", by Whelan. As you already know, he suggests that the best way to make a plane is to already have one like the one you're trying to make. I'll just have to ignore that little aside for now.
>>>>> Great book for the money. I have a copy. Goes far beyond the Krenov style >> planes. >>
Roy, BTW, I was just re-reading a post you made here on 2/10/10 which compared the "practicality" of Finck's book to that of Whelan's book. Thus you can assume that I remember the differences between them that you mentioned verbatim!
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