I am thinking about buying my first hand plane and was thinking about getting the Lie-Nielsen Low Angle Adjustable Mouth Block Plane. Is this a good general purpose plane? Is this a good plane for a beginner to start out with? Are there other planes I should consider instead?
Thanks in advance,
Jim
It's a very good plane, but I might consider the small bronze low angle block plane first. Then a good no. 4 smoother.
However, brush up on your sharpening and plane prep skills. Even a Lie Nielsen needs some work:
Lapping the sole (very little, but still some); lapping and honing the blade.
That little plane is the most used one I have. It's fabulous.
I can second the purchase of the smaller "apron" type LA block plane. I have a lee valley "full-size" LA block plane which I also like a lot, but as Daryl said, I use the smaller bronze LV one more. It is so light and easy to use, and works amazingly well. Just the other evening I had to chamfer several small and narrow parts. I was able to do this quickly and easily with the little bronze plane and the hand I held the parts in was the one that got a bit crampy, not the one with the plane.
The next one to get is the LN 4.5 smoother, you won't be disappointed.
Mike
If the hand plane bug really gets you you might want to check out
I would stay away from the stuff that the borg's sell and look at Veritas (Lee Valley), Highland has a good range of new planes at their website, Also Garret Wade. Think hard and buy carefully a good plane is the investment of a lifetime, bad ones will drive you nuts.
Tony
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