Watch This Before Buying Handplanes for Woodworking

hi i'm joshua farnsworth welcome to my woodworking school in this video i'll continue my hand tool guides by talking all about hand planes which hand planes you need for woodworking and which ones you don't so what is a hand plane a hand plane is basically a sharp chisel that's held at an angle in a wooden or metal body that allows you to flatten smooth or shape a board for furniture making hand planes come in many different shapes sizes and materials heck i've got well over a hundred different hand planes so i know it can be really confusing to understand which hand planes you need but don't worry in this video and the accompanying article i'll try to simplify this for you and show you which hand planes to get first which ones can wait until later and which ones you may never need first i'm going to briefly introduce you to the three main hand plane categories bench planes joinery planes and molding plane in this first hand plane video i'll dive deep into bench planes and talk about bench planes for woodworkers on different budgets and in the subsequent videos i'll do the same for joinery planes and molding planes so make sure you subscribe to my channel so you don't miss those videos that are coming up before i begin i just want to quickly let you know that this video goes along with my really popular article on choosing hand planes below this video you'll find a link to the article and all my other tool guide articles my articles have way more detail than i can share in a video including specific brand recommendations all right let's talk about the three different categories of hand planes bench planes are hand planes that are used so often that they're often sitting on your workbench bench planes like these are used for shaping flattening dimensioning and smoothing your boards for building furniture as i showed in my video on scoring up boards with hand tools the basic set of three bench planes would be these a jack plane or a floor plane is used for the initial rough flattening of a board this hand plane is sharpened with an extreme camber or an arc it has a wide open mouth which allows for easier and faster wood removal especially when planing across the grain this action is called scrubbing these hand planes excel at getting the twist out of the board and getting it more or less flat dedicated scrub planes are smaller than a jack plane but are used for the same purpose the next hand plane to touch the wood is a jointer plane or a triplane this long hand plane is ideal for precision flattening and it gives a nearly finished surface it's also used for creating a precise 90 degree edge to the flattened face this is essential for when you need to glue up boards for a tabletop the last plane to touch the wood is a shorter plane called a smoothing plane its job is mainly for finishing the surface of the wood a highly tuned smoothing plane with a tight mouth can give a shared surface that's superior to what you can get from sanding i also throw block planes into the bench plane category because i use them so often block planes haven't been around as long as the other bench planes but they're certainly useful for a lot of smaller detail work especially for trimming the end grain of boards [Music] joinery planes are specialty hand planes that are used for creating or finishing wood joints examples of joinery planes include rabbit planes plow planes shoulder planes tongue and groove planes and router planes [Music] molding planes are wooden hand planes that are used for cutting decorative profiles on a board these are some of my favorite hand planes because of the lovely appearance that they give to my furniture examples of molding planes include dedicated molding planes hollow and round planes snipe build planes beating planes and much more [Music] almost every student who comes to classes in my school wants advice on buying hand tools and specifically hand planes but they all have different budget sizes some students have already dropped over a thousand dollars on a brand new set of bench planes and other students want advice on getting the most out of their very small tool budget so i'll go through the different bench planes and show some different options for woodworkers who have different budgets i'll even show you how to put together a nice set of antique bench planes for under a hundred dollars [Music] let's quickly talk about the most common styles of bench planes that you'll find wooden planes are the oldest style of hand plane most of the finest furniture in history was made with wooden hand planes and some of my favorite planes fit into this category like this wooden jack plane this wooden jointer plane that i made and this wooden smoothing plane they're also usually the most affordable bench planes i could easily put together a good set of antique wooden bench planes for under a hundred dollars the oldest style of wooden bench plane has a simple metal iron that's held in with a wedge later models introduced a chip breaker onto the iron to improve throat clogging wooden planes take a little more work to adjust the metal planes but it's not difficult to learn you advance and laterally adjust the iron with some taps on the top and side of the iron and you set the iron in place by tapping the wedge if you've gone too far then you can loosen the iron by smacking the heel of the plane or whacking the strike button i usually find it quite enjoyable to adjust wooden planes wooden smoothing planes and joiner planes can be finicky to get rehabbed and tuned up just right but the planes aren't expensive so it may be worth the experiment to you and once they're tuned up they're sweet to use and you feel really cool using them now we'll jump into metal hand planes by talking about the most common style you'll encounter the bailey patent style the bailey style planes were patented by leonard bailey in the mid-1800s and his revolutionary design really influenced most hand planes that followed after because of his design that featured an adjustable cutting depth and lever cap the stanley rule and level company purchased his manufacturing company and patents and manufactured millions of these planes by the early 1900s stanley was casting the bailly name into the body of the planes these hand planes are the most common type of metal bench plane and relatively affordable however the prices of stanley bailey planes have jumped in recent years but you can still find some good deals if you look in the right places these stanley bailey planes range in size from a baby size number one plane all the way up to a monster number eight jointer plane with some fractional sizes in between when shopping for vintage stanley bailey planes you'll notice a type number that refers to the version every time new advancements were made they would be released as a new type ranging from type 1 all the way up to type 20. opinions vary but most people feel that the quality peaked between type 11 and 13 and that the quality sharply declined during and after world war ii you can visit my type study page to see how old your stanley bailey hand plane is i'll share the link to that page below this video some modern manufacturers make planes in this baylor style though i haven't tried any that i've found to be as good as the vintage planes bedrock campaigns were a superior line of bench planes manufactured by stanley based on patents from some other ingenious people the bedrock planes get their names from the solid and smooth machine casting that the frog sits on which leads to less chance of vibration while hand planing a board in my opinion this is the most important feature of the plane this style of plane also features an easier mechanism for opening and closing the mouth of the plane using adjustment screws on the rear of the frog without having to unscrew the frog like you do on the bailey style bedrock planes follow a similar sizing convention though the numbers start with a 6-0 for example the bedrock version of a bailey number four plane would be 604 so a bedrock 604 smoothing plane the price of vintage bedrock style planes are astronomical compared to the bailey style planes due to the superior design and the comparative scarcity however a bailey style plane will work great for you so don't feel like you have to get a bedrock hand plane there are a couple of higher end modern manufacturers who produce bedrock style planes now the price tag is high but not a lot higher than vintage bedrock planes and you don't have to refurbish them i've listed the names and the models of these planes that i recommend in my hand plane article that i mentioned earlier transitional planes are crossed between a wooden hand plane and a metal hand plane they have metal parts with a wooden body you may think that they were the evolutionary link between wooden bench planes and metal bench planes but they were actually released after the initial metal bench planes from what i understand it was to appeal to people who liked the adjustability of metal planes but miss the wooden soles of the all wooden bench planes it could have also been a way for plane makers to make a more affordable line of bench planes either way vintage transitional bench planes are a lot more affordable than metal bodied bench planes sometimes i find transitional planes challenging to get tuned up to the level required for smoothing and jointing but these planes are so affordable that it may be worth the challenge for you and transitional planes work wonderfully as jack planes because jack planes are used for rough work and they don't need to be highly tuned but i'll discuss this in a minute in the section on jack planes a less common vintage bench plane's design that originated from stanley is the low angle bevel up hand planes stanley originally sold a couple jack plane sizes and a smoothing plane size they're essentially a hybrid between a bench plane and a block plane this style hand plane doesn't have a movable frog but uses an adjustable mouth opening mechanism instead it also doesn't use a chip breaker like bevel down planes use the solid iron simply sits firmly against the low angle plane casting this style of plane has gotten some traction in recent years as several modern plane makers have tried to resurrect the style it has some nice flexibility because depending on how you sharpen the iron it can be used as a low angle plane for cutting end grain as a normal bench plane for standard hand planing or as a high angle plane for planting difficult figured wood grain but buying two extra blades can get expensive the vintage bevel up planes have some design flaws and are also so rare that the prices are way too high so i tend to prefer the modern versions from a couple different plane makers i'll talk more about bevel up hand planes in a few minutes if you've got a large tool budget and want the nicest and most lovely hand planes available then look at vintage british infill planes often called scottish infill planes these incredibly well-made metal planes were usually made to very high tolerances they're very rigid and heavy to avoid vibration they have thick irons and chip breakers and they have very tight mouths which are all ideal for making fine shavings on hardwoods many of these planes are sought by collectors at very high prices i'm talking in the thousands of dollars but you can look for relatively inexpensive user grade infill planes which aren't in mint condition and are priced to be used in your workshop rather than being stored in a case or a vault you can also opt for a nice plane like this one that lacks a brand name which further lowers the price now that we've gotten the hand plane classification out of the way let's get into the advice on specific bench planes jack planes jointer planes smoothing planes and block planes as i mentioned earlier a jack plane or a four plane or a scrub plane is the first hand plane to touch your rough sawn board these planes are typically used for rough wood removal or scrubbing as it's called i prefer a larger jack plane or a floor plane over a dedicated scrub plane because it's used for rough work i typically don't tune these planes up as much as i do with the other bench planes i just sharpen it really well precise features that may be desirable on a smoothing plane or a jointer plane like a tight mouth for example are usually not desirable on a jack plane this is great news for woodworkers who want to budget because i don't recommend that they spend a lot of money on one of these jack planes spending hundreds of dollars on a jack plane doesn't make sense to me no matter how big someone's budget is so stick with something that's vintage in fact some of my favorite jack planes are the most affordable planes on the market this antique wooden plane is my favorite jackplane yes wooden planes can take more time to adjust but because i don't use this plane for anything besides scrubbing i rarely have to adjust it this plane costs me around 15 another fantastic candidate for scrubbing are these vintage transitional jack planes which i mentioned earlier as i said transitional planes work fantastic as a jack plane because jack planes don't need to be highly tuned also if used as a jack plane they don't require much rehab work at all they just need to be sharpened just avoid buying a plane that has obvious major problems like cracked metal parts badly broken totes or knobs or missing parts because buying replacement parts are often more expensive than buying the plane itself a transitional jack plane in good condition shouldn't cost you more than 25 dollars and is perfectly suitable for rough stock removal it won't likely give you gossamer shavings but for making ugly wood chips fly they work just as well as any expensive plane in my article i've shared some of the models that i own here in my school and i enjoy using if you want to eventually acquire a set of metal bench planes but can only afford to start with one then i'd recommend buying a metal number five jack plane here are some of my number five jack planes for you to look at if this will be your only hand plane at first then you'll need to spend extra time turning it up to the level of a smoothing plane because you're going to use it for all three jobs rough scrubbing flattening and jointing and smoothing this option won't work as well as having three dedicated bench planes but it can do fairly well this is how it can work when you buy a metal number five jack plane also buy a second iron or blade like this sharpen one iron with an extreme camber for scrubbing a rough board and sharpen the other blade with a barely noticeable camber for smoothing and jointing then you can just swap the iron out depending on the work you're doing a jack plane can actually work perfectly as a jointer plane as long as your board is less than three times the length of the jack plank for example this number five jack plane is approximately 14 inches long so it would technically be a jointer plane for any board under 42 inches give or take so it'll work great for flattening and jointing along the length of the board many furniture parts are under this length so a jack plane is quite flexible as a joint and the jack plane can work somewhat well as a smoothing plane too however it would be difficult to get into small areas of difficult grain to smooth it with such a long plane when you switch from the smoother or jointer side up to a scrubbing setup you just switch out the blade and adjust the frog mechanism to open the mouth to allow the big shavings to exit i elaborate on this more in my article if you're interested in this option in the article i also elaborate on using this similar method with a new bevel up low angled jack plane it's a pretty cool option but it would take a long time to describe it here in this video so i'll save it for the article but again if your budget allows for all three bench planes then just buy an affordable vintage transitional jack plane or a wooden jack plane and spend more money on a nice smoothing plane and join airplane recently the metal scrub plane has become popular with hobbyist woodworkers for flattening the faces of boards however these little planes weren't traditionally used for flattening boards and weren't even manufactured until after power planers and power jointer started to emerge four planes or jack planes were traditionally used for scrubbing these narrow metal scrub planes were apparently manufactured for house carpenters they needed a fast method for narrowing the width of a board when there wasn't enough wood to be removed to require the use of a hand saw i personally like using these scrub planes on the edges of boards but i find them too narrow for quickly flattening boards so my recommendation would be to not purchase a metal scrub plant a jointer plane or triplane is an important bench plane for flattening the faces of boards and particularly for squaring the edges of longer boards to get a 90 degree edge this is really essential when you're gluing the edges together or when you need a square reference edge and face for making and measuring your joints wooden body jointer planes are good and affordable option if you can find one in decent condition and you want to spend the time to refurbish it or you can even make a jointer plane in fact i created a video with hand plane expert bill anderson on making a lovely 18th century jointer plane you can purchase the digital video or dvd in my online store if this is right you'd like to go i made one and love the way it works and i consider it a family heirloom to be passed down to my kids and grandkids and just like with wooden smoothing planes and jack planes wooden joiner planes require a bit more work to adjust and can be a bit puzzling when refurbishing the same advice that i shared about buying metal smoothing planes applies here with buying metal jointer planes the bailey style number seven jointer plane is the most common and popular option for jointer planes i would avoid buying a number eight jointer plane unless you're pretty strong it'll wear you out [Music] again a smoothing plane is a shorter hand plane that's tuned up to give the best possible finish on a board a finish that is usually superior to what sandpaper will give you a shorthand plane length allows you to work the plane into smaller areas with reversing grain for woodworkers that don't have a large tool budget i have a couple recommendations the first choice of most budget-conscious woodworkers is a bailey style smoothing plate several manufacturers of the past made good versions of these planes in the late 1800s and early 1900s most people opt for a number four size flame if your hands are a bit smaller then a number three smoothing plane works great if you prefer a heavier smoothing plane to give more power to your planing then a number four and a half size smoothing plane is ideal i have a couple of smoothing planes in that size the four and a half is more rare and thus more expensive than a number four when you're buying vintage and a number three is usually less expensive than a number four i have large hands and prefer a number four or four and a half but i also own a few number threes and i can certainly use them without discomfort one of my favorite recommendations for a really tight budget is a coffin smoother these lovely little wooden smoothing planes are usually under 15 dollars in good shape and they work amazingly once they're sharpened and tuned up they always have thicker irons and chip breakers which makes plain shatter much less likely and in my opinion they aren't as time consuming to rehab as metal planes are although i do occasionally run into puzzling problems that i need to solve with them but usually adjusting the shape of the wedge and inlaying a tighter mouth is the most common improvement that people make on these hand planes again it does take a bit more work to adjust wooden hand planes but once i get it dialed in for a fine shaving i usually don't have to do much tuning until it's time to resharpen the iron again for those with a moderate budget i recommend that they consider buying a bedrock style smoothing plane if you like the idea of rehabbing an old tool then go for a vintage bedrock 603 604 or 604 and a half smoothing plane last i checked they were running over 200 for a plane that needs a good amount of rehab work if you don't want to fuss with rehabbing then look at one of these newer smoothing planes made by modern manufacturers this toolmaker sells their bedrock style number four smoother for under two hundred dollars and this toolmaker sells theirs for around three hundred eighty dollars as you can see the irons and chip breakers are thicker and more stable than the vintage bedrock irons and chip breakers neither plane comes ready to go out of the box in my opinion they both required honing to get them to work great this bronze plane does have more attention to detail but i tested it side by side with this less expensive smoothing plane and they both performed exceptionally well and they took really nice shavings so i feel like this less expensive one is a better value again i mentioned specific brands and models in my article and of course if you've got a much larger budget then i really like the scottish infill smoothing planes which i talked about earlier in this video not only are these planes attractive but they're heavy and precision made with tight mouths and solid bodies which makes for excellent smoothing but to be honest i've found that a bayley style smoothing plane works very well without chatter if it's highly tuned and oiled or waxed comment below if you'd like me to make a video on highly tuning up a hand plane like this if i get enough votes then i'll probably make the video the biggest problem with rehabbing a vintage metal bench plane is the thin chip breakers which can really give me trouble if i can't close the gaps this leads to chattering with the hand plane but other than that a rehab should only take about a day but if you'd rather spend your valuable time woodworking rather than rehabbing hand planes then a new bedrock style hand plane may be the right choice for you another option to get around the thin chip breakers in the thin irons is to get an aftermarket chip breaker and iron there's a couple companies who make good ones that are nice and thick and they don't have gaps and they won't chatter when you're hand planing [Music] a simple little metal block plane is used for a lot of woodworking tasks like truing up end grain on board ends creating chamfers on board edges trimming wood joints like tenons and dovetails and much more block planes are relatively new compared with other hand planes they only appeared in the mid-1800s but their small size and versatility have made block planes a popular tool among woodworkers block planes come in both low angle and higher angle configurations but i feel like the low angle versions are much more useful because they excel at cutting end grain when buying a block plane it's a good idea to spend a little more for a low angle version in my opinion because of the relative ease of manufacturing block planes a lot of companies make them and a lot of those block lanes are bad so you need to be careful and buy from reputable tool makers i share some of those brands in my article i've got a couple vintage block planes and a couple modern block planes that i especially love if you find that a low angle block plane is outside of your budget then a normal angle block plane like these will work pretty well for you just get it really sharp i sure hope this video has been helpful to you in the next video i'll be talking about which joinery planes you need for hand tool would work like plow planes rabbit planes tongue and groove planes and router planes so make sure you subscribe to my channel and click the notification bell so you can be notified immediately when the video is released you don't want to miss it thanks for watching and for hanging out here at my shop i'll see you in the next video [Music] hi i'm joshua farnsworth if you like this video i've got a whole bunch of other free woodworking videos and articles at my website which you can visit by clicking right here you'll go to woodandshop.com down here if you click you can subscribe to my youtube channel and over here are some really great other videos that i think you might like to check out

Channel: Wood and Shop

Views: 89,281

Rating: 4.9376945 out of 5

Keywords: woodwork, woodworking, traditional woodworking, roy underhill, woodwright's shop, chris schwarz, lie-nielsen, hand planes, hand saws, chisels, workshop, handplanes, molding planes, moulding planes, hand tools, hand tool woodworking

Id: yBP9-2wY94M

Length: 30min 50sec (1850 seconds)

Published: Fri Sep 11 2020