Groz Hand Planes

Nice job with the pics and description. It sounds like these had the benefit of setup by a seasoned veteran. Was there much fettling or adjusting to be made?

-- Happiness is like wetting your pants...everyone can see it, but only you can feel the warmth....

Good question – I worked long and hard to get my Footprint planes running sort-of-ok. These guys were far less work and I don’t think the person who owned them before me did anything special. I ran’em through the set-up process early in the year and will spend a decent portion of this summer fixing/working all my tools. I’m no seasoned veteran, so I am assuming the build quality is higher than your average India plane.

I teach special-needs kids, and they struggle to understand (as well as I do at times) the finagling that goes into setting a plane up. I usually adjust the plane for the work at hand, each time, every time.

—WW

-- make it safe & keep the rubber side down.

Thanks for the review. I have the little block plane as well as the #4 and #5 bench planes. The jointer is my next Groz purchase. I agree that they do take quite a bit of time to set up, but once set up they work well… Unlike you though, my #5 needed quite a bit of attention with a file getting the frog flat, but once done it REALLY cuts nice…

So far I have planed pine, walnut, pecan, curly maple, and mesquite with them…

-- Manufacturer of fine quality sawdust since 1984. Comments and advice on my shop welcome. Check it out at http://lumberjocks.com/dbhost/workshop. Gladly accepting shop build donations!

I picked up the #5 when Woodcraft had it on clearance. I coworker followed suit and spent hour working on the sole. Once he got that set up, he liked the results. I, on the other hand, still have mine on my office floor.. I’m trying to convince him to set mine up.. It just seems like if you purchase an introductory hand plane, it should be at least ready to go out of the box..

FYI, the link to set up the planes should be: http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2011/02/skill-set-tuning-planes-and-chisels.html

-- Dan, Rochester, NY

I bought the number 4 and 5 on sale at Woodcraft years ago. They were my first planes when I first started and wanted to figure out if I wanted to get into hand tools. I could never get them to work well. I finally bought the least expensive Lie-Nielsen plane, the little bronze block plane, just to see if it was the tool or me that was the problem. It was the tool.

Since then, I have only bought Lie-Nielsen and Veritas hand planes. I did not throw the Groz planes away, though. I put a severe curve on one of the blades and set up the jack as a scrub plane. That’s all I use it for.

-- Disappointment is an empty box full of expectation.

Out of the 14 planes I have ,the #3 Groz had the second flattest sole. The flattest was a Millers Falls,10C, that was dead flat, It took very little time to flatten the sole on the Groz,The only Groz, I have.
I don’t have any LN’S. Once tuned up the Groz is a decent plane,it’s almost as good as ,the one Record #4 I have
Even though I don’t own any LN planes I think once tuned up my Millers Fills planes are probably just as good.

-- E J ------- Always Keep a Firm Grip on Your Tool

There is another plane made in India sold under the name Anant. Anant has two lines of planes. They have the Anant line and then the Anant Kamal line (higher quality). Highland Woodworking carries them, but I have seen them in other catalogs also. Even the Kamal tools are reasonably priced. In addition, they also make reproductions of the No. 78 and the No. 52 as well as some spoke shaves and bull nose tools. For student planes, these might also be an alternative. Here is the link to them on the Highland website: http://www.highlandwoodworking.com/search.aspx?find=anant&log=false&category=243.

Doc

-- Hey, woodworking ain't brain surgery. Just do something and keep trying till you get it. Doc

Thanks Doc – I haven’t seen an Anant in either the high-wuality or low, though I have heard of them. What set-up time are we looking at with the Kamal, do you know?

I wonder if there’s just one plant out there which produces the Groz/Footprint/Anant lines using old Stanley/Bedrock/Bailey patterns, ala the Royal Enfield?

—WW

-- make it safe & keep the rubber side down.

Last year Highland woodworking in Atlanta had a close out on their line of std Anant planes. I bought the #7 jointer. It arrived just before the WIA Conference last October, so I took it with me to to the conference and showed it to Chris Schwarz. He was not impressed, although he told me that it was a good plane to fool around with to become famaliar with fixing up/tuning up planes.

I took it home and found, fortunately, that the sole was very flat. I did use the sandpaper on it as the factory machining was a little rough. The blade, which is probably on the soft side as Chris stated, none the less flattened and sharpened well enough to cut a hand held sheet of paper…... like schlipppppp. The chipbreaker needed work, and I never did get it perfect, but shavings don’t seem to become clogged. All in all it’s now a satisfactory plane for occasional work. It will probably eventually lead me into a LN, Lee Valley, or Clifton plane.

Apparently, Highland Woodworking is now closing out the Anant Kamal line as well.

the

-- "Heaven is North of the Bridge"

Thanks for the info 8iowa.

-- make it safe & keep the rubber side down.

If you have 400 bucks for one plane great,if you don’t
A common misconception among many new woodworkers is that you need an expensive plane to experience the joy of handplaning—the whisper-thin shavings, the tool gliding across the board, the glass-smooth, dead-flat result. Not true. You can get great results from a garage-sale find or an eBay purchase as long as you know what to do. Roland Johnson has rejuvenated dozens of Stanley Bailey planes and given more than 100 seminars on the subject. Here, he demonstrates how to tear down a plane to its bare chassis and rebuild it into a classic.

http://www.finewoodworking.com/ToolGuide/ToolGuidePDF.aspx?id=33752

-- E J ------- Always Keep a Firm Grip on Your Tool

Among my planes I have a Footprint #4 and a Anant Kamel #5. Yes the Footprint is not great but usable. Sole was not to bad, blade is thin and soft but it will work. The Kamel was pretty good, nice thick blade, just needed a bit of tinkering and it works pretty good. I will have to check out Highland if they are closing out the Kamels. I would like a #7 to extend past the 1933-1940ish Stanley Bailey #6 I picked up at an estate sale for $10. I do get lucky occasionally.

Randy

-- That was not wormy wood when I started working on it.

Woodriver is a good line of planes if you want out of the box usability without the painful price-tag. Other than those you have to decide what’s more important to you, your time or you money.

-- Make furniture that lasts as long as the tree - Ryan