New Stanley hand planes? Plane suggestions?

I got a 2 plane set from Woodcraft for christmas last year. They are GROZ brand. I think the set was $49.99. They have gotten decent marks and I really like them. They did take a bit to get tuned but unless you spend a BUNCH of money, you will have to tune any that you get.

-- Adrian ..... The 11th Commandment...."Thou Shalt Not Buy A Wobble Dado"

If you’re going to pay $30 to $50 for a new Stanley, you’ll get a better deal with a pre-WWII Stanley off of eBay or at a yard sale. You can get a decent one for less than $20 easy, and it’ll be a very solid plane. If you join (free) the Old Tools Mailing List, you could also post a WTB (“want to buy”) there, and have an even better chance that the vintage plane is in good shape since those guys (generally) know their stuff.

-- Eric at http://adventuresinwoodworking.com

Thanks, I will do a search for this brand. Price certainly sounds good.

Stanley has a new line of planes being released soon that they’re targeting Lie-Nielsen and Veritas with. They do look well built, compared with what you see in the big box stores.

-- North Texas

Thats interesting Tom.

I wonder how people will react. I will need to look into proce comparisons, but I wonder how many people will be bitter about sending money to a company that took 50 yrs to fix their problems. At the same time, you are paying for the tool. Its hard to hold current mgmt responsible for the people that were their in the past. Can’t wait to start seeing some reviews.

trice, my advice would be the same as Eric’s… the nice thing about the older planes is that you can get ‘em much less expensively, and the consensus I’ve seen is that the newer models just don’t compare. You can easily find an older Stanley Bailey plane for less than the cost of a new one, and clean/tune it to be good as new with very little additional investment, other than your time.

There’s tons of info on this site about restoring planes…

I’d start with:
David
and
WayneC

These two in particular have been very instructive on tehcniques, and if you’re interested in following along, I’m working through a few planes myself.

Good luck, and let us know how it goes!

-- Ryno

I have thought about getting old planes. I was just worried that since I don’t know much about them I would just be making things harder on my self trying to restore one. Maybe I should try that though. What 2 old stanley planes would you guys recommend for all around use that would get me started?

I would start with a block plane and a number 4 or 5. I have 9 1/2 block plane, #4, #5, #7. I find myself using the 9 1/2 and the #4 most.

Just my 02

-- Scott - Chico California http://chicowoodnut.home.comcast.net

Trice, some good suggestions already. Any way you slice it you will need to spend some time tuning for best results. I think the Groz planes are a decent set of user planes for a new user. I do hesitate in recommending them because it does take some knowledge to tune them to get the best results from them. That said, you can pick them up from woodcraft, pay $10 for them to sharpen them, and start using them right out of the box. They won’t glide as smooth or cut as thin as with tuning, but they will get the job done even in this state.

The new stanleys at Lowe’s are pure garbage. The castings on them are poor quality and the surface finish on the sole and cheeks is very rough. Same goes for the Buck Brothers planes. Some may argue that the groz aren’t much better, but the basic difference is that even with knowledge of tuning most who have tried to get the new stanley and buck bros working have failed or spent a lot of time on them. Several users even commented on taking legal action against Buck Bros as they were selling products that essentially would never work.

Old planes are a bit of a crap shoot. If you are going to get into old plane restoration be prepared to dive in both feet. It is a slippery slope filled with “good deals”, diamonds in the rough, float glass, sandpaper, and a lot of time spent fettling instead of woodworking. I don’t recommend this route to the person who is not mechanically inclined or who doesn’t enjoy working on machinery. It is easy work for some. For others it is very frustrating. There is something to be said for the “they don’t make ‘em like they used to” school of thought. I have an ever growing inventory of these. But my wife does shake her head when I am in the garage for hours and produce nothing for her.

I would love to recommend Veritas or Lie Neilsen, but am honestly too cheap to buy them. They are pretty much the best bet for getting a tool that works right out of the box. There are others as well, but they are smaller operations HNT Gordon, Clifton (UK, not smaller actually just not as common in US), Blum Tool, knight, etc… Be prepared to spend $100-500ea to get these planes into your shop.

-- Doug, woodworking in Alabama

Thanks guys for all you help and suggestions. I just received one of the books I bought on Amazon called “Handtools : Their Ways and Workings” It is an excellent book with many beautifully drawn illustrations. It basically breaks down all the handtools you would use in wood working and gives alot of info on planes. I have decided to get a couple vintage Stanley planes, probably on the bay, and jump in and figure all this out. That seems to be probably the only way to go. I wish I could get a couple Lie Neilsen’s but alas, I am mortal and really can’t afford them.

As you buy the first plane…

LEARN HOW TO SHARPEN!!!!!

Not shouting: Learn how to Sharpen.

Shouting again: LEARN HOW TO SHARPEN! <g>

Others have posted many great suggestions, but the best $75 I EVER spent related to woodworking was on a 6 hour hands-on sharpening class at a local woodworking school. Do this before you drop lots of money on stones, jigs, and machines. You’ll be better educated spending money and your woodworking will improve immensely.

A sharp plane or chisel will easily correct lots of mistakes and power tool miscuts, with far lower chance of making it worse. Also, a sharp hand tool can often do in seconds what might take 30 minutes plus of setup time on a power tool. Nothing beats the power tool for many identical operations, but for one or two?

A bit back, I posted a “Team Photo” in the blog section. In the photo, there are lots of really nice planes, as well as an eBay #4 and a Craftsman block plane! Both are excellent when tuned and SHARPENED properly.

Good sharpening skills often carry over to things like hollow chisel mortisers, etc…

Google “Plane Fettling” before buying used. Be aware that Hock and Lie-Neilsen make irons and chip breakers for older Stanley planes that can greatly improve them.

-- - Real men read directions

Fettling results

Here is the results of the above mentioned Fettling. A little work took a plane that produced dust on end grain into a smooth shaving machine.

I am also new to using planes and hope to get some tips on this forum. Your post is a bit old but I bought a new Stanley low angle block plane at Lee Valley for 36.00. The same plane was sold at a large home center store her in Calgary for 63.00. I haven’t tuned it yet But for starting out I figured it would be a good learning tool.

Good Luck

Dave

-- Dave

I have recently purchased, at antique stores, four Stanley-Bailey planes; #3, #4, #5 and a really neat 18” long #6. I was even able to “dicker” on the price. With a little TLC they will clean up nicely. I have the necessary water stones and a Veritas MKII honing guide in which to sharpen them to the “shave the hair on the back of your hand” sharpness.

In order to get this complement of hand planes from Clifton or Lie-Nielson I would have to take out a second mortgage. That said, last year I did purchase both a #5 Clifton and a #4 Annat/Kamal plane at Highland Woodworking, and a #60 1/2 Stanley block plane (made in England) at Ace Hardware. The Clifton, although pricey, was ready to go out of the box. The Annet/Kamal only cost $45, but it took several hour of work to sharpen and flatten the iron. It is now working beautifully. The block plane’s iron only took a few minutes to sharpen and this has been a most useful tool.

I didn’t purchase these “antique” planes to sit on a shelf and look pretty. They are going to be used to plane the imperfections like cup and twist out of rough sawn boards prior to running them through the planer. However, keep this a secret, as the manufacturers of 8” and 12” jointers, and the woodworking magazines, like to give us woodworkers the impression that you must purchase one of these monsters in order to flatten a board.

-- "Heaven is North of the Bridge"