Ed Bray
Established Member
I bought a block plane in the Axminster Sale, this one: http://www.axminster.co.uk/rider-wide-b ... lock-plane
I paid £28 for mine (price reduces each day until they're sold out so its cheaper again now), I thought a plane for less than the price of a round of drinks at Christmas isn't such a loss if it turns out to be rubbish.
After spending about 25 minutes cleaning all the gunk off with meths I was prepared to start fettling:
Well, to say I am presently surprised would be an understatement. First off, it's slightly bigger than a standard block plane, it is also a fair bit heavier than any of the other block planes (4) I own. The quality of the individual parts is very high although the finishing on the Brassy Twisty Cappy Thingy (hasn't got a lever so it can't be a lever cap) could have been a little nicer in the centre, although the actual bit you touch/hold has been nicely finished.
The casting looks very good and I was amazed when I started checking it for squareness and flatness. The sole was perfectly flat in all directions and I could not get a feeler gauge between my straight edge and the sole. After calibrating my digital angle gauge on the straight edge I then checked the sides against the sole. On one side the angles measured at six different places were between 89.9° and 89.7° whilst on the other side the six measurements were between 90.2° and 90.4°, this I found quite astonishing.
I then sharpened the blade which although reasonably sharp and bevelled at 25° I flattened the back slightly and then went through the grits from 600 - 1000 - 1200 - 3000 - 8000 at 30° I then use the DC ruler trick to clean off the burr on the flat side.
The results were fantastic, I cut some beautiful shavings from a length of Oak, next came some hard softwood and finally my old fallback (coz I've got lots) Iroko. It handled all very nicely. Didn't try it with end grain as I was doing all the planing holding the wood in one hand and the plane in the other, I would need to put the wood in a vice to get a good finish on end grain and it's too cold to go out to the garage now (wimp I know).
So, great 'bigger than your average' block plane for not much money and does a fantastic job almost straight out of the box.
I'm not sure where these planes originate but if I could guess I suspect they are not made too far away from quangsheng or other western copies as they look very like some of the Lie Nielsen block planes.
I will say this, if they had a rebate version I would have bought that too.
I paid £28 for mine (price reduces each day until they're sold out so its cheaper again now), I thought a plane for less than the price of a round of drinks at Christmas isn't such a loss if it turns out to be rubbish.
After spending about 25 minutes cleaning all the gunk off with meths I was prepared to start fettling:
Well, to say I am presently surprised would be an understatement. First off, it's slightly bigger than a standard block plane, it is also a fair bit heavier than any of the other block planes (4) I own. The quality of the individual parts is very high although the finishing on the Brassy Twisty Cappy Thingy (hasn't got a lever so it can't be a lever cap) could have been a little nicer in the centre, although the actual bit you touch/hold has been nicely finished.
The casting looks very good and I was amazed when I started checking it for squareness and flatness. The sole was perfectly flat in all directions and I could not get a feeler gauge between my straight edge and the sole. After calibrating my digital angle gauge on the straight edge I then checked the sides against the sole. On one side the angles measured at six different places were between 89.9° and 89.7° whilst on the other side the six measurements were between 90.2° and 90.4°, this I found quite astonishing.
I then sharpened the blade which although reasonably sharp and bevelled at 25° I flattened the back slightly and then went through the grits from 600 - 1000 - 1200 - 3000 - 8000 at 30° I then use the DC ruler trick to clean off the burr on the flat side.
The results were fantastic, I cut some beautiful shavings from a length of Oak, next came some hard softwood and finally my old fallback (coz I've got lots) Iroko. It handled all very nicely. Didn't try it with end grain as I was doing all the planing holding the wood in one hand and the plane in the other, I would need to put the wood in a vice to get a good finish on end grain and it's too cold to go out to the garage now (wimp I know).
So, great 'bigger than your average' block plane for not much money and does a fantastic job almost straight out of the box.
I'm not sure where these planes originate but if I could guess I suspect they are not made too far away from quangsheng or other western copies as they look very like some of the Lie Nielsen block planes.
I will say this, if they had a rebate version I would have bought that too.
