If money was no object

[Greedo]

what are the best brand of chisels and hand planes to buy that are solid quality and you get what you pay for?

I know there will be average quality with Rolls Royce prices and good quality without Rolls Royce prices to pay so to speak.

What's your advice guys?

 

[bugbear]

Both Lie Nielsen and Lee Valley offer fair value for money in terms of money spent versus materials+engineering quality received.

Neither is the "money no object" choice. That way lies Bridge City, Holtey, Sauer & Steiner, Clarke & Williams, Wenzloff...

BugBear

 

[MikeG.]

what are the best brand of chisels and hand planes to buy that are solid quality and you get what you pay for?

I know there will be average quality with Rolls Royce prices and good quality without Rolls Royce prices to pay so to speak.

What's your advice guys?

My advice is that a properly fettled old Clifton, Stanley or Record will be indistinguishable from something costing ten times as much from Lie Nielsen and Lee Valley to 99% of users. The same with chisels. If you learn how to get a plane or chisel really sharp (and well set) then you'll have wasted your money if you bought a money-no-object version.

 

[ED65]

Planes, to answer the question literally, vintage Stanley and Record. You could add Rapier, Woden and a few others to that list as well. Similar case can be made for chisels, with Blue-Chips from Marples and others.

If you mean buying new I think that's a huge can of worms because I think you get what you pay for at the low end (and sometimes a lot more), but I don't know that you can honestly say that this is true at the high end. To be specific I mean the high end of mass-market brands, not Bridge City Tools, Sauer & Steiner and the like where you're paying for something more than the physical object itself.

 

[Ttrees]

You can drop a Lie Nielsen plane on the floor and it'ill be all right, as the're made from ductile iron.
I believe Lee valley's Veritas tools and Quangsheng's Wood river, are made from the same stuff.
I own a LN 60 1/2 and its absolutely soo perfect...
Lie-Nielsen planes work straight out of the box...
I did lap the back of the iron to mirror polish, and that's no easy task ON A2 steel,
with only a very fine dia-sharp DMT stone...(I should buy an Ultex or more expensive hone for this)
My Stanley Bailey planes do everything I ever asked them to do
I made sure I bought good'uns

Horses for courses
Japanese white steel chisels and Veritas PMV-11 are raved about quite often ...
Rob Cosman has a new line of chisels too

I see you have quite a few posts ...
Wondering why you ask, when I imagine you are probably well aware of the answer ?
Tom

 

[thetyreman]

I'd still use old planes if money was no object, it's more about how you set the plane up and fettle it, than the brand/make, no different to learning how a car runs and keeping it in top condition, tools need to be set up and maintained.

 

[Greedo]

You can drop a Lie Nielsen plane on the floor and it'ill be all right, as the're made from ductile iron.
I believe Lee valley's Veritas tools and Quangsheng's Wood river, are made from the same stuff.
I own a LN 60 1/2 and its absolutely soo perfect...
Lie-Nielsen planes work straight out of the box...
I did lap the back of the iron to mirror polish, and that's no easy task ON A2 steel,
with only a very fine dia-sharp DMT stone...(I should buy an Ultex or more expensive hone for this)
My Stanley Bailey planes do everything I ever asked them to do
I made sure I bought good'uns

Horses for courses
Japanese white steel chisels and Veritas PMV-11 are raved about quite often ...
Rob Cosman has a new line of chisels too

I see you have quite a few posts ...
Wondering why you ask, when I imagine you are probably well aware of the answer ?
Tom

Not that many posts if honest and just really wanted to know a few things today as have just mucked about for too long and need to bring a structure to what I want to do. Thanks for your post. good info

 

[MusicMan]

Most of my planes are (well set up) Stanley or Record. My No. 7 is a cheap Faithfull, which works well though I have not tested it against other makes. I have a Veritas shooter plane, which is a joy to use and worth it for me as arthritic fingers and tendon issues make it problematic to hold a regular plane on its side. And the Quangsheng low angle jack is very nice indeed. The range of three bevel angle blades make it suitable for most grain patterns, and the low centre of gravity makes it easy to push without wobbling. My block is a low-angle skew Lea Valley, really excellent.

So my personal solution is to use Stanley/Record as norm, but go for the higher-end planes for a few specific tasks.

 

[AndyT]

I'm not the first here to say it, but expensive tools are not the answer to everything.

I only have one properly expensive tool, a Skelton saw*, which I like a lot and enjoy using. But if it was my only saw, as a beginner, I'd probably have ruined it through poor technique or by using it for jobs it's not designed for.

I'm sure too, that if I only had a kit of brand new, expensive tools, I would be too inhibited to make anything. That's why my bench is made of cheap softwood and salvaged bits and pieces.


*Quite likely to be underpriced at present, judging by the waiting list to buy one.

 

[custard]

what are the best brand of chisels and hand planes to buy that are solid quality and you get what you pay for?

I know there will be average quality with Rolls Royce prices and good quality without Rolls Royce prices to pay so to speak.

What's your advice guys?

Go down to the bottom of this page and you'll see a Holtey, Lie Nielsen, and Records with two different irons tackling a piece of old growth Indian Rosewood,

record-stanley-laminated-plane-irons-t106851-30.html

With the planes properly set up, and on this demanding timber, I can't see any material difference in either the shavings or the planed surface of the workpiece. However, the Lie Nielsen and the Holtey work straight out of the box, and they both feel a lot better in the hand with noticeably less backlash and much smoother operation of the depth and lateral adjusters. Is that worth the premium? Your money so your choice. It's like asking what's the best car with which to do the weekly shopping, a Fiat Punto will get you and your shopping back from the supermarket just as well as an Aston Martin, but I guess the Aston Martin would make the experience that bit more enjoyable!

Regarding chisels, the current version two of Ashley Iles chisels are very nice and a bargain for the price, for more money so are Lie Nielsen, and the tiny lands on Blue Spruce chisels make them a treat for dovetailing, if preparation is your thing then maybe top end Japanese chisels are worth considering. But are you going to see a material improvement in your woodworking using these versus Aldi chisels? Probably not, where as if you invested the money you saved from not buying top end planes and chisels into face to face training then you almost certainly would see a huge improvement in your skills.

Your money, your time, your priorities...so your choice.

 

[bugbear]

Your money, your time, your priorities...so your choice.

I though this was worth emphasising.

BugBear

 

[Glynne]

I splashed out on a Veritas shooting plane and absolutely love it.
I could probably get by with a normal bench plane but for me I now actually enjoy shooting end grain rather than it being a chore.
I own a full set of LN bevel edge chisels which with A2 steel aren’t the easiest to sharpen, but they do keep their edge. Are they better than other chisels, perhaps not but I enjoy using them and for me if I enjoy using a tool then I tend to be better with it.
Whilst all of the practical advice is really useful, I think people sometimes forget that personal preference comes into a lot of purchases, cars, furniture etc. and pure logic sometimes takes a secondary role. So why shouldn’t that apply to tools if you can afford them?
As BugBear said, it’s your money..........

 

[G S Haydon]

Hi Greedo

If money was no object? Who knows!

I think the question you posed was pretty good "what are the best brand of chisels and hand planes to buy that are solid quality and you get what you pay for". If you want new, give Matthew at Workshop Heaven a call. Some of the stuff he sells is a touch posh but overall I think he offers good service and you get what you pay for.

It does not sound like you want to go second hand but, a good smoothing plane can be had for about £20.00. Stanley #4 would be a perfect into and easy to get working well.

Lie-Nielsen is fine, as are Veritas, very good in fact. But I think Ashley Illes makes a better bench chisel, I think the larger Lie-Nielsen planes are a bit too heavy and I'm not a fan of the Norris adjusters on Veritas stuff.

Like I said, give Matthew a buzz.

 

[kevinlightfoot]

I love my early Clifton planes,I bought the new block plane a couple of years ago but I find it a little cumbersome when compared to my Lie Neilsen ones.But I think you will go a good way before you beat Cliftons for General bench use they are a pleasure to own and use.By the way I use the ones with th two piece cap iron

 

[bugbear]

As BugBear said, it’s your money..........

(cough)Custard(cough)

BugBear

 

[Tasky]

If money really was *no* object I'd walk into Paul Sellers's workshop, pretend to look around for a moment, and then just say to him, "Yep. Good enough - I'll take it"....

Chisel-wise, I hear good things about Ashley Iles ones. Some also tell me Narex make some good ones.
Me, I have the cheap Lidl set and some old Marples ones, the rhubarb & custards.

Note: Irwin bought the Marples brand name and make modern sets that look like both the original blue handled and the R&C handled chisels, but I'm told they are nothing like the originals... Be cautious.

 

[D_W]

Money no object, I'd use a wooden jack, a wooden try plane (and keep a metal jointer around for edge duty without much face work, because that tends to groove the sole of a try plane - especially on ply) and a stanley 4.

I have sort of a money no object situation, but not to the extreme. I have 15 infills (maybe a couple more than that), a gaggle of wooden planes, a couple of premium planes and some bailey pattern planes. I just don't love wooden smoothers, thus the stanley 4 (which is bar none the most intelligent, useful, capable and durable plane design in history).

My nicest bailey pattern plane is a sorby jointer. You guys made me pay dearly for it on UK ebay. It was flat to less than one and one half thousandths, it's solidly cast, and the adjuster is smoother than any other plane I've ever used of any type. Don't know why that's the case, but it's just a dandy. You could call it expensive at $200 or $220, but I'd just call it really good.

 

[Droogs]

I suppose if you are really meaning - money no object and want to show everyone so, then I'd buy the Studley tool chest and suppliment it with a router and compass plane from Abiel Rios Wong along with a full selection of saws by our favourite lawyers. And for those moments when I needed to turn something a nice Holtzapfel lathe



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[Racers]

I would buy a set of cast steel boxwood carver handled chisels from eBay,
Marples Ward and Pane etc.

Pete

 

[D_W]

I suppose if you are really meaning - money no object and want to show everyone so, then I'd buy the Studley tool chest and suppliment it with a router and compass plane from Abiel Rios Wong along with a full selection of saws by our favourite lawyers. And for those moments when I needed to turn something a nice Holtzapfel lathe



edit typos

A real baller would have the center cut out and fill it with electric routers.