Hey All
Just wanted to say thank you to all who encouraged me to do the 2.5 hour drive from Boston up to LN in Maine. It was an awesome experience, beautiful drive and yes I did make a purchase (more about that later). I’ve attached some pictures for you to look at.
I couldn’t tour the manufacturing facility however I did spend over two hours playing about, mainly with hand planes but also with the saws and chisels. The sales person there was very helpful but I was also greeted by a guy named Denem who is a course instructor and engineer. Great guy who talked me through the differences between a no. 5 Jack and a low angle 62 with the extra tooth blade. In his opinion the 62 with the extra toothed blade to remove more material is a game changer and more versatile than the number 5 Jack. Needless to say most of my time was spent trying to decide which one to go for ad my first hand plane.
I found the number 5 hefty in weight In comparison and as a result, perhaps psychologically I was able to control it more. On the 62 low angle, it was less weighty, felt slightly nicer, but because of the grip I felt that I had to put more effort to control it. Of course this is all personal. Having spent a couple of hours scratching and smoothing, I turn my focus to blade sharpening. Since I don’t have a planer I wanted the option to be able to remove decent amount of material for flatting. An option on the number 5 was to buy a curved blade which does just that but you had to manually sharpen it as opposed to the toothed blade on the 62 which you can use the honing guide.
In the end I went for the 62 mainly because of the sharpening and it was just easier in a way to use (not as heavy). Plus Denem, in his opinion, thought it was a better option esp with the toothed blade.
I must admit going for the 62 I felt a bit going against the grain (no pun intended) as everyone here recommended the Jack 5, but I figured at the end of the day it’s somewhat a personal thing. If the plane doesn’t feel good in the hand, i probably won’t use it. Plus I wanted easy maintenance I.e sharpening with a guided
I’m interested to hear your thoughts?
Thanks
Raf
Just wanted to say thank you to all who encouraged me to do the 2.5 hour drive from Boston up to LN in Maine. It was an awesome experience, beautiful drive and yes I did make a purchase (more about that later). I’ve attached some pictures for you to look at.
I couldn’t tour the manufacturing facility however I did spend over two hours playing about, mainly with hand planes but also with the saws and chisels. The sales person there was very helpful but I was also greeted by a guy named Denem who is a course instructor and engineer. Great guy who talked me through the differences between a no. 5 Jack and a low angle 62 with the extra tooth blade. In his opinion the 62 with the extra toothed blade to remove more material is a game changer and more versatile than the number 5 Jack. Needless to say most of my time was spent trying to decide which one to go for ad my first hand plane.
I found the number 5 hefty in weight In comparison and as a result, perhaps psychologically I was able to control it more. On the 62 low angle, it was less weighty, felt slightly nicer, but because of the grip I felt that I had to put more effort to control it. Of course this is all personal. Having spent a couple of hours scratching and smoothing, I turn my focus to blade sharpening. Since I don’t have a planer I wanted the option to be able to remove decent amount of material for flatting. An option on the number 5 was to buy a curved blade which does just that but you had to manually sharpen it as opposed to the toothed blade on the 62 which you can use the honing guide.
In the end I went for the 62 mainly because of the sharpening and it was just easier in a way to use (not as heavy). Plus Denem, in his opinion, thought it was a better option esp with the toothed blade.
I must admit going for the 62 I felt a bit going against the grain (no pun intended) as everyone here recommended the Jack 5, but I figured at the end of the day it’s somewhat a personal thing. If the plane doesn’t feel good in the hand, i probably won’t use it. Plus I wanted easy maintenance I.e sharpening with a guided
I’m interested to hear your thoughts?
Thanks
Raf
. Such a nice guy he even shows me a few tricks
