Looking for a shoulder plane...

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nickds1

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I already have had a Clifton 420 for many many years, but was thinking about the 3110, mainly for its flexibility.

Obviously, combination tools like the 3110 are sometimes a compromise. so I was wondering what folk thought about any possible alternatives in that price bracket? (around 200 quid).

Currently, I don't have a chisel plane, which is why the 3110 appealed.

Thoughts appreciated!
 
I've had chisel planes twice, but don't recall using them. It was hard to find a situation where they didn't have to be used agonizingly slow, and even given that, they were awkward (floats and files have worked better on the rare occasion that something can't be pared into shape).

I also have a slater bullnose that was given to me (sans iron - i made an iron for it and cleaned up the sole which was corroded into unevenness). I can say that I've actually used it on a real project.

(the combination shoulder planes are popular here, too - often bought, but I haven't seen many demonstrations of them being used)
 
I would think that you may be constrained by what is available unless prepared to wait. I was looking for a block plane as a birthday present for my brother (one with an 0 at the end) and LN, Veritas and Clifton seem to be in pretty much short supply on everything.
 
So-called 'chisel planes' seem to be the unintentional modification of a useful plane following a collision on a concrete floor....... that's how I got mine, anyway.
It prompted the acquisition of some very comfortable foam-rubber mats around the bench

Asking about favourite planes of any type will release a huge amount of contradictions..... however, for what it's worth, here's mine........

Notwithstanding the current perceived supply issues........As far as shoulder planes are concerned, the best, in my opinion, is the Veritas type; the engineering is superb. You may think at first that the four little locking screws on the sides of the blade stock are a faff, as I did until I sorted out why they were there, and once you get to use it, you'll wonder why no other manufacturer used this idea before. It means that you can set your blade protrusions at each side exactly and return to the same setting every time that the blade is removed.
The Medium size is the most useful, I believe.

The 3-in-one plane is, as you suspect, a compromise, but the original Clifton version was based (as was Record's) on the Preston model and came with a short nose, a long one and two loose metal shim plates so that the mouth could be set very close. If you're buying used tools, these shims and the short nose can very often be found missing.

Anyway, that's my two-penny-worth.
Good luck with the search.
 
The shims for a 3110 are easy enough to make TBH. I'd hazard a guess that the original Preston plane was aimed at guys who actually fit and install joinery work more than bench use. In site work reducing the volume and weight of your toolkit becomes very important, especially as many jobs lack lifts (try lugging a 20kg tool kit 6 floors up in a Victorian mill every day for 6 months and you'll see what I mean - keeps you fit, but gets old very, very quickly). Someone asked if anyone used them? Yes, they come in handy when installing t&g flooring and laminate flooring (because tongues aren't always consistent), for example, as well as for snagging installation defects in stuff like door casings. Can't say I've used the chisel plane option more than once or maybe twice in the last 5 years
 
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Somewhat reluctantly, I confess that I own 3 shoulder planes and a bull-nosed rebate. They are good tools & work very well but these are tools that will take a very, very long time to return the investment of time & $$s that went into making them (with apologies to G. K. Miller for ripping off his side profile :) )
Set a.jpg
A good SP is a tool that does a very small number of jobs superbly, and most, if not all of them can be done just as well with other tools, albeit a bit more tediously at times. We all lust after some tool or other that seems to offer us much, but so often turns out to be too specialised to get much use in the average amateur workshop. But once we've acquired the tools we need, we can indulge in some we merely want, so if the budget allows, these sorts of tools should be the best you can afford (by "best" I mean the ones that appeal most on aesthetic or practical grounds regardless of price).

A SP, by the way can be a good first foray into building infills. The body can be made by laminating stock brass sizes and needs nothing other than hand-tools to turn out a respectable plane...
Cheers,
Ian
 
It’s a tool I’ve never missed, cut a line with the marking knife, saw fairly close and cut back to the line with a wide sharp chisel, jobs done by the time you’ve dug out the sp. Ian
 
It’s a tool I’ve never missed, cut a line with the marking knife, saw fairly close and cut back to the line with a wide sharp chisel, jobs done by the time you’ve dug out the sp. Ian
Bet I can dig out my SP faster than you can dig out your marking knife, saw and chisel!😀
 
It’s a tool I’ve never missed, cut a line with the marking knife, saw fairly close and cut back to the line with a wide sharp chisel, jobs done by the time you’ve dug out the sp. ....

Yep, that's the way I wuz taught, too, & I still finesse tenon shoulders & the like that way if they are less than 75mm or so wide. A shoulder plane doesn't excel at trimming narrowish tenon shoulders, there's simply not enough support & you're more likely to make a mess (speaking for myself) than tidy it up. Where they come in handy is trimming long end-grain edges like the shoulders of the legs on this large table. Cleaning up those 4 sets of shoulders would be a chore with a chisel:
21a Dry fit 2.jpg

I could live without my SPs (& quite a few others!) if forced to, but they do come in mighty handy on occasion. The one I probably use most is actually the 1/2" tiddler in the pic above, a size that was rarely made in the heyday of the infill SPs. It's the bees' knees for fiddly little jobs like preparing stuffing for planes, where I need to sneak up on a really snug fit...

31 Front bun fitting.jpg

:)
Cheers,
 
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