Mujingfang planes

[big soft moose]

I know ive probably spelt that wrong ive seen these on workshop heaven and have to admit that i was mainly attracted by the price (there is no way i'm going to be buying clifton or LN however good/shiny they might be (slope , what slo.... ahhh pipper)

but i wondered if anyone had used them and if they are any good (no offence to the geezer who runs workshop heaven - whose name escapes me).

I'm quite tempted to buy a couple and have a play , but i dont want to get into the buy cheap buy twice rut. ( my only other planes are grandads block plane and a stanley no.4 , record no 5 which are in bits and muddled up as per by earlier threads , oh and a performance power power planer which is total bobbins )

edit - them thar ones ere http://workshopheaven.com/cgi-bin/cp-ap ... 6+Scrapers

 

[OPJ]

These received a decent write up in Good Woodworking a few years ago. The only gripe I can remember was that the chamfer plane was (initially!) drilled in correctly, so that the fence was in the wrong place and it wouldn't actually cut...! That shouldn't be an issue now though. Workshop Heaven don't even appear to stock that model anyway.

I reckon they're worth a punt at the given price. No idea of what the blades are like for quality though.

 

[wachenga]

They are good planes, certainly the 'micro plane' is, as found in the link. I have a number of HNT Gordon planes, the micro plane is the basis for Terry's palm smoother. I have handled a few of the Mujingfang planes, a couple from Tilgear and another two from Rutlands. These were bought by some colleagues of mine once they saw how handy my HNT palm smoother is (my most used plane). These cheaper (than the HNT) micro planes worked well on almost all timbers, including some awful wenge, as you can reverse the blade in the micro plane to make it a scraper plane.

From memory, the blades are HSS (like the HNT Gordon plane) so a little harder to sharpen but not too bad, I use water stones 800 / 1000 / 6000.

Hope this helps,

Regards

Liam

*Edit (for blade info)

 

[studders]

Looked at those planes and thought 'Why has the microplane got a blade sticking out the side?'

D'oh

 

[bugbear]

IIRC Derek Cohen has tried them, and found them far better than the price would predict.

BugBear

 

[big soft moose]

well you've convinced me guys - i'm going to buy the block, rebate, and micro , i'll get back on how i get on (or more than likely with stoopid questions about fettling them)

 

[MIGNAL]

I haven't tried the planes but I did buy several of the Chinese HSS blades. Pretty much as you'd expect from HSS, hard to get a very keen edge but it is possible. Once it's sharp that edge does last a long, long time.
I think the blades are a bargain and no doubt the actual planes are as well.

 

[Pekka Huhta]

I finished my plane review in Finnish just a week ago, but I'm trying to translate it within the summer vacation.

I had a Mujinfang smoother in the test. To put it short, I think it's a good plane and worth a buy if you are into hard, curly exotics. The surface is nice with those woods and the HSS iron probably holds an edge pretty long even with hard abrasive woods.

On the other hand the steep angle makes it less ideal to soft woods, pine spruce etc, as they require more cutting than scraping (ie. lower bed angle).

I think the plane is nice to use and also the pulling action is quite intuitive. I did not get any kind of feel with the cross-handle but that might take just a bit of practice.

Pekka

 

[Derek Cohen (Perth Oz)]

I think that the first first person to make a big fuss of the Mujingfangs was Lyn Mangiameli, when he wrote an article comparing high angled smoothers. He included the 62 degree Muji smoother, and it proceeded to blow away all but the most expensive infill, one that cost about 10 times as much.

Here is a link to the article: http://www.traditionaltools.us/LJM/hiangle.htm

My favourite is the mini smoother (60 degree bed). I use it a lot. I also have on loan (to complete a formal review) the HNT Gordon palm smoother. The Gordon is slightly better finished, but in performance there is nothing much between them (Mujingfang on the left, HNT Gordon on the right).

Here is the 11" common angle smoother in action ..

Regards from Perth

Derek

 

[Aled Dafis]

I have the micro plane, and it's very very good! It just laughs in the face of reversing grain. In fact this was my go to finishing plane until I built my infill smoother.

The only minor negative I can think of, is that the body is very low slung, and there's a definite risk of catching your knuckles on the edge of the workpiece.

Buy one, you'll be amazed.

Cheers

Aled

 

[big soft moose]

I have the micro plane, and it's very very good! It just laughs in the face of reversing grain. In fact this was my go to finishing plane until I built my infill smoother.

The only minor negative I can think of, is that the body is very low slung, and there's a definite risk of catching your knuckles on the edge of the workpiece.

Buy one, you'll be amazed.

Cheers

Aled

thats good alex , i just bought three (slope , me ), with regard to what pekka was saying i'm mainly working in oak , i dont do exotics for environmetal reasons unless it is recycled - though that said i do have a load of iroko offcuts that someone gave me.

 

[AndyT]

Just to echo what the others have said - I bought a little one in a Rutlands promotion - it's excellent. Keeps an edge a long time, takes a fine shaving, nice hand-friendly shape, works pulling or pushing.

Well worth it.

Andy

 

[Argus]

.





I bought a set from Rutlands and after an hour's basic fettling, all three, from the micto up to the 230 mm version, cut like a dream.

The blades were finished by hand and needed to be brought back to square - only a few strokes on a diamond stone then progressive sharpening to finish with a strop. The mouth is tight and the throat gap is just right. I did have to relive the sides of the mouth to allow sideways alignment, but it was only a fraction of a millimetre. The brass inset provides an excellent forward gap and the 60 degree cutting angle is just what I need for some well figured Oak.



Proof is in the eating, as they say and hats off to those guys at Mujingfang - they make a terrific product. I hope they catch up with these posts.




.

 

[AndyT]

In case others haven't already found this, there are some fascinating photos of Mujingfang planes being made in a posting on this forum: http://lumberjocks.com/topics/987.

Very much a handmade handtool!

Andy