Vann
Established Member
Grant G95 Iron Edge-Trimming Plane
Ordered early January.
Cost: ₤29.50 + ₤9.90 airmail (total cost, including bank fee: $NZ101.16)
Dispatched: 7 January 2009 (UK)
Delivered 12 January 2009 (NZ)
Until very recently, I’d never thought of owning any plane but a standard bench plane. Even block planes were considered speciality planes and so not for me. I guess my recent purchase of an LAJ (a block plane disguised as a bench plane) started me thinking outside the box. It was when the thread about Quality Mid-Range Hand Planes mentioned the Grant knockoffs, that I started considering possibilities. Shortly after Christmas we had some spare cash, and SWMBO gave the green light to blow (invest) $100 on tools. It wasn’t much but it might allow me to experiment....
Dealing with Tilgear via the internet posed its challenges. The website allowed three zones “England, Scotland, Wales”; “Ireland” or “Other (overseas)”, however whenever I altered any setting it would flick back to “England, Scotland, Wales”; and my transaction was finally accepted with UK VAT and UK internal shipping charge. I quickly followed this up with an e-mail, and Tilgear replied with the correct VAT and advising the correct postage rates. They did not advise when the item was dispatched. I found that the transaction had been completed only by regularly checking our Visa account. The consignment arrived on the morning of 12 January, which was the evening of 11 January UK time, just 4 days after it was postmarked – very impressive.
The plane came very well packaged in a box marked Harrods, filled with foam chips (non-biodegradable ). The plane itself was in a much smaller package, bubble wrap, around plastic shrink-wrap, over a cardboard sleeve containing a lovely wooden box painted black and marked Grant Toolworks. Inside this box was a foam block and two sealed plastic bags. One contained the plane (with iron), the other: two hex keys. The plane was covered in rust preventative.
Impressions:
I haven’t got access to a Veritas edge plane, so comparisons are difficult. The Grant plane looks very nice with machined sole and guide faces as well as the exposed face next to the sole. However the blade bed is painted. Also machined is the edge of the screw cap. I ran a square across the two machined faces and they appear to be within cooee. I then placed a steel rule along both faces and they appear to be accurately machined (it was hard to tell as it’s not easy to hold the plane up to the light., what with the guide face blocking the light).
I understand that the body is grey iron, not the ductile iron of the Veritas model.
Cutting Iron:
The laser cutting seems a little coarse. The slot at the top of the blade is not straight. The sides of the blade have been machined, but the top (where it doesn’t matter) hasn’t. The iron is ⅛” (3.2mm) thick (measured with a vernier) and the width tapers slightly from 1 31/128“ at the sharp end, to 1 15/64“ near the top.
I first honed the back of the iron. This showed a slight dishing in back of the iron, however a few minutes on my fine oilstone produced a consistent flat at the edge (about 1.5mm wide) and a larger flat further back. I then gave the bevel some attention. I set the iron at 20º in my MkII honing guide and found that at the 12o’clock setting the heel of the bevel was in contact with the stone. Rotating the eccentric to 9o’clock allowed the bevel to sit flat on the stone, suggesting that the bevel was probably machined about 21º. However, only one side of the bevel was being honed. I removed the iron to check it for square and to re-register it in case I had set the iron slightly skew. The cutting edge would have been at least 1º out of square. In addition the bevel had machining grooves that needed removing (7 grooves per 5mm – fairly coarse machining). About 35 minutes on the coarse oilstone saw the bevel fully ground (does this suggest the steel is too soft?) but with a major burr. A quick grind on the fine side of the oilstone (still at 21º) then on to the 6 o’clock setting and the 6000grit waterstone for a honing of the micro-bevel and the back face.
Cuts cedar beautifully! \/
It was my intention to purchase an O1 iron from Veritas, however I have now ordered a Veritas LH iron edge-trimming plane. I’ll be picking it up on Tuesday.
I note from the Veritas literature on their LAS, that if you skew a plane 45º the effective cutting angle decreases by 9º, and at 60º skew by a further 7º. With the #95 edge plane having it’s blade skewed 30º and with the extra low bevel angle of 20º the resulting effective cutting angle must be in the region of 29º (12º bed + 20º bevel – say 3º for the skew). Compare this with the normal Low Angle cutting angle of 37º :!: (all cutting angles exclusive of micro-bevel).
Rob Lee. I've felt pangs of conscience about buying this cheap knockoff of your plane I hopes it's some consolation that I've now purchased the Veritas LH version (and a spare iron). These are items I never would have bought had I not been tempted by the cheap copy.
Cheers, Vann.
Ordered early January.
Cost: ₤29.50 + ₤9.90 airmail (total cost, including bank fee: $NZ101.16)
Dispatched: 7 January 2009 (UK)
Delivered 12 January 2009 (NZ)
Until very recently, I’d never thought of owning any plane but a standard bench plane. Even block planes were considered speciality planes and so not for me. I guess my recent purchase of an LAJ (a block plane disguised as a bench plane) started me thinking outside the box. It was when the thread about Quality Mid-Range Hand Planes mentioned the Grant knockoffs, that I started considering possibilities. Shortly after Christmas we had some spare cash, and SWMBO gave the green light to blow (invest) $100 on tools. It wasn’t much but it might allow me to experiment....
Dealing with Tilgear via the internet posed its challenges. The website allowed three zones “England, Scotland, Wales”; “Ireland” or “Other (overseas)”, however whenever I altered any setting it would flick back to “England, Scotland, Wales”; and my transaction was finally accepted with UK VAT and UK internal shipping charge. I quickly followed this up with an e-mail, and Tilgear replied with the correct VAT and advising the correct postage rates. They did not advise when the item was dispatched. I found that the transaction had been completed only by regularly checking our Visa account. The consignment arrived on the morning of 12 January, which was the evening of 11 January UK time, just 4 days after it was postmarked – very impressive.
The plane came very well packaged in a box marked Harrods, filled with foam chips (non-biodegradable
). The plane itself was in a much smaller package, bubble wrap, around plastic shrink-wrap, over a cardboard sleeve containing a lovely wooden box painted black and marked Grant Toolworks. Inside this box was a foam block and two sealed plastic bags. One contained the plane (with iron), the other: two hex keys. The plane was covered in rust preventative.Impressions:
I haven’t got access to a Veritas edge plane, so comparisons are difficult. The Grant plane looks very nice with machined sole and guide faces as well as the exposed face next to the sole. However the blade bed is painted. Also machined is the edge of the screw cap. I ran a square across the two machined faces and they appear to be within cooee. I then placed a steel rule along both faces and they appear to be accurately machined (it was hard to tell as it’s not easy to hold the plane up to the light., what with the guide face blocking the light).
I understand that the body is grey iron, not the ductile iron of the Veritas model.
Cutting Iron:
The laser cutting seems a little coarse. The slot at the top of the blade is not straight. The sides of the blade have been machined, but the top (where it doesn’t matter) hasn’t. The iron is ⅛” (3.2mm) thick (measured with a vernier) and the width tapers slightly from 1 31/128“ at the sharp end, to 1 15/64“ near the top.
I first honed the back of the iron. This showed a slight dishing in back of the iron, however a few minutes on my fine oilstone produced a consistent flat at the edge (about 1.5mm wide) and a larger flat further back. I then gave the bevel some attention. I set the iron at 20º in my MkII honing guide and found that at the 12o’clock setting the heel of the bevel was in contact with the stone. Rotating the eccentric to 9o’clock allowed the bevel to sit flat on the stone, suggesting that the bevel was probably machined about 21º. However, only one side of the bevel was being honed. I removed the iron to check it for square and to re-register it in case I had set the iron slightly skew. The cutting edge would have been at least 1º out of square. In addition the bevel had machining grooves that needed removing (7 grooves per 5mm – fairly coarse machining). About 35 minutes on the coarse oilstone saw the bevel fully ground (does this suggest the steel is too soft?) but with a major burr. A quick grind on the fine side of the oilstone (still at 21º) then on to the 6 o’clock setting and the 6000grit waterstone for a honing of the micro-bevel and the back face.
Cuts cedar beautifully! \
/ It was my intention to purchase an O1 iron from Veritas, however I have now ordered a Veritas LH iron edge-trimming plane. I’ll be picking it up on Tuesday.
I note from the Veritas literature on their LAS, that if you skew a plane 45º the effective cutting angle decreases by 9º, and at 60º skew by a further 7º. With the #95 edge plane having it’s blade skewed 30º and with the extra low bevel angle of 20º the resulting effective cutting angle must be in the region of 29º (12º bed + 20º bevel – say 3º for the skew). Compare this with the normal Low Angle cutting angle of 37º :!: (all cutting angles exclusive of micro-bevel).
Rob Lee. I've felt pangs of conscience about buying this cheap knockoff of your plane
I hopes it's some consolation that I've now purchased the Veritas LH version (and a spare iron). These are items I never would have bought had I not been tempted by the cheap copy.Cheers, Vann.
