Practical Woodworking plane reviews

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Philly

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Hi All,
I was reading the latest copy of Practical Woodworking (UK issue) whilst moping around WH Smith today-they have a review of high end hand planes.
They reviewed a bunch of smoothers from Lie-Nielsen, Clifton, Veritas, Holtey, amongst others. Had a lot to moan about most of them-even the Lie-Nielsen bronze #4 which thay reckoned had a curved sole. Interesting read though (although not enough to make me want to buy it!! :twisted: :roll: )
Oh, the Holtey was perfect of course, bar the price.......
Worth a look next time your in WH Smith, anyway.
regards
Philly :D
 
Which raises a question in my mind - how high are manufacturers expected to jump?. Certain manufacturers have clearly raised the bar in the quality stakes in a few short years. How 'good' does a LN or a LV or whatever, need to be anyway? Surely no one but a tiny, tiny proportion of consumate professionals can fault these fine tools?. Quite a few of us part timers need to practise just to do them justice I would say.

Sounds more like some nitpicking anorak padding out some empty magazine space. :evil:

Ike (gripe drive now disengaged for today 8) )
 
Yeah, nice to see a "quality" ww mag like PW slagging off high-end tools. They do come in useful when making their projects-you know, treated timber stuff, mdf stuff, etc...............
cheers
Philly :twisted:
 
Philly":12ryj2ke said:
Yeah, nice to see a "quality" ww mag like PW slagging off high-end tools.

I'm not sure they were 'slagging off' Lie-Nielsen, just pointing out that the review model was a tiny bit short of the standards expected at that price. As Ian Dalziel's thread on LV spokeshaves showed, even the best manufacturers have the odd quality-control glitch.

I agree with Ike's point... just upholding the finest British traditions of seeing both sides :)
 
ike":4f2u87xi said:
Which raises a question in my mind - how high are manufacturers expected to jump?. Certain manufacturers have clearly raised the bar in the quality stakes in a few short years. How 'good' does a LN or a LV or whatever, need to be anyway? Surely no one but a tiny, tiny proportion of consumate professionals can fault these fine tools?. Quite a few of us part timers need to practise just to do them justice I would say.

Couldn't agree more Ike., LN and veritas already hide my lack of skill :)
 
i am not bothered what they say about the planes when i win the lottery i will buy a full set of hotley one of everything he makes and just look at them all day.
 
Ben Russel who wrote the article would not let MDF within a mile of his workshop!

I've done a couple of woodcarving courses with him and he is defintely a handtool man.

I on the other hand am quite fond of the tailed demons - more due to my lack of skill!
 
would not let MDF within a mile of his workshop!

neither would I.... but the day I turn my nose up at my L-N's is the day the screw the lid down on my coffin.!!!!!
 
Fair point! I guess if you get them all free to test you can be more circumspect!

I'd be happy with a bank balance that could justify anything from L-N, and then of course the skills to use it!
 
I had better break this to you gently......

I'm testing bench planes for a review at the moment.


And my workshop is full of MDF...£300 worth to be exact :twisted:


And I'm going out tomorrow to get a new anorak
:lol:

Keith
 
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