I was lucky enough to have some money given to me by She Who Doesn't Have To Be Obeyed But It's Probably A Good Idea To Just In Case. I wanted to get something that I would use for a long time and perhaps something that I wouldn't have bought otherwise.
I decided on a plane. I wanted something bigger than I've currently got and something new since all my planes are second-hand ones.
I thought about a No7 from LV or LN but, even though I'd been given the money, £250+ just seems like a huge amount of money to spend. So, after reading a bit and seeing the generally favourable responses, I decided to go for the Quangsheng. Since WH don't have a No7, I went for the No6.
At this point, I should be clear to all that I don't have any credentials for doing reviews. I've used my small selection of hand planes a reasonable amount and I think I know how to get a blade sharp and how to cut wood, but I've never used a plane bigger than a No4 and never used one of the better planes (LN, LV, Clifton etc) so I don't have anything to compare against.
That said, I think a beginners' opinion can be valuable so here we go...
First, the obligatory box shot.
I like the way it's packaged. It looks like someone cares about the product. I have no idea if all new planes come packaged in this way but it looks good to me.
After removing the coat of protective oil, I decided to give it a try straight away. I didn't expect it to work well straight out of the box but I thought I'd give it a go for the record.
I tried it out on a hunk of Mahogany that I have left over from a guitar body.
It took shavings but they were a bit rough and there was plenty of tear-out. Not surprising really.
So, I took a trip to the sharpening station:
The blade's nice and thick, the chip breaker fits very snugly and there is a good finish on all of the ground surfaces. It took no time at all to bring the iron up to a razor sharp finish.
Then, it was back into the plane and I attacked the Mahogany again. One thing I found slightly annoying is the fact that I can't reach the adjustment with my fingers whilst I'm holding the handle. And I've got pretty large fingers. This might be standard with bigger planes because I imagine that the handle placement needs to be right so that the weight distribution feels good and this means that the blade will be further away from the handle. But it does slow down the work in getting the blade depth just right.
That being said, my newly sharp iron transformed the plane into a very competent shaving machine. It feels very sturdy and has a pleasant heft to it without being too heavy. The handles are very comfy and I must say that I find it to look very nice too. It seems that earlier QS planes had Grasswood handles which folks didn't seem to like much but these "Chinese Rosewood" (whatever that its) handles look and feel very nice to me.
I moved on to a block of Maple and, whilst I was taking good enough shavings, I started getting some tear out at one end where the grain went a bit awkward.
At this point, I had something of a revelation. Having decided that this plane ought to be able to handle this wood without tear out, I set about trying to work out how to improve the performance. The most obvious thing to try was the mouth. The frog attaches to the body with two locking screws and an adjustment screw. These are all accessible from the back so can be adjusted without removing the blade. I just loosened the two screws and twisted the centre screw to move the frog forwards until the blade was closer to the front of the mouth. Then I locked the two screws and I was all set. Very quick and easy.
And what a difference! I could now get full length, transparent shavings with no tear out whatsoever. I'm sure this won't come as a surprise to many of you and I've seen plenty of comment about how a tight mouth improves performance. But this was the first time that I've had the equipment to try it out. What a difference! Hence my revelation. Both in terms of the ease of adjusting the QS and how much it improves the performance. As you can see, I got a bit carried away and produced a nice pile of shavings.
I didn't check the sole and sides for flatness and squareness. I've seen Matthew's video on the web where he demonstrates this and I see no reason to think I'd be unlucky with this plane. Given that the performance of the plane seems very good to me, I conclude that it's either flat or it doesn't need to be!
In summary then this plane is, in many ways, just like the perfect woman:
It won't cost you the earth but it's not too cheap.
It's not carrying too much extra weight but it's got meat where you want it.
You get the feeling that it would happily ride wood for hours without a drop-off in performance.
All of the mating surfaces are smooth and tight-fitting.
It will need the occasional wax to keep smooth.
It's easy to close the mouth if you're getting too much chatter.
I'd recommend it to all my friends. :shock:
I'd like to try using this plane on a shooting board but, I'm starting to think it's a bit big for that and I can't find my board at the moment. When I track it down, I'll give it a go and see how it gets on.
All in all, I'm very happy with it and would happily buy another QS. I add my humble voice to the calls to Matthew to get a QS shoulder plane and a No7 in the shop.
Dave
I decided on a plane. I wanted something bigger than I've currently got and something new since all my planes are second-hand ones.
I thought about a No7 from LV or LN but, even though I'd been given the money, £250+ just seems like a huge amount of money to spend. So, after reading a bit and seeing the generally favourable responses, I decided to go for the Quangsheng. Since WH don't have a No7, I went for the No6.
At this point, I should be clear to all that I don't have any credentials for doing reviews. I've used my small selection of hand planes a reasonable amount and I think I know how to get a blade sharp and how to cut wood, but I've never used a plane bigger than a No4 and never used one of the better planes (LN, LV, Clifton etc) so I don't have anything to compare against.
That said, I think a beginners' opinion can be valuable so here we go...
First, the obligatory box shot.
I like the way it's packaged. It looks like someone cares about the product. I have no idea if all new planes come packaged in this way but it looks good to me.
After removing the coat of protective oil, I decided to give it a try straight away. I didn't expect it to work well straight out of the box but I thought I'd give it a go for the record.
I tried it out on a hunk of Mahogany that I have left over from a guitar body.
It took shavings but they were a bit rough and there was plenty of tear-out. Not surprising really.
So, I took a trip to the sharpening station:
The blade's nice and thick, the chip breaker fits very snugly and there is a good finish on all of the ground surfaces. It took no time at all to bring the iron up to a razor sharp finish.
Then, it was back into the plane and I attacked the Mahogany again. One thing I found slightly annoying is the fact that I can't reach the adjustment with my fingers whilst I'm holding the handle. And I've got pretty large fingers. This might be standard with bigger planes because I imagine that the handle placement needs to be right so that the weight distribution feels good and this means that the blade will be further away from the handle. But it does slow down the work in getting the blade depth just right.
That being said, my newly sharp iron transformed the plane into a very competent shaving machine. It feels very sturdy and has a pleasant heft to it without being too heavy. The handles are very comfy and I must say that I find it to look very nice too. It seems that earlier QS planes had Grasswood handles which folks didn't seem to like much but these "Chinese Rosewood" (whatever that its) handles look and feel very nice to me.
I moved on to a block of Maple and, whilst I was taking good enough shavings, I started getting some tear out at one end where the grain went a bit awkward.
At this point, I had something of a revelation. Having decided that this plane ought to be able to handle this wood without tear out, I set about trying to work out how to improve the performance. The most obvious thing to try was the mouth. The frog attaches to the body with two locking screws and an adjustment screw. These are all accessible from the back so can be adjusted without removing the blade. I just loosened the two screws and twisted the centre screw to move the frog forwards until the blade was closer to the front of the mouth. Then I locked the two screws and I was all set. Very quick and easy.
And what a difference! I could now get full length, transparent shavings with no tear out whatsoever. I'm sure this won't come as a surprise to many of you and I've seen plenty of comment about how a tight mouth improves performance. But this was the first time that I've had the equipment to try it out. What a difference! Hence my revelation. Both in terms of the ease of adjusting the QS and how much it improves the performance. As you can see, I got a bit carried away and produced a nice pile of shavings.
I didn't check the sole and sides for flatness and squareness. I've seen Matthew's video on the web where he demonstrates this and I see no reason to think I'd be unlucky with this plane. Given that the performance of the plane seems very good to me, I conclude that it's either flat or it doesn't need to be!
In summary then this plane is, in many ways, just like the perfect woman:
It won't cost you the earth but it's not too cheap.
It's not carrying too much extra weight but it's got meat where you want it.
You get the feeling that it would happily ride wood for hours without a drop-off in performance.
All of the mating surfaces are smooth and tight-fitting.
It will need the occasional wax to keep smooth.
It's easy to close the mouth if you're getting too much chatter.
I'd recommend it to all my friends. :shock:
I'd like to try using this plane on a shooting board but, I'm starting to think it's a bit big for that and I can't find my board at the moment. When I track it down, I'll give it a go and see how it gets on.
All in all, I'm very happy with it and would happily buy another QS. I add my humble voice to the calls to Matthew to get a QS shoulder plane and a No7 in the shop.
Dave
