What's a good second plane to have for the workshop?

[Ali]

Apparently I have made a classic newbie mistake of overlooking the importance of hand planes when planning my workshop. In my defence I never used handplanes at school, just sanding and the odd surform but have been doing my best to catch up.

I have, on the advice of others, bought a bog standard old stanley jack plane 5 and plan to get to grips with that. What kind of second plane should I be looking at? A smoothing plane and if so, what size? Any ideas?

Am still learning about the versatility and use of handplanes so any other tips will be greatly appreciated.

In the meantime, have a look at this video, would love to see something like this in the UK!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v3Ad6tBdLbM

 

[tobytools]

I'll would get a no 3 or 4 for finishing and then look into a no 7 not a lot you cant plane with a 3,5,7
Record is my preferred brand over stanly but that opinion and some advice get the older types not these modern piles t pap
Thnx
TT

 

[Corneel]

Yes, get a #4. And later a #7. Then dive off into the wonderfull world of joinery planes.

 

[AndyT]

Just a no 4 until either (a) you really need another plane, or (b) you take up plane collecting.

 

[Kalimna]

Perhaps a block plane might be a better 2nd plane? I don't imagine there is a lot that a 4 can do that a 5 can't. And a 7, whilst a nice luxury, is maybe just that. Don't get me wrong, I have a QS no7 and love it.

Just my tuppence,
Adam

 

[Phil Pascoe]

A 3 or 4 and a seven. People have slightly different ideas, an old guy I worked with said 4s and 5s were for site work (because they were lighter) and 4 1/2s and 5 1/2s were for workshop use. There is an element of logic in that. However, I had a 3, two 4s, two 4 1/s, two 5 1/2s, a 6, a 7 and an 8 before someone gave me a 5. It's always seemed to me to be something of nothing - if I only had one, it'd be a 5 1/2.

 

[Richard T]

Here comes that link again ..

http://video.pbs.org/video/2172600556/

 

[Graham Orm]

Perhaps a block plane might be a better 2nd plane? I don't imagine there is a lot that a 4 can do that a 5 can't. And a 7, whilst a nice luxury, is maybe just that. Don't get me wrong, I have a QS no7 and love it.

Just my tuppence,
Adam

+1 A #5 and a block plane will cover most of what you will want to do for a long time if you are a newbie. A #4 maybe but you can do pretty much everything with a well fettled #5

That really is all you need.............I have 17

 

[Cheshirechappie]

It very much depends on what sort of work you're intending to do. If for something akin to home furnituremaking by hand in 'proper' hardwoods, then gradual accumulation of a traditional cabinetmaker's battery of jack plane, smoothing plane (or planes), try plane, scrub plane, block plane, plough plane, rebate plane(s) and hand router plane (and maybe shoulder plane) would be the ultimate aim. For toymaking, maybe just the blockplane. For heavy work such as timber framing, maybe a scrub plane.

There's an 'interim' measure you could take, and that's to do everything with the jack plane by having a couple of spare irons to swap about, set up for different types of work. Thus, you have one iron with a fairly aggressive camber (say about 1.5mm/ 1/16") ground on it, with a cap-iron set well back from the edge, which you drop into the plane having set the frog right back; there's your 'roughing out' jack plane. A second iron with a much squarer edge, and the cap-iron set quite close to the edge, frog forward to give a tightish mouth and you've got a very workable try-plane substitute, which would do duty as a smoother if the frog was adjusted to close the mouth right up and the cap-iron was set very close to the edge, and the plane set for a very fine shaving.

One plane + two or three irons means less financial outlay and less ironmongery to find storage space for. The downside is the need to change the set-up of the plane for different tasks each time. The main reason to have different planes is so that you have one set up all the time for each duty, thus being able to pick up the right tool for the job straight away. (That said, shorter planes are more suited as nimble smoothers, and long ones as accurate try planes, with jack planes as a compromise somewhere in the middle.)

That's probably more information than you were looking for, but I hope it's helpful!

 

[Jacob]

My second plane was a block plane (Stanley 220) which gets a lot of use. Third choice would be a 7. Then you'd have the field covered and any more would be in between and perhaps not necessary.

 

[woodbrains]

Hello,

Cheshirechappie makes good sense here. I would just add, get a thicker iron for your #5. (With a capiron to remove changing over) Use the standard thin one for jack type work and the thicker one for smoothing. You then get 2 mouth settings, wider for heavy work and fine for smoothing. It will cover most jobs that way.

Mike.

 

[RossJarvis]

I have a few planes and the ones I use almost exclusively are the 5 1/2 and a Stanley 60 1/2 Low Angle Block Plane. I think I'd go for this before a No 4, I can't remember the last time I used one of these. However it does depend on what type of work you're doing. I also use a rebate/shoulder plane fairly often, mines an old Record 311.

 

[Jason]

I have 2 blades (and 2 chip-breakers) for my #5 Jack. That way I get two planes in one - and no fiddly set-up to speak of switching between them either.

I pair a thicker after market-blade with the original thin chip-breaker. And I adjust the mouth for nice thin shavings for this combination.

Then I've the thin standard stock blade (sharpened with a camber) that I pair with a thicker after market chip breaker. That gives me thick shavings and fast stock removal with the skinny stock blade (the mouth is set for the thick blade, so it's wide open with the skinny blade and the shavings fly through).

Then I switch to the thick blade for fine shavings and a high quality finish.

If you've not got one, I'd probably be inclined to investigate a block plane next.

 

[Corneel]

To each his own of course, but I wouldn't want to be without my #4. And because these are a dime a dozen, it's actually cheaper then buying a replacement blade.

Blockplanes? Hmm, don't use them very much.

 

[Berncarpenter]

Hi Ali
I think Cheshirechappie has covered this well and all i would like to ad is be careful ,its a slippery slope plane buying .I love going to car boot sales and usually end up coming home with a plane or two.Most of the planes are in a bad way and are very cheep ,the cheapest 20 p for a block plane and the dearest £50 for No 8 . No 3 and No4 ive had for £1 - £12 .So no need to spend big money on a plane collection ,its a bit late in the year now for the car boot but why not buy a few different size cheap planes and see what suits you best. Heres a glimpse of some of my collection.

There are some here that were bought new not all of these where from car boot sales .Never come across a veritas or lie nelson at a boot sale yet .
Cheers Bern

 

[carpenteire2009]

Berncarpenter echoes most of my sentiments on this subject but I'll give you my tuppence worth anyway. I'm an amateur but enthusiastic woodworker and tool collector; I started out with a Record No.4 about 15 years ago and very quickly went down the slippery slope. I remember the first time I happened across the expression "slippery slope" in relation to plane collecting specifically and tool collecting in general, little did I realise how addictive the whole thing was! Anyway I now own a number of Records, Stanleys, LNs, Cliftons and LVs- my wife has grown to accept my "illness", although it took time! Most of the work I do is pretty pedestrian carpentry in the main, with some finer stuff now and then but nowhere near enough to justify my investment in planes. I've been reverting back to my trusty Stanleys and Records of late (most of which were cheap boot sale finds). My favourites would be a No 4 or 4 1/2 and a no 5 1/2- you can do most work with them. Add a good quality blockplane (an older Record low angle, with adjustable mouth or a LV model) and you are good to go. Spend time fettling and fine tuning your planes to start with, find out how the mechanics work, learn to sharpen the standard cutter (thick heavy cutters are harder to sharpen- are they necessary?). I've been reading Paul Sellers blog of late and I like what he has to say. I got hooked on plane and tool buying early on; Cliftons and the rest are beautiful tools and nice to own but I derive a lot of pleasure from using my cheap boot sale 4 1/2; I spent time on getting it to work well and I don't fret if I ding the sole or chip the blade in use.

 

[Ali]

thanks to all for your advice, interesting to see what choice people prefer to use for their workflow.

It is a slippery slope indeed, will do a bit more research and think about what I really need versus what I wish I can have