A Family of Hand Planes

[Brendon]

Hi PJ,
Yes, I know what you mean about using old tools. It was using antique planes that got me interested in the subject in the first place. I have a fairly extensive collection of antique hand planes and often use one or the other of them.

Your experience with Birds eye Maple proves my argument in a way and is interesting. It's pretty touch stuff and the average light-weight, store bought plane will struggle with it. There are two main differences between my planes and store-bought ones I think. One is the weight of the tool itself; mine are pretty heavy and bed themselves into the wood. All I have to do is push. The plane does the business itself. The second thing is the quality of the blade; you need a good-quality heavy blade that is dead sharp. Most store bought planes have blades that are fairly light.
Another point worth mentioning I think, is to go for the lightest shaving you can. It will give you a better finish and be easier work. That's down to setting the depth of cut of course.

A couple of years ago I had to plane off the ends of a series of maple dowels in a project I was working on. I picked up a store-bought block plane and it didn't touch them. I tried a couple of other planes and they all just hopped off the dowels. Finally, I picked up one of my own and it shaved the dowel heads smooth as if they were hairs. That made me feel good!

It took me a few years, making and discarding planes before I got them to the point where I wanted them. I started making wooden planes and then progressed to wooden planes with brass soles. Finally I started making brass bodies. It was then that I fully appreciated the difference that the extra weight made. As I said in my post, I also fiddled about with adjusters for a few years. I'm happy with where I have them now.

In regard to books and references, I would say get onto Amazon. They have quite a few books for sale on the subject of hand planes. You could try The Handplane Book by Gareth Hack, or Hand Planes in the Modern Shop by Kerry Pierce, or The Woodworker's Guide to Handplanes by Scott Wynn, or The Wooden Plane, its History From and Function by John Whelan.

If you fancy having a go at making one yourself you could start with wooden planes and read Making & Mastering Wood Planes by David Finck.

When you start delving into the subject of handplanes you will find it intriguing; the history, the hundreds of different planes there were for different purposes and the differences between handplanes from different cultures (especially the Japanese handplanes)>.
You could be at the beginning of a journey my friend; prepare to become addicted.
Thanks for your interest and good luck.
Brendon