Groz SP4 short review...

[David Hostetler]

Simply put, I needed a decent plane, and with LOML out of the workforce all of my $$ is going to household bills etc... So I went with the Groz SP4 knowing, or at least thinking I had a LOT of tuning to do...

For starters I wound the iron back in as far as it would go so that none was exposed below the shoe. I glued down some 320 grit wet / dry paper to a piece of hardboard, took a carpenters pencil to the sole to see where the low / high spots were, took 3 light passes accross the paper, and to my amazement, the sole came back clean!

My guess, the sole was as close to flat as physically possible.

Check the mouth castings. about 10 seconds work with a needle file to get the small burrs cleaned up and I was good to go.

Another 5 minutes on the honing guide with the iron and some reassembly and I had a well honed (no buffer to polish it up though, and I kind of goofed and didn't try flattening the back of the iron...) and was able to shave whisper thin even shavings.

Is this a Lie Nielsen? Uh, no...

Is this a workable tool? Yeah, I think so...

I honestly think I got exceedingly lucky. But... This plane is definately going to get me going with the constraints of my budget.

[Jim Koepke]

Good to hear you bought a good one.

Hopefully with time, we will know if Groz is a consistent product or if you got lucky.

You did not mention if you bought this through the mail or in a retail location. Just curious if you were able to handle the merchandise before plunking down the cash.

Not sure if the prices I have seen on line are reflective of your cost.

My preference is just that, my preference. My preference has been to pick up old Stanley/Bailey planes cheap and rehab them. Of course, this is not the best solution for everyone.

jim

[David Hostetler]

I picked up in store. Specifically the Woodcraft on Beltway 8 in Houston Texas. I did get to take it out of the box and verify with an engineer's square. Both of the #4s they had in stock looked good, the one I grabbed did not appear to have any variation in the shoe, the other one seemed just a shave high toward the heel...

I also grabbed a low angle block plane...

I am replacing old, but not "good vintage" Stanley planes that simply are not holding up. 1980s and 1990s vintage trash. The 1990s Stanley block plane with it's stripped thread aluminum adjusters was enought to anger the pope you know?

I have not attempted to tune the block plane yet...

[george wilson]

Do not buff your cutting edges. It only rounds them,and is not helpful. Many do it,but it isn't the best way to get a good,acute,not sluffed off edge.