Anatomy of a Plane

[Bobby O'Neal]

So a plane is a simple enough tool. And at the very core, a good plane isn't much more than a flat sole and a thick, sharp blade. Yes, there is a bit more to it, but not much, right? Having said that, why are there not more people just spending $20-$50 on a plane and buying a new blade/chip breaker and tuning it up as opposed to buying a LN or LV? This is coming from a noob who only owns one "real" plane. I have a LN 40 1/2 and some crap jobs from the Depot that are worthless. The LN is beautiful and works flawlessly. I'm sure if I had a LN no. 4 it would work the same. But would a Wood River or something from grizzly work just as well with a tune up and blade upgrade?

[Brian Kent]

Grizzly, no.

Wood River, I don't know.

[Joel Goodman]

I would either go with a vintage prewar made in USA Stanley, and plan on tuning it up, or go for a LV or LN.

[Mark Baldwin III]

For regular planes, I can't afford LN or LV. I have an old stanley that tuned up nicely, and a new stanley that is also well tuned. That's not to say that it didn't take a bit of work to make them, uh...work. I'm very tempted to get a Woodriver plane. They definitely look like a quality tool, but the proof is in the shavings. For me, I think I'm just going to keep building woodies. I can get a Hock iron and some pretty hardwood. From there I can shape and tune to my liking. I have a scrub in the works right now with an LN iron. As of now, the glue is drying, and it'll get a final shaping and tune up this week. If you don't want to spend a bunch of time fettling...then LN and LV are worth every penny.

[Sean Hughto]

It depends what you are expecting the plane to do. The fit, finish, materials, and tolerances of a LN beat a vintage Stanley. This tends to make the LN consistently nice to use, and occassionally allows it to perform better on particularly demanding tasks like smoothing highly figured woods without tear out. I started out with tuned vintage Stanley's and had no significant complaints. They perform very well.

[Bill Houghton]

To some degree, you're answering your own question. Besides the quality of the cutting edge, the care used in machining the tool will result in good or poor usability. For instance, the early examples of the new Stanley premium planes had a lot of machining problems, with beds on the block planes being out of plane (sorry) with the soles, making it difficult to set the irons properly.

Even 25 or so years ago, when Fine Woodworking did a plane survey, some of the planes were so badly machined that they needed extensive work to be usable.

That said, a cheaper plane may be a good kit to turn into a decent one. There's time and there's money. A few of us are blessed with both; a few of us are seriously deficient in both; most of us have to decide, for any given thing we want to do, whether to spend time or money. Only you can decide which and how much.

[Don Dorn]

Grizzly, no.

Wood River, I don't know.

I respectfully disagree. While my plane collection doesn't inlcude many Grizzly's, I do have one which is a #5. I was very pleasantly surprised to find a flat sole and a frog that didn't need a great deal of work. Sure, it needed some help, but fitted with a Hock iron and chip breaker, it performs very nearly the same as my premium LV or LN. They are exact copies of Record planes with the exact same castings.

I also bought one of their 778s because I coudn't find a Record. I found that it too was an exact duplicate and with a little work, it does exactly what it should. The only downside is that it came with a pretty thin blade, but it works perfectly and keeps an edge better than I thought it would. It's also an exact duplicate including all the bumps, holes and angles as the Record.

I'm not afraid of Griz planes, but I'll admit that I prefer my LN and LVs.

[Chris True]

I have a LN 4.5 with a 50 degree frog, a LV low angle #4 and a woodriver #3 and #6. They all make nice thin shavings if that is what you want. The #3 is flatter than 1 of the other small ones and = to the other according to my surface plate. The #6 is not but it's a much bigger plane.

The WR blades are excellent and stay sharp a long time,just finished traversing both sides of a new bench top last weekend with the #6. The top is 19" wide and 8 feet long made of "soft" maple. I sharpened it before and didn't touch it again during the job. The front of the WR chip breaker was rough, it worked fine but I smoothed it out on a stone when I got it. The adjuster has more backlash than the LN and the lateral adjuster has quite a bit more slop. Both are perfectly usable. If money was tight I'd buy the wood rivers in a heart beat. I like my LN just fine as well, I paid quite a bit more and it shows in spots. No regrets on any of the purchases...

[Jim Koepke]

I have had pretty good luck with Stanley/Bailey bench planes.

They can take a bit of work to get to top performance.

I would agree that LN or LV planes are a cut above in many aspects.

Things you may have to accept on old plane is adjuster back lash, fidgety frog adjustments, loose lateral adjuster and a need to lap the frog and sole.

You may find an old plane in need of a replacement blade and chip breaker.

If you are interested in older planes, look in the Neanderthal wisdom/FAQs Sticky thread near the top of the Neanderthal Haven page. There are a few things in there about fixing up old planes and what to look for. There is a lot of information available for the person who wants to restore old tools.

jtk

[John Coloccia]

The WoodRiver planes are actually quite nice. Most of the other low end planes just aren't worth it. By the time you fix them, you may as well have bought an old Stanley and put a nice blade/cap iron in them.

[Bobby O'Neal]

thanks for all the input guys. I have heard consistently that the WR planes are decent. Again, I am a plane rookie so I am not sure that I would fully appreciate all the differences in top end versus second tier but I can see the value between LN and crap. And like I said my only nice plane is a LN scrub and I realize its a very different animal from a smoother or jack, etc. but I know that it works really well with very little effort. To me that's a good tool.

[Casey Gooding]

IMHO, a vintage Stanley with a replacement iron and chipbreaker are going to provide the best value. It may take some time and elbow grease to make perform at a truly high level. If you don't mind the work, it's a great deal.
I think WoodRiver planes are the best, least expensive, new option. From what I've dealt with them, they are generally pretty well made and can perform nicely. As stated before, the machining on the adjusters is not as fine or smooth as a Lie-Nielsen. They feel a bit more course and have more backlash.
If you can afford them, you will never regret buying Lie-Nielsen. They are of tremendous quality and their customer service is top-notch.