Tools for the Normite?

[David Dixson]

With the exception of purchasing an 8" jointer, I've reached a point in my woodworking where I'm feeling a need for some handtools to supplement and complement my power tools. To that end, I'm trying to get together a list of "must have" hand planes, scrapers and such. I'm particularly interested in tools by LV and LN.

Can those who have already performed this exercise help me get a list together?

Thank you,

Dave

[Mark Singer]

There have been some previous threads asking this very question. Try a search and you will find plenty.

[Roy Wall]

Here you go David! Straight from the KC WW show....


http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?t=17757&highlight=planes

on the LV side......

Med. shoulder plane & the scraper plane

That'll give you six.........but that won't be the end of it:cool:

[Ernie Hobbs]

a few that I have and would recommend:

Stanley/Bailey #3
Stanley/Bailey #4
Stanley/Bailey #4 1/2 (my favorite one)
Stanley #80 Cabinet Scraper
Lee Valley Austrian Draw Knife
Kunz spoke shave
Dovetail saw (mine are Woodworkers Supply and Marples)
Marking gauge (with two prongs for marking mortises)
Cutting gauge
good set of chisels
several squares of varying sizes
sliding t-bevel
block plane (lots of good ones out there)- mine is Anant

Tools I need but don't have yet:
Stanley #93 shoulder plane (substitute Clifton, Lie-Nielson, etc. if you have more cash)
Stanley/Bailey #20 or #13 circular plane (also know as compass plane)
Nicholson #50 cabinetmakers rasp

I have had pretty good luck at finding them on ebay over the last year. In the attached picture, all but two were purchased on ebay since last winter. I have found that as long as you are patient and don't care about "collector" items, you can get some good deals. I haven't tried any of the Clifton, Norris, or Lie Nielson planes yet, so I can' t speak from experience on them.

[JayStPeter]

Having just started down the neander path a couple years ago, I'll tell you what I actually use. The things I use the most are:
1. Chisels - I have a set of Marples and 1 LN. If you have the $, LN is the way to go, feels good, sharpens easy and stays sharp.
2. Planes - I now have a number of hand planes. But, I almost always reach for my LV LA Block. More experience is required with the larger bench planes before I'll be comfortable with them. I have recently been finding lots of uses for my LN LA rabbeting block. My joints are fitting much better using this bad boy.
3. scrapers - I bought a set of card scrapers from LN (pretty inexpensive) and use them often. A set of curved scrapers from LV was a real help when smoothing some large moldings. Finally, I also have a scraper plane from LV that is real easy to use and has done well prepping some wood for finish.
4. Hand saw - I got a LN dovetail saw. It is sweet. I haven't really done any handcut DTs yet. But, I have used the saw a bunch of times to quickly trim some tennons and cut some notches.

My experience so far is that the small block planes are easier to tune and use than the larger bench planes. So, I'd start there (I didn't, but wish I did). As for bench planes, I just got a LV LA smoother. I got some nice results prepping some scrap for finish right away. So, that one may go into the arsenal of regular use tools. I have a bunch of old Stanley planes that I've tuned. They work great when practicing on scrap, but I usually end up taking a chunk out of my good projects with them. More practice is required before I'll be comfortable with them for regular use. I much prefer the LV adjusters to the Bailey and Bedrock. If the new LA smoother works out well, it may be off to ebay for all my Stanleys.

Also, keep a significant budget for sharpening. You won't enjoy using any of this stuff if it isn't sharp. Getting it that way can be very frustrating at first (possibly causing more money to be spent).

As you can tell, I'm far from an expert, but there's my experiences so far.

Jay

[John Weber]

Here is quick list as a fellow power tool guy:

Block Planes (adj mouth, 1 low angle, 1 regular angle) The bronze LN's are also nice but without adjustable mouths.

Smoother plane: LN 4-1/2 York Pitch

Low Angle Jack: Either the Vertias or LN, I like the LN, but many love the Veritas

Jointer Plane: #7, depends on your work

Rabbit Plane: The LN 140 likely the favorite

Shoulder Planes: Veritas really has a couple nice planes and are a very good value

Scraper Plane: The Veritas again is very nice

Hand Scrapers: Any decent name brand

Saws: I don't do much with saws, although I have a very nice Japanese pull saw that does about everything I need it to do, LN saws are nice and there are several very good makers

After that I would fill out my smoothers: #4, #3, #5.5, #164, #5, LN's are very hard to beat for bench planes and you really can't go wrong, excellent company, great blades and beefy chip breakers, just super out of the box.

The rest depends on what you want to do, there are all sorts of really cool hand tools, some new tools and many older.

John

P.S. Oh yeah, a decent set of chisles, Marples blue chips are about he best value around, but I just ordered 4 LN's...

[Mike Holbrook]

I bought the LV, LA Jack and Block planes. They are very easy for a novice like me to use. I just got a LV Medium Shoulder plane too. I will be jumping on a a LV, LA Smoother and their Scraper plane in the near future. I bought a set of Japanese chisels but more people seem to like the Western ones, especially those new LN's. I bought a couple Silky saw but Mark and many of the others here like the LN Dovetails and some of the other Japanese saw makers (there are some recent posts on these).

If you plan to saw sheet material and do not have a large table saw that can handle full sheets you may want to look into an EZ Smart. This is a guided system for a circular saw that allows you to cut sheet material and a bunch more with a very compact, cost effective system.

http://eurekazone.com/index.html