Indian made 3-in-1 shoulder plane

[Derrell W Sloan]

Has anyone tried one of the 3-in-1 Indian made shoulder planes sold by Garrett Wade (http://www.garrettwade.com/woodworkers-trimming-planes/p/83R01.06/) (maybe by others too)? Looks interesting if the quality is good. The video shows having to do some tuning but nothing too serious.

[David Weaver]

I think you'd be better off buying a vintage stanley plane. The shoulder plane function is probably the only function you'd actually use, and if you got a vintage stanley 92 for about the same money and decided you didn't like it, you could get your money right back out of it.

[Jessica Pierce-LaRose]

If the "firm in India" GW mentions is the same folks making the Anant planes, then I'd stay away unless there's been a change in quality. I tried an iron dado plane from Anant and it left a pretty sour taste in my mouth.

[george wilson]

It has good reviews and apparently is machined accurately,except for squaring the iron up a bit. If Garrett Wade has a good return policy,I think it is worth trying out. Since shoulder planes are used quite sparingly compared to the usual bench planes,I doubt that the edge holding ability of the blade(which has not been mentioned) would be a big factor. I'd ask them about their return policy before ordering one.

I don't know what to think of the broken frog,but would make sure they'd take care of it,and offer a warranty.

Why someone would copy that ugly Stanley 92,I don't know! I have one that I bought years ago when I needed a shoulder plane in a hurry. I still have it. It works. That's about all I can say about it. It wasn't real expensive at the time.

I will say that you can get perfectly good things made in India IF you pay them decently for their work. And,decently still isn't much. My work partner,Jon,for many years got repro flintlock multi purpose gun tools HAND FORGED and filed vet beautifully in India. Before that he had been getting them cast in steel. The Indian ones were a lot better. The owner of the Delhi Gun House came into the gunsmith's shop in Wmsbg. and they got into a conversation. He said the problem was that Americans demanded cheap prices.(That is always the problem) Jon made a deal with him and paid him properly. He got excellent work for years. Eventually,the Indians decided it would be o.k. to sell Jon's work to whoever they chose wholesale. Jon got disgusted with them and quit dealing with them. This seems to be a chronic problem dealing with foreign companies. And,there's not much you can do about it.

P.S.,Anant planes are junky. They probably are made too cheap due to the problem I just cited. Perhaps they get paid better for the shoulder planes? I have no idea. They don't LOOK junky in the pictures. That's all I can tell.

[david brum]

It looks like Grizzly has the identical planes for a bit less money. I would also hope that they are better than the Anant planes. I had several Anants which were frustrating to operate, to say the least.


http://www.grizzly.com/products/D3752 (http://www.grizzly.com/products/D3752)

http://www.grizzly.com/products/D3751

http://www.grizzly.com/products/D3750

[Jim Koepke]

At the end of the video it still looked like the plane wasn't cutting the full width of the blade.

You can spend your time trying to tune a plane or spend your time making and saving enough so you can buy one that is not in need of tuning.*

*Not sure if such exists. Even some of my planes that worked great right out of the box had very minor fettling to improve them.

I have a bull nose Stanley #90. It sees almost no use. My Stanley #93 is my go to shoulder plane.

jtk

[Jessica Pierce-LaRose]

George is correct; in that most of these overseas factories can do great work if the contracting company is willing to pay for it. Certainly, as George has said, we've seen good hand tools and machinery come out of foreign shops when the company pays the price, so I probably shouldn't have cast such a blanket aspersion.

Honestly, I shouldn't have expected much for what I paid for that dado plane, but I the amount of work that would have needed to have been put into the thing, I would have been better off if I could have purchased the rough casting and done the machining myself! I have no idea what sort of QC Garrett Wade is asking for, and George's point about the return policy is a good one. Around here, good, undamaged and complete vintage Stanley 93s seem to go for more than that plane, but the prices I find for used tools of that ilk seem high.

[george wilson]

I don't think my old Stanley 92's incline is perfectly square to the sole. I get by with the slight error by sharpening the blade to compensate for it,but I don't think it is perfect. I need to look at it as I have had better shoulder planes for years by now.

[Mike Henderson]

If you want a good shoulder plane, get the Lee Valley medium. I've owned several old shoulder planes (including a Record 073 and an 042) and the LV is head and shoulders above. And a lot more comfortable to hold. The old style shoulder plane (the Lie-Nielsen is based on that design) is simply not easy to hold or comfortable.

Mike

[Jim Koepke]

I tend to agree with Mike.

My shoulder plane is an Stanley #93. It works fine but it required a bit of work to get it there.

If at all possible, since everyone has different hands and ways of holding tools, try and get a hands on with whichever shoulder plane you plan to purchase. If you plan to use it for years to come it should at least feel right in your hands.

jtk

[Jessica Pierce-LaRose]

I don't use shoulder planes much on endgrain - because the size of most of my mortises so far has been rather small, I've done most of that work using chisels. Larger ones tend to get undercut.

If I had one, I feel like I'd probably use it, but I don't know.

Where I do use a shoulder/rabbet plane a lot is cleaning up and finessing long grain work like rabbets and such, often after heavy stock removal with my moving fillester. I grab a wooden rabbet plane for most of this work - a lot cheaper than a metal tool, and a lot easier to fettle into shape, (although it does require more fettling down the road than a metal plane would) and feels quite comfortable to me. No idea how how well that would fair on end grain, I don't think I've tried it. I've the feeling it wouldn't work as nicely. But depending on your needs and what's available, my very well be another option.