Rabot Kid

[richard poitras]

Anyone ever seen or use one of these planes?

http://www.rabotkid.com/en/index.html

Defiantly different as they use razor blades...

[John McClanahan]

I watched a demo at a woodworking show several years ago. Looked interesting. To me, it looked more like a remodeling tool, rather than fine woodworking. The base tool sold for $50 at the show at the time.

John

[Dave Richards]

Didn't some German company market a similar product? As I remember, the blade chattered a lot because it was so thin. Maybe this one doesn't have that problem. I suppose it would be fairly easy to make your own out of a scrap of maple. I wonder if it is considered bevel up or bevel down. :D

[glenn bradley]

Dad has a similar tool from the way-back machine. It works well for materials that one would be able to work with a razor blade. Most wood products run through the blades too fast to be a go-to tool but, that's not unusual. Works well for a more reasonable length of time with bass wood and balsa. Is very usable with synthetic (foam) modeling materials. Blade mounts chisel plane. regular plan or curved heel style for scooping.

[HANK METZ]

I had a similar tool from the early '60's that employed used double- edged razor blades. It was a neat concept, but of limited usefulness again due to a lack of blade stiffness. It was a Wilko product (https://www.google.com/search?q=wilkro+razor+blade+plane&newwindow=1&client=firefox-a&hs=fI7&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&channel=sb&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=iLKZU63DA6OF8AGgqYCACg&ved=0CAkQ_AUoAg&biw=1299&bih=738). Like the flying car, some dreams never die, they just resurface every decade or so.

[Rick Potter]

Check out the Stanley RB5. It is a basic block plane that uses double edge blades. You can flip the blade from one end to the other on the base, and it becomes a bullnose plane. I picked one up cheap when Lowes was dumping them a few years back. Also got half a dozen 5 packs of blades for a quarter a pack. Blades are made in England, and look like scraper blades.

I also remember a plane using regular single edge razor blades at a show years ago. It was made in India. Never saw it again.

Rick P

Edit: Just looked, Amazon has the RB5 for $9.87. They also have replacement blades for $5.21 EACH. Guess that makes my two bits for a 5 pack a wise investment. Looks like you could resharpen them. I never thought of it because they were so cheap.

[Roger Pozzi]

Yes. After spending a lot of time at their booth at the woodworking show looking closely for any slight of hand or trickery of some type, I bought into this concept thinking that it would be a good one-handed scraper. I must admit, it is not good, it is great! Also, it does a fantastic job with leveling proud box joints or splines.
I think their showmanship and advertising could benefit from a better presentation in English. (I don't do well with French)

[Jim Matthews]

Rali produced a similar line of planes, using laminated metal plates
to build up a body. (The plates looked like the same material used to form audio frequency transformers.)

They had real limitations to setting shaving depths.

For a jobsite toolbox, this might be interesting.
I'm not one for tools that require disposable parts.

Those are forever being lost, or in need of replacement.

http://www.handplane.com/14/rali-planes-a-new-generation-of-hand-plane/