Record Planes

[Barry Beech]

I have very few Neander tools but I am adding. ;) Two that I do have, I never hear much of anything about. I have a Record 9 1/2 and a Record No. 4 Jack Plane. I bought the 9 1/2 from amazon and they shipped the No. 4 and I decided to keep it. They are both about 5yrs old. I'm not too sure about how good the blades are.

Are these planes decent planes? They get decent use, but I bought a LN #102 that I adore.

I need to add to the collection and didn't know if I should replace these or not.

Thanks Guys!

[Joe Rogers]

Well...you will probably get some replys that the Records you have are of a recent vintage and are therefore not the best planes. They can be tuned and upgraded with better blades and chipbreakers and be quite usable. Your experience with L-N products probably bears out the difference in quality. I would keep them and use them until your experiences and skills tell you that you need/want better stuff:)
Not much help huh?JR

[Mike Henderson]

A friend of mine has a #4 Record and he loves it. It has the lever cap with the screw that tightens it and he uses that screw to slightly deform the blade to get the best cut. I've watched him use it and it works.

He has really tuned the plane up but I don't remember if he replaced the blade.

So the summary is that a Record jack plane can work very well for you if you give it a bit of TLC.

Mike

[Clint Jones]

Record planes are good planes dont let anyone tell you otherwise. They are comparable to Stanley planes. The type of plane Mike is talking about is a Record SS (Stay Set) and they are very fine planes and demand a higher price than the regular records.

[Mike Holbrook]

I have old Record #4 1/2 Soother, #7 Jointer and a #5 Jack from Garret Wade called a Paragon that I believe Record made.

Back when I bought those planes it was hard to find planes. There seemed to be a period there when wood working tools became powered and hand tools were almost forgotten. Record in England kept on making planes but with the decrease in demand I think they may have lost their focus on quality. Fortuantely Neanderthalers are bringing back hand tools and insisting on ever increasing design improvements and quality that IMHO continues to give them the "edge" in some work.

For me, my old Records, feel like a cog in the history of wood working hand tools. I am refurbishing mine and putting them back to work. It is a little alarming to see the difference in attention to some manufacturing details between the Records and my Lee Valley planes. I had to spend a good while working on the frog of my #4 1/2 with a grinder to get the whole clamping mechanism working right. Maybe its just fascination with the history but I see mine as diamonds in the rough.