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Thread: Complete set of Lie Nielsen bench planes

  1. #16
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    Sep 2019
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    Quote Originally Posted by Prashun Patel View Post
    For me, the bare minimum would be 4,5,7, low angle block, and a flat bottom spokeshave.

    Then, router and shoulder plane.

    I suppose it depends what you make a lot. I am slowly learning the virtues of a draw knife. I think it'd be higher on the pecking order if I could sharpen them easier.
    That’s close to exactly what I have: L-N 4-1/2, Bailey 5-1/2, Bed Rock 607, Stanley block plane, Stanley No. 71 router plane, Stanley No. 151 and 151R, and a Boggs curved spokeshave. Plus a Stanley No. 80 cabinet scraper. If I can’t do I with those, it doesn’t need to get done.

    I was dancing around the notion of getting a shoulder plane, but I work slowly and I can do what it does with chisels. So I think that’s going to be it for a while.

  2. #17
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    I was dancing around the notion of getting a shoulder plane, but I work slowly and I can do what it does with chisels.
    Shoulder planes are wonderful ... not so much for tenon shoulders, but for rebates. You can plane a rebate (no fence needed) and, especially, you can fine tune a rebate - squaring it up.

    L-N 4-1/2, Bailey 5-1/2, Bed Rock 607
    You must be a big guy. I am not starting with you!

    I would compliment the #4 1/2 with a small smoother. My preference is a #3.

    The #5 1/2 was made popular by David Charlesworth as a "super smoother". I think of it as a panel plane, in the same league as a #4 1/2 ... in other words, for large panels. It is too heavy for me to use as a jack plane (although I did once upon a time. It was my main user about 30 years ago). A #5 is much lighter and capable (me a lightweight like me) of planing for lengthy periods. Try one as well as a #3 or #4.

    Regards from Perth

    Derek

  3. #18
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    Aug 2007
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    Google "Stanley Bedrock Planes".
    I bought a set online dome years ago.

    https://www.ebay.com/b/Stanley-Bedro...74/bn_55192957

  4. #19
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    Quote Originally Posted by Derek Cohen View Post
    Shoulder planes are wonderful ... not so much for tenon shoulders, but for rebates. You can plane a rebate (no fence needed) and, especially, you can fine tune a rebate - squaring it up.



    You must be a big guy. I am not starting with you!

    I would compliment the #4 1/2 with a small smoother. My preference is a #3.

    The #5 1/2 was made popular by David Charlesworth as a "super smoother". I think of it as a panel plane, in the same league as a #4 1/2 ... in other words, for large panels. It is too heavy for me to use as a jack plane (although I did once upon a time. It was my main user about 30 years ago). A #5 is much lighter and capable (me a lightweight like me) of planing for lengthy periods. Try one as well as a #3 or #4.

    Regards from Perth

    Derek
    Derek, you found me out. I spent a week with David Charlesworth last year and caught the Super Smoother bug. That led to the 5-1/2 and the 607. Funny, I haven’t stopped to think the planes are too big or too heavy. The 5-1/2 weighs about what the L-N 4-1/2 weighs. The 607 is for long boards. But I’ve been mostly involved with medium-sized cabinets. I can see if I turned to small boxes, I might make good use of a No. 3.

  5. #20
    Eventually I'd like to make myself a complete set of woodies. So far I've got a jack (#5 sized) and a smoother (#3 sized). I've also got a jointer (2" wide iron x 26" long), but it has some flaws that may or may not be correctable. In addition to those I'd like a panel/try plane (#7 sized) and an infill shooting plane like David Weaver's. Maybe a fore plane (#6) too. Oh, and a Japanese-style chamfer plane.
    Last edited by Joshua Lucas; 02-06-2020 at 2:12 PM.

  6. #21
    Join Date
    Aug 2019
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    My opinion is that if you have the money, go for it. However, labeling other brands as knock-offs shows a kind of prejudice on your part. LN planes are heavier copies of the bedrock design, it's debatable if that makes them superior to new or vintage Bailey pattern planes or why one wouldn't call them knock-offs as well. I can see how the maker may try to market his heavier highly engineered plane as better, but that just appeals to emotion, not practicality. I personally am not convinced that I really need a plane like these, or spend money like this on a single tool, in order to get good work done. Now, if you really want to invest on a premium plane, why not drop $3000 or $4000 on a Bill Carter plane? ;-)

  7. #22
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    Apr 2015
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    Bay of Plenty, New Zealand
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    Started with #5 1/4, then a second #5 1/4, added a #4 and a corrugated #6. Slightly different lengths and widths means no reinforcements of irregularities. A #39 1/2" dado plane and a #20 circular plane, was unsure of the #20 but got it at a good price and have been using it more than expected. Much prefer the older pre WWII planes, cast iron gets harder over time, don't care too much about bronze or ductile steel.

    Thought hard about having two #5 1/4 but with one I would have to change the blades too often which would be irritating.

  8. #23
    Hi all. I apolgize for neglecting my own thread. I appreciate all the replies. The gist of my question was what satisfies your particular sense of a "complete set" more as a collection than as set for working toolbox. To my mind and in my intention, the question is a bit frivolous and mocks my own need to have a "complete set" when a essential subset is more practical and not very limiting in actual practice. I confess to not being too serious a woodworker. Forgive me. That does not mean that I spend less time or less care than others here just that I acknowledge my own excesses in the pursuit with a sense of good humor.

    The question arose in my mind before Christmas when my wife, janicewhokeepsmehumble, asked what tools I wanted. So I mentioned that I was close to having all the Lie-Nielsen bench planes. She ordered a #3. Some time later but still before Christmas, when my grandson (4yrs) was trying to make some shavings in the Cave, it seemed that getting a #1 for us to share in the shop was a good idea. JWKMH beebopped over to Highland Woodworking and picked one up. (For those who are keeping score on the set, I have 1, 3, 4, 4 1/2, 5, 6, and 7 in the standard bevel down bench planes. I also have a LN low angle jack which is functionally in the bench plane category. ) After Christmas, grandson and granddaughter (8 yrs) were both in the shop making shavings. Grandson happily took charge of the #1, dismissed all offers of help, and planed some nice shavings off the edge of a 1/2 board. Granddaughter would have none of that. She wanted the biggest plane and a much bigger board to make some of the long curls like the one lying in the floor. I loved it and she tried. It gives me an idea about how the range of sizes does accommodate different sizes of woodworkers. The #7 should have a sign beside it like Disneyland, "You must be this tall to use this tool." It is an excuse to have a plane to fit each child, another justification for a complete set, as if I need one.

    I thank you all for your comments and advice. I take it all to heart. I will also try to be more present for the discussion in the future.

  9. #24
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    Thomas,

    When my grandson was about 6 or 7 he also enjoyed using my LN #1 to make shavings.

    last summer he left here with a tool kit to get started. It included a #3 size plane and a #60-1/2 block plane.

    jtk
    "A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty."
    - Sir Winston Churchill (1874-1965)

  10. #25
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    Michiana
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    It’s surprising (to some) how much you can get done with an abbreviated set of tools.
    Sharp solves all manner of problems.

  11. #26
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    Quote Originally Posted by Rob Luter View Post
    It’s surprising (to some) how much you can get done with an abbreviated set of tools.
    Yes, many with a minimalist approach to their tool set do a lot of fine work.

    In my early days, making a drawer was done with a chisel to cut the grooves for the bottom. This was a bit of work. Though it was easy to make stopped grooves on drawers with through dovetails. A chisel was also used for chopping all the dovetail waste. This was before the Knew Concepts saws and the movement to sawing out dovetail waste came into vogue.

    The edges of small pieces for a box or other project could be planed well enough with a #4 sized plane. Trying to balance a jointer on a narrow strip was a touch more difficult.

    Of course if you want to make molding or do a little carving it will likely expand your set of tools.

    Some times the best reason to expand one's tool set is because a different tool makes the work easier. Some time it is just because a person can.

    jtk
    "A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty."
    - Sir Winston Churchill (1874-1965)

  12. #27
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    Usually, you can accomplish your WWing project goals with tools you have on hand.. UNLESS, you are going into totally uncharted waters.
    Jerry

  13. #28
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    Quote Originally Posted by Jerry Olexa View Post
    Usually, you can accomplish your WWing project goals with tools you have on hand.. UNLESS, you are going into totally uncharted waters.
    Those 'uncharted waters' are how we get our significant others to let is spend money on new tools.

    jtk
    "A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty."
    - Sir Winston Churchill (1874-1965)

  14. #29
    Join Date
    Aug 2012
    Location
    Missouri
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    I am a tool lover. I have more tools then I use regularly. I have many planes still. I have given away many planes. Would I like to have a complete set of Lie Nielsen planes, absolutely with no doubts. I have to try hard to be somewhat reasonable. I would love to have a 797 Caterpillar too, but I really don’t need it to haul a wheelbarrow of dirt to the backyard garden. It would be fun to have the Cat though.

  15. #30
    I think LNs are in a completely different category from prior generations. I have family inherited Stanley-Baileys (4&6) that are now around 140 years old, still going strong, zero problems. I have rescued S-Bs (5&7) that will give another easy 100 years of good service if someone will take care of them. All I do is spray with oil once a year and hone at 1,400 when I think of it. But my LN low-angle block and my 4 1/2 just are in a different class.

    For all of that, I suspect the whole plane thing is some form of insanity. My primary lumber supplier, the only local one with great wood, 8/4, 10/4, charges me $0.50 per bd ft to bring me to S3S, and that S3 surface is silk smooth, and winding stick flat. My smart surfacing purchase was the Veritas scraper kit. I can flatten, burnish, set the hook perfectly and mount it in their card scraper handle in less time than it took to write this. The price for the full kit, that includes the file jig I use to true my ski edges, was $99, and I got free shipping. I use my cards now many, many more times than my planes.

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