Choosing and Using Wooden Planes: A Complete Guide 

Tool reviews on free tools? If I send a 40$ metallic hand plane will you do a quick review to show it's value. I'm using it out of the box, no sharpening, no flattening, first time user after watching your videos for a year or more, wow it has been awhile, lol. I find I have the ability to do fine work with the cheap plane if I take my time with the adjustments. FUNCTIONAL TOOL, STRAIGHT OUT OF BOX, ONLY 37 DOLLARS, AND A LIFETIME WARENTY. Frankly the handle came a little loose and rattles after a few hours work but I'm sure I can just tighten the screw when I do all the sanding and sharpening, however this does not affect the use as it's still held strong. The issue is probably from a cheap wood mystery asian conifer handle; white wood. But the plan works fine and I'm watching paint dry on a furniture piece. If you would messege me I'd greatly appreciate it, and the Plane I am talking about is the Buck Bros 9"Adjustable Hand Plane. It's got crappy video reviews so a good video would be nice for people like me who saw a real metallic plane in stock at Home Depot for 37 bucks. I also bought Buck Bros cheapest chisels in a 3 pack for 12$. Sharp out of box, high quality steel, learned how to use the plane and chisels without touching them, in fact, with one chisel I thought I'd see if the wet dry paper would make it sharper than it already was, and It still works perfect with a messed up edge. Both Buck Bros tools have proven to me to be perfectly capable of time working, straight from the box. I didn't even have to try putting wd-40 on the plane base. Buck Bros has a 10.0 out of 10 review for woodworking on a budget. I wasted some money on tools like a stanley rasp (not heavy duty, broke during rough use) and found out all I I need to throw simple black stained furniture together is a saw, hammer, and plane. Please messege me as I thinker I'd be a great success story from a viewer. I made functional furniture as cheap as possible, without a bench, with out even sharpening, and for free, with moldy and water damaged wood free from apartment basement. Woods got screw holes and everything that makes junk wood. With under 100$ of tools and you're videos I know where I stand with woodworking, I WONT BUY FURNITURE AND IM TRYING NOT TO SPEND ANY MONEY MAKING IT😂😂😂 Too easy and simple to pass up, I just need to throw together a workbench with wood glue and free 2x4s and I can make any furniture I need free now, next is a bookshelf. The funny thing is now that I've made something on a rigged workshop setup, Id rather put off building a bench, just so I can hurry up and build my furniture. Again message me (if you've read this far I hope you plan too😂), I can send, pics, video call, or anything you'd like I just don't want to see a highly functional 40$ plane be ignored, along with other ideas I've had over the course of being a subscriber. Thanks for your time!!!

can't wait for more plane builds!!!

I have to say that I noticed you placing your planes blade down. In woodwork classes at school in the 70s if a teacher saw us put a plane blade down we would get a smack round the head. We were tols always rest a plane on its edge. I have always remembered that even though I was not one to get a smack round the head 🙄

@@tinytonymaloney7832 resting on side messes with how the plane iron sits (and you then have to readjust it)...also you can cut your hand on it...i am not an expert at all but i always rest plane on the sole and never on the side and I have no issues...whenever i have placed it on the side (when done shooting or just being lazy) the iron meeds lateral adjustment...so..for what my novice oppinions are worth

@@aarondaniels629 makes total sense I suppose, but it was draconian at school, any excuse to clout a school kid in them days. I usually lay mine on a piece of card. I keep each one in a plastic tupperware type box with a slight WD 40 sprayed heavy tissue paper and one of those anti-moisture tea bags. Yes I know, I should get out more 😀😀😀

You're so welcome!

Ha! I used to carry a 6 to a shop I worked at. Damn thing weighed as much as the toolbox in my other hand.

I have a no6 and I have one set place for it a shouting bord.

Just goes to show how we all see things differently, I use my no6 for nearly everything. I love it, mind you it never leaves the workshop and I weigh about 230lbs. Regards Jim UK.

@@jlmfoy365 easy enough to use a no. 6 when you weigh about half its weight

@@wyssmaster good point, well made.

Then why does it work to tap the body downward, in the toe, as Rex mentioned?

@@WayneStidolph Because the iron is oriented at 45°, there is a component of the downward movement which is aligned with the iron (as much as there is a component of the forward movement when you tap on the back of plane that is aligned with the blade). If someone hit you in your car from right behind, you'll be thrown to the right and backward, you don't need to be perfectly aligned

I'm happy to consider it....now to get the TED people to come calling.

I also immediately thought of Kung Fu stances and body mechanics of my youth!

Quite similar to Judo body mechanics. Maximum efficiency, minimum effort.

Wait till you dig into Historical European Martial Arts we have so much tradition and written textbooks as old as XIIITH century 😁

It leads so seamlessly in woodworking to "Wax on, wax off"

@@WolfKenneth oh, this is lost case, already have couple of manuals on a harddrive.

A jack plane is half way between a scrub and finish plane. SO it means you can use it for either rough work or to finish. If you want to work on very rough wood you use a scrub plane or for a fine finish a smoothing plane. So you could do everything with a Jack plane. I could also do everything with a smoothing plane such as a number 4.

Once you start to get a feel for it you can adapt your grip for different purposes.

Most of those planes are gone. My goon woodworking pal found a Noris smoother in a bin somewhere. Talk about pearls to swine. But that was decades ago. There was a big period around 1980 when there were books on reconditioning tools. I have several of these. But it is a lot faster to make a plane than to recondition one. I think that part of the reason for reconditioning tools was that a lot of the guys who were into that did not have decent shops, often on purpose. I did seminars on plane making around 1980, and I came up with 45 minutes to make a plane if one had the blade, and 90 to make one with a blade made from a file. That does not include all the shaping, or the application of finish, but one can make a plane to do something, and get the first cut in 45 minutes. All the above is why recently we saw all these great companies come out with new planes of the old type. They realized there just weren't enough antiques to supply the explosion in new woodworkers.

All the greatest furniture was created with Wooden planes when there was more emphasis on hand skills and creativity. And things were built to last.

Those planes may have even been made by your great uncle.

Well, American woodworking is basically an adaptation of English/European woodwork, so I'm really just paying homage to my roots.

@@RexKrueger Roots, which in your case (Krueger,Krüger) might be German?

@AlucardNoir America is the best country in the world to live in so there would be no reason to leave. Europe is expensive and has a really small outlook.

​@@bighands69 Tool wise US, GB and Ireland are great because they have garage sales and stuff like that we don't have here in Czech Republic. But livi g wise I think that Scandinavia is way better, even when compared to CZ. You can buy house in countryside way cheaper, Czech Republic is expensive both in housing and food and other commodities. I do think tho that Montana is great, I would love to visit that state. Greets!

Lol there is always one of you. Probably never even left the USA. ​@bighands69

Anybody can do wood working with cheap tools and small amounts of wood.

That's all really interesting! Thank you for sharing so much valuable information and so much I didn't know.

i guess that´s because of the country´s history? Belgium, like the Netherlands, had way more Influence of the British Empire, but of course had continental roots/ influences. I suppose thats where the mash up s are coming from. In Austria we have almost identical history in craftmanship as the Germans, at least when it comes to woodworking. There is just no "jackplane"- lenght plane in this system. Sad sidefact: as a professional furniture maker (its still an apprenticeship) i dont see ANY handplanes anymore in use. even the older colleagues arent interested in using them anymore, or at least keeping the knowledge alive.

@@eliaswerner6443 It might be the reason, but I personally think the influence rather comes from french tradition. I might want to look in some old french woodworking books to see what they say there! I know more about the french speaking part of Belgium but I have not noticed much difference when looking for planes in Flanders

Le riflard c'est le jack des francophones ;)

@@eliaswerner6443 In Germany (and I think in Austria as well - correct if I am wrong) handtools like wooden planes, frame saws etc. are only used in trade school classes and after that forgotten on the shelfs - the rest is just cost efficiency and machines. They even turned from resharpable saw blades to replacable blades and Japanese saws. The wooden jack plane Rex showed must be very close to our Schlichthobel, but I am not sure if the purpose of a Schlichthobel is completely identical to a jack plane.

I personally do not think there is much of a difference between a 45 and 50 degree angle in terms of finish. I suspect the angle decrease is to allow for the wide opening and for clearance. In other words to allow more material to pass through. A jack plane can still be used for finish plane purposes.

@@bighands69 yes and no. You are absolutely right, you can get a very smooth finish using a jack or a #4. In fact that's what I use most of the time. But out of personal experience I can tell you that when the grain is especially interlocked and twisted the 50° does make a significant difference. In cases someone would grab his cabinet scraper since the #4 can't handle the grain a 50° plane is just as good, in my experience. In fact in Germany a 50° smoother is WAY more common than a cabinet scraper. But yes, in 9 out of 10 cases it makes no difference in quality of cut.

That's Uncle Festus.

Budget Vin Diesel

I've changed my mind! I'm going to build a fairly traditional tool-chest instead. The build is tentatively planned for May.

@@RexKrueger I was HOPING that's the direction you would go. So looking forward to the tool chest build...the six board chest seemed like a natural lead-in.

You can still use pallet wood but buy in some planks of pine and use them for the longer sections. Pallet wood will be too short for the main runs but you do not need to buy a lot of pine even one plank would be enough. Now you could make a small bench and use a wall for stabilization so that it can stop the bench from moving. You can create little attachments or brackets that allow you to use it to place the bench against to stop movement. Also have a look at saw horse for a bench there are people doing that with Japanese style wood working.

You probably got that plane from somebody such as an older relative. Get a flat reference to see if the plane is flat. If it is out of flat look up some videos on plane restoration.

It's totally my pleasure!