Thank you Rex and shoutout to Brian for making this possible. To be honest - I was done with the idea of that plane when the sole turned out to be hollow. That is unforgivable, there is no sugarcoating this.
Yeah thats pretty aweful. I think a lot of engineers my age grow up thinking that 'cnc machined flat' is the gold standard of flatness and unless you are building a telescope mirror or something its good enough for anything. The reality is when you hog out a big piece of metal like that you are going to release all kinds of internal stresses from the billet and more or less all bets are off when it comes out of the cnc machine; just for that reason alone. Not actually taking the effort to grind flat a plane at this price point is ridiculous. As is that angular piece of metal they call a handle...
@@eelcohoogendoorn8044 The problem in this case is quality control or refusing to spend the money. You can machine things flat instead of hand lapping them. That's literally what surface grinders do. Look up how CPU coolers and water-blocks are made. Those are precision flat surfaces and are made via CNC! Don't blame the tech when the problem is they outsourced to China. Even that's okay, but you'll find the expensive companies that do that have a QC location everything goes through in another country.
How do you know that the cast iron table top was flat? If you lap a straight tool against a concave surface, it may make the tool look out when it is not.
Ok...no shade thrown anywhere at all here, but...I think Brian is just gonna be super happy because he has this amazing new tool that he didn't have to do any setup on! For him, it WILL BE good right out of the box!
Bridge City's reputation was built when they were made in Portland to the founders exacting standards, but they sold the company and I've been hearing things like what you're saying here, that the quality is falling off. Which is weird because Harvey (the Chinese company that bought out BC) has an excellent rep in the industrial tools market. All the same, I felt like it was telling that Lee Valley unceremoniously dropped them like a bad habit last year and wondered if it was the canary in the coal mine.
I bought a Bridge City HP-8 mini block plane and thought it was pretty cool how the tolerances were tight enough the iron wouldn't need any room for lateral adjustment, except it did need to be adjusted laterally because something was out of square just enough to make one corner of the iron protrude further than the other. Regarding the packaging, I would have preferred either something fancy and small that I could store the plane in while not in use OR something modest so I could toss the box and keep the plane in my tool chest.
Rex, don't you know bridge city tools are not made for woodworking. You're supposed to put it on a prominent shelf in your den next to the 30 year old scotch.
😁@@FrankPace54 My 30 y/o Irish Whiskey stands besides the tumblers in the maxi-bar vitrine. I could bore three holes through the bridge-city space plane and fix it on that chest as a doorknob - would make a nice contrast to the 180 y/o (still original glass) cabinet I reckon .... coming from a place where planes are made from wood and my apprenticeship had "making planes for special uses" in it, I have no real use for a big iron lump calling itself "benchplane" anyway .... 😄 I do have iron- and modern planes of course, but the daily benchwork is still done with 30 to 60 y/o, well preloved (and often adorned) fleemarket- and garagesale-finds I restored to my own spec ...
@@FrankPace54 To be clear: you get the best performance when it's a minimum of one shelf above the Festool collection, and you minimize its contact with any of the lesser metals. As a general rule, it will deign to contact gold, platinum, iridium, titanium, and tungsten without issue. Silver, too, but only sterling. And for gods sake, don't give it access to uranium, or plutonium (it'll cut like a dream for time shortly afterwards, but by shifts end the metal will be gone and _nobody knows where to.)_
Plane socks come in handy where I live, we have high humidity often and everyting tarnishes or gets some fine rust easily. Plane socks just keep the plane looking nice. Handy for where I am, probably useless to most I guess....
Sometimes you get what you paid for...and sometimes, apparently, you don't. I am astounded at how out-of-flat that sole was. But an interesting video, Rex. Thanks for sharing.
this is the case for so many things, nowadays. heck, even clothes. I want to buy a nice pair of pants and I know that they're going to be expensive... so I pay $40 for some jeans and they immediately start balling in my thighs. "buying a cheap tool means you're going to buy another one" or "buy a good tool once" just aren't tenable goals. you Need to buy second-hand stuff. Sadly, there's a limited supply of old things and an increasing amount of people. So I guess that if you need to buy new, it might just be worth it to buy cheap crap, knowing you're going to throw it away. At least, get it for the project and factor it into the cost.
@@trulsdirio well, I'm not allowed to say that, or I might get downvoted to hell. so it's definitely the liberals and their communist agenda that are sending all the manufacturing jobs to China in order to destroy [insert current country] from the inside :D but seriously, I try to avoid saying it is such obvious terms because people tend to think that "politics" is just red versus blue and their brains shut off when pointing out that Capitalism and the profit motive are the reason our world is turning to shit. We all have the same grievances, so you want to try getting people to agree with you about the symptoms in order to tell them about the problem
I broke down and got myself a Lie-Nielsen No. 4 - The base model with the cast iron body and cherry handles. It was only about half the cost of the Bridge City, and uses the familiar Stanley Bed Rock design, with refinements. It's a beautiful tool and its performance makes me look like a better woodworker than I actually am. Still, you could do well with something like a Wood River for about half the cost of the Lie-Nielsen. I was surprised the BC sole was so out of flat. That money they put into the packaging would have been better spent on better machining. My L-N was packed in a simple cardboard box with sheets of crumpled-up local Maine newspaper for cushioning.
Lee-Nielsen seems to still be an honest company making things as well as they know how from a factory in a part of Maine which really can use the work.
Thanks for the honesty on this one. I have a bunch of older BCTW marking/measuring tools, brass and rosewood, and had been eyeing this smoother. Think I'll save my nickels.
I got low cost planes off amazon- calista, taytools, spear&jackson. I tuned them up using your videos and sharpened them. Are the pro level? no. are they good enough for a everyday guy learning to make furniture. yep. I really dislike all these power woodworker guys with $80,000 of machinery telling me to make cheap things with wood scraps. I appreciate your low cost approach to LEARNING woodworking. The low roman bench is quite usable and versatile. Your book is great. I just ordered the GarrettWade bit brace with 3jaw chuck. Thanks for all you do Rex.
Rex, I agree, an expensive plane should be precision ground before it comes to the user. I have a cheap set of planes, when I lapped the base, they were flat as slate. I love your videos, I have learned a lot about sharpening blades, truing planes, and other aspects of woodworking.
Agreed on all points. I have a full shop of Harvey power tools and LOVE them. However, The sister company, Bridge City Tools leave a bit to be desired. Squares are just "wood working" square, and I'd expect "machinist" square at BC Tools' price. I do have to agree about their 02 steel though. I used my mini block plane "out of the box" for weeks. It just kept delivering wispy shavings and quickly cutting chamfers. Only sharpened it to regrind blade so its edge would exit the mouth parallel to the sole. The adjuster couldn't compensate.
to be fair, a Lie Neilson 101 will do all of that out of the box as well, can be adjusted without regrinding the plane, is extremely comfortable to use (the 101 and 102 fit my hands so well that I hate to put them down), and has a lower retail price (looks like the HP8 is on sale now, at $79 it's probably not bad)
"Let's build a new car, but with 5 wheels, and it has the driver sitting on top of it!"... -Innovation is hard, and the beauty of old school tech is, we KNOW that it works. I'm glad they try new things, but apart from the "snap lock" cap, I see little in that piece of iron. Thanks for showing us, though, and thanks to Brian (?) for letting you play with it! :)
@@grumblycurmudgeon :D You gotta admit his cars do work! -And his rockets! His Hyperloop... not so much. But I agree some of his projects are a little off.
@@graydanerasmussen4071 So, let me say initially I was a huge fan of Musk's... about 8-9 years ago. But, see, there're these two kinds of cognitive bias - the Attentional Bias and the Confirmation Bias - that he somehow manages to wield like a scalpel not dissimilar to Trump. The former - the Attentional Bias - occurs when one tends to pay attention to certain facts while ignoring others. The latter occurs when one actively seeks out (or is prone to paying attention only to) events that confirm their already-held beliefs. Everyone has these, for different topics, and people, and, in my own case, when I discovered I had this selective blind spot for the guy, I forced myself to step back and really look. Yeah. His cars work. But the laundry list of promises he made regarding them... well, how many 2018 Roadsters you see flying around? Or the trucks? Or the 2019 semis? Or "Full self-driving by 2016!"? Ridden in a 2020 robo-taxi yet? How about the battery pack swap? Supposedly can two in less than 3 minutes, remember? Then there's SpaceX. Yeah: the rockets work. I'd argue this is his greatest accomplishment. Indeed, if he'd kept his act together and stayed focused on SpaceX and Tesla, I'm certain I'd still be fanboy. But I'm disinclined to think we'll be landing a Starship on Mars by 2024. You? Remember: the plan is a functioning colony by 2030. And this is just brushing up alongside the VAST number of lies, exaggerations, and examples of taking credit for work not his own I can cite (BECAUSE I was such a fanboy at one time). I'm sorry to tell you this, but it's not a matter of if you'll eventually feel as I do. It's a matter of _when._ Sorry you had to find out this way. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
@@perfectlyinsane1376 Pretty much, yes. He should get credit only for taking an "Idea" and turning it into a practical engineering concept... sometimes! :D That, however, is a legitimate achievement.
I know BCTW as a company that makes tools in a modern-art decoish design language that are mostly for collectors. I own several of their rosewood and brass tools from the Portland era. I was always impressed with trying a fresh take on classical tools, sometimes with clever execution - and sometimes really not. The thing I admire is also my biggest critique: new designs seem to be generated primarily by the imagination of the genius designer as opposed to being driven by practical problems professional woodworkers need to solve regularly, efficiently and reliably. I appreciate that you pay for everything you review or have independence from the manufacturer. For this level of money, I would order a Japanese plane hand-forged by a top-tier smith and wait a few years for delivery.
Rex, although I'm far more of a turner than a furniture maker, it is still fun to watch you talk about hand planes. I even bought an old Stanley just to restore. Wishing you all the best.
I have this plane, and the rest of the Bridge City Tool line. I run an artisan furniture and boatbuilding shop, so it looks good when clients come in to see these work of art tools around. That being said, I never use them, I much prefer my lineup of Veritas planes.
I have a BC square and it's nice, it works like a square should. I have been interested in buying something else form them, but after seeing this review I'm having doubts. Are there any tools of theirs that you can recommend or am I better off buying something from Starrett for squares or Veritas for planes?
I have a set of starrett instruments from when I was an apprentice, now here 20 years later they're still the tools I reach for. I started out buying Lie Neilson planes, but switched to veritas because I love the PMV11 blades, and they're made in Canada. I'm also a bit of a tool collector though, so in addition to using them to make my living, I also seem to accumulate them as a hobby.@@dukkiegamer1733
What i really like about the Bridge City plane is the presision planing guide for small parts. Thinking about adapting that one to one of my older planes...
Your feelings about this plane are the same as mine. First one had too much air under the straight edge on the sole, so I sent it back. Replacement one was identical. There was a noticeable dip in the sole where the handle attached. "Oh, don't 'fix' it because you will ruin the surface on the bottom." I might be able to get used to the lever action clamp that holds the blade in place, but it doesn't work like the other planes I have do. If the lever cap is too tight, it is difficult to advance/retract the blade and get the blade square to the sole. Maybe they want you to get it all lined up then tighten it. One you didn't mention was with my big hands, I can't keep my lower 2 fingers around the handle, because of the advance/retract knob for the plane blade rubs against my knuckles. I had thought of sending mine to you also, but never got "a round 2 it" (woodturner's joke....). I don't like the reversable blade for the same reasons you mentioned. I think the blade will fit into the Woodriver or Lee Nielson sharpening jigs. I did not get one of their sharpening jigs either. Also, I didn't get a plane sock..... I did buy it because I was curious and am one of those who have to experiment, just to see what happens. Bridge City, started in Portland OR. which is known as Bridge City some times, and I think the guy retired and sold the business, which is why they are now made in China. It was a move that was supposed to help reduce the cost, and I think they are a little less expensive than they used to be. It for sure is a 'boutique' type of tool, which means nice and shiny, but other tools can do the same job for far less money. I prefer best 'value' in tools. I looked for my second blade because I didn't remember getting one. I either lost it or they didn't send me one...
Amen Brother! As an old fine finish carpenter and custom furniture maker I have mostly old(er than me) Stanley and Bailey planes. The one expensive plane I have is a Veritas skew block plane which at $200+ is worth every penny. But truth to tell, the plane I keep in my tool belt and have used way more than any other even when doing fine work and would never give up is a simple and cheap 5 1/2 inch Stanley #102 block plane. The key is: Tune it and Maintain it.
That was brutal......ly honest and I love that. I'm still rockin' my Defiance planes but love to play with new things from time to time. Local fellow let me try out his Veritas Low Angle Plane and it just didn't feel right to me, probably because I had never used a low angled plane aside from the Defiance block planes. I love your honest and true reviews and believe it or not, remember that one Chinese plane you reviewed a couple years back ??? I still have mine and still use it quite a bit and it was not expensive at all, think I've had happy meals that cost more !!! Thanks once again for your review and thanks to your friend for letting you do it !!!
I am a lifelong quality over quantity person. I have worked wood since I was a child with my dad, but we did basically everything with power tools. As I became interested in adding some hand tools to my processes, these planes stood out to me for their advertised versatility. The $1000 retail price is crazy though. I'd have to go digging for receipts, but I think I finally bought mine for $429. At the time I planned to only use this tool for fine finishing and final dimensioning. I was looking to eliminate sand paper and tidy up joints. The tool I received has no issues, so I guess I was lucky. I have since expanded my variety of hand planes to a stable of about 10 that I use regularly and this plane remains as the last one to touch a piece often times since it leaves a glossy surface with the least maintenance. These tools are good in the context that I use mine, but as Rex mentions, I don't think I'd want to use it all day for a variety of tasks requiring regular blade changes and frequent sharpening. Tip for anybody who owns one of these or buys one: As Rex mentions the blade changes and sharpening are sort of stressful. I use a telescoping magnetic retrieval tool to extract the blade from the body. This allows you to lift it out without risking your palm or smacking the edge onto anything. Then I use a piece of leather folded in half to cover the rear cutting edge while sharpening and/or honing. These are actually suggestions I relayed back to Bridge City when they solicited my feedback on their tools. They replied and thanked me for my ideas, but I doubt that they'll include such amenities in their packaging even though it seems they should for the price. If you are considering a Bridge City Tool, they offer discount prices in a rather suspicious way. I noticed that after adding myself to their mailing list, I received sale notifications for items that I had viewed on their website. So I'm guessing they are targeting pricing using cookies. I kept going to their website clicking on the HP-12 plane, adding it to my cart, and never purchasing. Then I'd get lower prices emailed to me later on. I actually did this for their other two planes as well eventually getting the medium block plane for $199 and the small block plane for $69. Still high prices for these tools, but if you're interested in these, it may help some of you. Thank you to Rex for doing this review. When I purchased my Bridge City HP-12, hardly any reviews existed that appeared unbiased. I considered doing a review myself, but at the time I didn't feel I could be unbiased given my level of experience with hand planes and lack of perspective from using different types of them.
Rex, if you want a hand plane shaped like a rocket ship...go for the Miller's Falls Buck Rogers planes. Great review sir. I always thought the BCT always looked sort of...gimmicky. And shipping them off to China just ensured that they'd be somewhat gimmicky and quality would slowly erode. Speaking of...I'm excited for the restoration lesson. I have a full set of Miller's Falls made, Craftsman branded bench planes made in the late 1940s that I badly want to restore!
I have a Buck Rogers. And I LIKE Miller Falls. But... there's a good reason everyone settled on the Bailey design. Gimme a late teens Stanley, or a Lie Nelson or Veritas, every time.
Haha. I got one of these from an estate sale. It was in a box with Stanley's in various condition. I restored most in the box. I found out the Buck Rogers line is collectable to some folks. It's neat looking cleaned up, but certainly tougher on my hands than the Stanleys.
It's only a guarantee if you also outsource the quality control. Plenty of people get great manufacturing out of cheaper countries. They just have to keep demanding good results, or ship off some of their experts to continue to oversee the process.
@@blarghblargh part of the issue with the BCT's is they really are outrageously priced. I've seen a Stanley #1 (beat up, but still) go for the price of their Jack plane. They're 50% off as of a few days ago, which brings them "all the way down" to $375. If you've got any background in sourcing hand planes to restore, then you know you can get anywhere from 5-20 planes for that price. Yeah, they take some TLC, but all those vs ONE BCT is a TALL ask. For all the reasons Rex lists and more.
apparently, with regular cast iron plane bodies, the bodies will continue to shrink and move several months after casting. If they grind them hot out of the casting, the will bow up later. this thing tho was MILLED, so I dont know how they got a cup in that.
The sock might be a good idea to protect the blade if you are really careless with your plane. And put it over your hand when letting the blade fall out of the plane before sharpening it!
My introduction to Bridge Tools was an estate sale. Short on funds, great woodshop and I couldn't afford anything. But a straight edge was for sale for 2 bucks, bridge city portland. I knew straight edges are expensive and I guessed 2 bucks was a good deal. 5 years later I looked up bridge city and decided I spent my money well.
You nailed that one. BC tools have always been more pretty than practical. I suspect you are right that the multi blade feature is for tinkerers, and also some guys will find the blade that works best for them and then dedicate it. I don't agree that one doesn't need different pitches, though like you I have mostly the same pitch on my tools. But the real evidence is that high end work, during the great period was done with multiple pitches and different pitches (both different pitches for different woods, or for different tasks). However, once the pitchforks came out for the upper classes, toolmakers were able to turn their production to suit the needs of the masses. Tools like the Stanley plane arrived on the wrong side of the ocean, and too late in time to really be put to serious tests. I have a cousin who received honors, and she sent us pictures from the waiting room at the palace (yes a waiting room), and there was a large piece of furniture there that was completely covered in gold. We just don't see the sophistication in modern woodworking all that much. Think of how crude water tables are. We don't work fine veneers and create fancy details on furniture today. The tools are radically simplified. If I look at the great woodworkers I followed when I started: Krenov, Maloof Castle, Carpenter, and Nakashima, their execution was all pretty primitive, except for Castle in some of his innings. And after these guys the standards actually fell into long periods of Shaker, and Mission. I have an even more whimsical theory. The Singer sewing machine company and Stanley, started business 8 years apart. So at some point thereafter, sewing machines were entering the home while men were still using clunky looking wooden planes adjusted with a hammer. Even to this day, there is nothing that I can think of being used in a wood shop, pre CNC that is as complex as a sewing machine. It so happens that wooden planes are better than metal ones, and even if one prefers to disagree they were available in a variety that has never been matched in metal. Yet the metal planes were easier to use, and I imagine just as in the 60s and 70s when everything seemed to be sold with the promise of "space age", guys were embarrassed at how primitive their tools were compared to sewing machines, and wanted to .have machine age tools also.
I'm a high end tool junkie, and have a few BC tools, and haven't been that impressed for what I paid. I haven't tried their planes, but everything else has just been meh with the exception of their packaging...LOL! I do have the sharpening jig you mentioned, and have serviced it several times with help from customer service. It aspires to be the Veritas guide (which I also use) at twice the cost with a little bar to help you ensure the blade edge is square. Totally not worth it. From a collectibles perspective, you can probably drop $750 on a BC tool, and someone 10 years from now will buy it for $750. Sell that plane now and buy 10 users.
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Wow, that's an eye opener, for sure. Personally I've looked at this plane and thought how cool it'd be just to have as a piece of "functional" art, not one I'd really use, but if the sole came that F'd up, it'd be shipped right back for a full refund, that is just unacceptable for what they charge for that thing. Thanks to your patron and you for doing this review, saved me a lot of $$ whenever it was that I actually had that amount of cash spare for something so, frivolous. This was just a would like to have, but was seriously considering some of there marking/measuring type tools, but not anymore after this.
WOW! The gift of a brand new $750 plane even though it's just on loan is amazing. Your review of the tool was superb. 👍👍I too admire Bridge City tools, although they are mostly out of my price range. But I cannot imagine their logic in producing this plane. The design flaws you pointed out are enormous. How the design ever got into production is beyond me. And to top it all off the tool wasn't even capable of performing it intended function without over and hour of work by you. Thank you for sharing. Have a great day and stay safe.🙂🙂
Fantastic testing and review, Rex! Thanks! 😃 I absolutely agree with you there... They kinda overengineered it. 😬 Anyway, stay safe there with your family! 🖖😊
I learned a lot from this channel about hand planing. Just did my first hand plane project ever, a wooden floor. Looks great. Just cheap old planes. Thank you.
A lot of great stuff in this video! I feel like that plane was designed by business people not woodworkers, and that’s a big problem with everything these days. Subject matter experts are left out of the planning and design and it shows. Also China is super expensive for a lot of things these days, but that hasn’t really made its way into the zeitgeist yet. It’s not a cheap place to manufacture anymore. Mexico is making the Stanley Sweetheart planes, or at least assembling a lot of them. The Sweetheart planes are I think 1/4 of the cost of this one. Again super great video!
Superb review. My jackplane is the low angle Veritas, and I love it. I've eyed out the Bridge City before, because some of its features are pretty cool. But the Veritas is a great plane. Would have been nice to have some tapped holes on the sides of it for accessories, like depth gauges and such. But I couldn't have asked for a better plane otherwise. It's absolutely crazy to be that you had to lap the Bridge City plane's sole. You'd expect that from an old used plane.
I’m sure you have said this before, but although it’s nice to have the sides of the plane square with the sole, that’s not what makes a square cut using a shooting board; it’s having the cutting edge square with the side that does it.
I have never been a fan of expensive tool just because they are a little bit better than the standard faire. but it is cool to see the innovation that is going on out there, just goes to show you just how good the Stanley planes really are. They have stood the test of time not just years or even decades but for more than a century of testing but millions of wood workers. I get it there is room for improvement but it is a bit like re-inventing the wheel to make something that looks cooler.
The sock is rust protection. I have a lot of Bridge City tools, including a Jointmaker Pro v2 (which I haven't worked out yet, lol) but the most recent are not accurate at all. I have a large Try square that is out by around 5 degrees. I still have items I bought over a year ago, but haven't opened due to moving house and traveling. I'm dreading what I'm going to find with the other stuff when I unpack and open them.
Rex you were much nicer and more professional in your analysis than I would have been. Some of those issues are inexcusable for that price point. Great review and discussion. When you have planes that were as well built and popular as Stanley’s for decades I am not sure throwing out the entire design and starting over is a great idea or even necessary. Making subtle tweaks and improvement like Veritas or LN have done seems more prudent. Especially at half the price and made in North America.
I've always thought that Bridge City makes sharp looking and innovative tools; but I'll dry shave my whole body with my old Harbor Freight scrub plane before I spend over $200 on Chinese made plane, much less one with that hard of a bow. I hope it's just a one off issue; but I'm sad to hear about it.
That guy paid almost $1,000 for a plane, just so he could send it to you to fix it for free before he ever even touched it. Smart guy. You got to play with $1,000 plane for the price of the effort it took to fix it. He got to take his $1,000 plane out of the box and know for certain it was good to go. Besides that blade deal.
Most of my Stanleys came from a recycling shop at a rubbish dump. They are all excellent except a corrugated bottom no. 6 which might need to go back to the rubbish dump. It is fine on wide boards but on edges it can 'fall off' and bevel the edge for you.
That plane showed up as an advertisement in my Facebook feed regularly for over a year. My first impression was "that looks cool", but the more often I had to look at it, the worse I thought it had to be. Thanks for confirming!
I seem to recall Matt Vanderlist (formerly of Wood Talk fame) got a Veritas plane and tried to "tune it in" by lapping it incorrectly, resulting in what he later called the "banana plane." He talked to the Lee Valley folks and they told him that if the plane was out of flat from the factory, it's a defect and he should have sent it back. It'd be interesting to see if BCT makes that same sort of guarantee.
Keep the edge guard on it with some tape. The double edge works great as you don't have to stop, remove, sharpen, re-install then keep working. Just flip the thing over and go back to work and fix the damage later. Just a little too critical in review, in my opinion. I agree on the handle, so make an insert of wood with some "swell" to it. (shouldn't have to, but.......)
mad respect for your expertise..i have rotten luck with planes, however can't help but enjoy your breakdown of this process of woodworking..thanks Rex!
They should be ashamed to even make this. I would not use it if i got it for free! I see your struggle to still like that company, but you actually know that plane is not worth a second look. Please toss it away and send the dear owner a decent Stanley #4 instead. A metal handle with holes... I thought I lost it. I totally agree on your vision of tools and restored a few Stanley's (thanx to you, paul sellers and others) which work like a charm! I even learned how to actually use one ;-) Thanx for being honest!
That is so cool. Thank you Brian for helping to make this video happen. Cheers Rex for sharing what you found. Way out of my budget for sure. Very interesting points. I am looking forward to the fabrication first thingy. I love my vintage planes. Sopwith Camels are my favourite. LOL. Oh maybe Spitfires really. Oh and Fairy Swordfish. This is too hard to choose. Guess I will settle for Stanley. LOL.
I recently bought a Woodriver plane and enjoyed it so much I bought several others. I enjoy them so much over the cheaper planes Ive owned in the past that I even catch myself giggling while I use them!
I have a wood river no 5 and I barely use it (although I used it today!). I find it unnecessarily heavy, and a grind to use over long periods (and I'm fairly strong!). The lighter Stanley versions I just find much better to use. As long as they're sharp, the weight is perfect. I'm waiting on a new (old) number five wooden plane from eBay that I'll be fixing up and I'll likely sell the wood river. I should add, though, that the wood river is excellently made, to very tight tolerances and feels nice in the hand and looks good too. It's just the weight thing for me. I don't understand it.
I would love to see your views on wood river planes, from what I understand they are based on the Stanley bedrock planes but made with modern materials and milled to a finer tolerance. They still need a bit of work out of the box but I feel that’s the same with any plane. We are always going to lap them and sharpen the irons to make sure they are perfect. I also feel the price point is good for someone who is looking to upgrade but it’s not out of the danger of normal wood workers.
I've got one. Works like a Stanley, pretty much. It doesn't feel as nice, but I suspect that's mostly the weight - it's a bit heavier that a standard #4. What surprised me was the corrosion. Pretty much all my tools are either vintage or modern corrosion-resistant steel. I wasn't able to go to my shop for a few months (the coldest and wettest months around here) and when I did I found rust spots on the Wood River. They sanded right off and were on the side of the tool so it wasn't a big deal, but pretty much all my tools have a nice black patina on them so I didn't realize I'd need to take steps to protect the new plane. I rub it down with floor wax from time to time and it seems to do the trick.
I e got an old nr 6 from stanley( about 100 dollars) and got some very nice irons to fit it, 1 normaal , 1 toothed and 1 with a back angle to create a high angle plane. Might not be a veritas but it does everything i need and its used many times per day in my shop.
Hey, Rex. I just acquired a Stanley 51/52 shooting plane and board combo.....In my opinion even more rare than the #1. It is 100% complete, in FANTASTIC condition and it is VIRGIN! That's right. It has NEVER been used. There are zero scratches or tool marks. And it was a literal "barn find". I found it in a steamer trunk in an old barn nearby where I live in Michigan. Any interest in doing a review/history report on it? It's very fragile and very heavy so I am hesitant to mail it. If I remember correctly you're located in Ohio? I'm about an hour north of Detroit. If you're interested perhaps I could drive down there and we could meet halfway or something.
Being a woodworking hobbyist, my first hand planes were from harbor freight years ago. I had nothing to gage how a plane should work or how to use it, set it up, etc so I let them sit out of frustration. A couple of years ago I bit the bullet and bought the veritas low angle set and was shocked at how well they worked....I would have bought a "vintage Stanley" but I've never seen one, let alone for $30-40.
Thank you for the honest and thorough review. Often when people say: "You get what you pay for", I respond: "not always, sometimes you just overpaid." Bridge City is a fancy name on fancy designs being banging out in China to maximize profits. There is absolutely no reason to spend $500 or more for any hand tool from China.
Dear Rex Krouger I have watched a majority of your videos and they have been useful but my biggest problem is actually work flow so I would like to see a project made that goes into how you set up each step in the process and what tools to use and how best to organize later.
The guides are fancy and seem like they would be useful, but in reality it's really not that hard to make a thin piece thicknessing jig that will accomplish the exact same thing.
Good video, I have only one tool from bridge city tools, it is their bevel gauge, I also find it fairly overdesigned, and it was a bit overpriced. I am glad I got it just to see what the fuss was all about with bridge city tools. I am seriously surprised that the sole was so far out of flat, if I had gotten something like that I would have been on the phone to thier customer support immediately. Not that I can make a plane sole flat again, I have the necessary old refrigerator shelf (glass) and wet/dry sandpaper. I would have been upset with the fact they did not do it right the first time. I do not think any of my veritas or lie nielson planes ever were shipped to me out of flat. And those were only half the price that this is?
The moment you said the blade was sharpened on both ends I nearly spat my coffee everywhere... Who the hell wants to stand over their whetstone with a blade pointing towards them!!
I have the Bridge City Tools honing guide, and I am a mechanical engineer with lots of experience in product design and development. That honing guide, and a majority of the products bridge city makes are filled with dumb design choices or just plain engineering errors (like over constraint linear movements). It might look fancy, but don't be fooled. Anodised aluminium is just not a great material for durable tools, anything which needs a screw is going to come loose, and a double sided blade, come on, that is just unsafe. I bet if you tried to use this tool commercially and the company you work for has a health and safety officer, you will need to blunt one edge of the blade. I recently made a little box to hold my honing equipment, and thought to myself, as you have, that the packaging is actually very very nice, so the most useful part of the honing guide is actually the foam of the box, which now lines my wooden storage box 🙂 If you are looking for a honing guide, buy the Veritas MKII.
I’m only a hobby woodworker, my profession is photography. I think what most professions have in common is that there is a point of diminishing returns the more you spend on tools. The difference between cheap and mid-range is vast. But mid-range to pro, a little less so. Pro to premium, hardly noticeable. There is a point when the price becomes more about ego than results. And then even if there is a measurable difference on paper, you often struggle to see that difference in actual real world use that anyone other than the creator will notice. In my profession, for example, a $500 lens will have noticeable imperfections, where the same lens in a $1000 version will give professional results. You then go to $2000 and no one but the photographer who took the image will see the difference. And even if some eagle-eyed viewer can tell two images apart, they only see a “difference”, not that one is better. So after many years of always buying the best I could afford, I eventually realised I only needed the best tool for the job, which is often not the most expensive available. I’ve taken the same approach with my hobby woodworking. Getting away from cheap tools and going just a step or two higher was enough to get me some near professional results, without buying anywhere near top of the line. Anyway, not offering advice to anyone, just something to think about. Buy what you feel does the best for you.
Just to share, I noticed the Lie Nielsen low angle plane has a sole that's tuned like a Japanese plane. It has a concave sole with low points at the end and just in front/behind the cutting edge! This puts more pressure on the wood just in front of the cutting edge. Interestingly enough, this is not mentioned anywhere on their website. Of course, the hollow on your sample is clearly undesirable and the cutting performance tells the story. Thanks for another great video!
I bought one with my first covid check, back in 2020. It's completely different from antique or budget planes. I've never put my hands on a new, high-quality plane with a traditional design, so I don't have a reference point for that.
Great video. I'm glad you got your hands on one of these so I don't have to! Before you even got to the Veritas recommendation my thought was "I would much rather have my Veritas low angle jack and smoother than this for the same price". Having to flatten the sole on a $700 plane is absolutely nuts. That handle always looked really dumb and uncomfortable, so I'm not surprised that its, well, dumb and uncomfortable. Also I love the point about the packaging cost being passed on to the consumer. Lee Valley and Lie Neilson make equistite tools and package them in very simple cardboard boxes. Because what matters is the tool. I don't need an Apple-style box to impress people on RU-vid with unboxing videos. It's a plane, I'm going to use it to cut wood. Mind you, I still keep the boxes, because I know that i I ever resell them, some goober on ebay will pay an extra 30% because it's in the original box.
I have evaluated many Chinese knock-off of various items and they often come exquisitely over-packaged. I have seen this enough that it makes me suspicious!
Wow, I had expected more from Bridge City. Thank Brian. If I bought a plane that was delivered to you, I would have returned it. Rex did a great JOB getting it flat. I like Lie-Nielsen. They took the old Stanley’s and improved them. They are made in USA.
I have one of these, and the block plane too. I think they are more collectors pieces than anything else. The block plane sits on my desk, next to my lie Nielsen #1 and white bronze #2. For now, I like them where they are. I have other nice planes that I actually use, and a few older ones I am working on restoring.
I don't have this plane, but I do own the HP-8 and HP-9 block planes, and they are very handy tools. Bit odd saying that, as I'm quite the cork-sniffing Lie-Nielsen type, typically, but it can't be denied; there are tasks at which they are absolutely the best tool for the job. It's the skates, really -- for example, precision thicknessing of Kumiko strips, wonderful tools, really enhances both the end result and the enjoyment of getting there.
Manufacturers realized a while back that markets exist for ridiculously expensive tools that don't even have to perform that well so long as they look the part and develop a mystique. If you're willing to spend $5000 for a bottle opener or toaster or whatever mundane tool catches your fancy, there is someone out there ready to sell you one.
Just for the comparison, a Lie Nielsen No. 62 made in the USA currently costs $295 and a spare blade for it also from Lie Nielsen costs $65 (A2 cryogenically treated Tool Steel) and $100 for the toothed version. So for the price of the made in China fancy plane here you can get a made in USA plane plus 7 (SEVEN!) replacement blades. I see no benefit in the BC lever action blade clamp over any other system on the market. You really have to love the design of the BC plane if you purchase it over any other premium factory plane.
Rex you are the voice of reason, Stanley or Record are the ones for all proper woodworkers, the fads and fancy's of all others are just affectations. Continue to keep us all on the straight and narrow Rex.
This plane came as a gift to me. Big disappointment! At that price our expectations are high obviously. I can see you're very careful with your words but it's not a useful tool at all. Maybe nice for display. Sole is not flat on mine either. Not comfortable to use. Holding the blade while sharpening is another problem... On the other hand I'm very happy with my veritas jointer plane and low angle jack. Simple and useful high end tools yet still relatively affordable. Thanks for the review.
Good video Rex. Bridge City tools are for collectors, IMO. Lie-Nielsen has taken up the traditional hand tool mantle that are US made, Veritas same for Canada and Stanley, what can you say? I own all three manufacturers and they all work great. As an aside, there was British manufacturer who made dovetail planes that retired within the last 10-15 years who made the "Rolls Royce" of planes and I cannot remember his name but one of your viewers will know. That would be like comparing a Toyota with Rolls Royce. Works of art and I believe they were made to use - uber collectible. Thanks!
Personally (as a cheapskate) I've never understood why anyone would buy new, a tool that lasts for, well, who knows how long they will last. Some of my Stanley and Record planes are probably older than I am. They are all perfect and I got them all off Ebay, undoubtedly being sold by the families of sadly deceased woodworkers.
I Rarely use hand planes. But, I’d be lying if said I hadn’t tried to justify the purchase of a BridgeCity plane. They are a piece of Artwork, Beautiful to look at!
Actually, those depth stops are perfect for making chair back slats and stuff like that. However, I’m not paying $750 for that trick. I have a slat making jig that works very well with my 100+ year old pre-war Stanley. Though, like you I am intrigued by it.
I have about a dozen pre 1960s Stanley planes and I’m really happy with them - I just want one so-called premium plane, just to compare: the Lie Nielsen No. 62. Hasn’t been available in Germany since Covid first hit, and weirdly it still isn’t. I’ve started to consider a Bridge City plane instead, but now I guess I won’t. Thanks!
I bought a BC Joint Maker Pro..(an upside down table saw). I work with hand tools because power tool noise upsets my disabled son. I spent 40 years as a tool designer. This seemed like a perfect product. Needless to say, the main mechanism raising the blade failed, as the nylon bevel gears were pressed on; not rigidly fixed. Bridge City/ Harvey did not want to talk with me…no product backup!. An expensive purchase that now has limited use. (It doesn’t cut accurate 90 degree bevels anymore either)…stay away from Chinese made tools…unless you are prepared to toss them in the bin….
"(They didn't)," oh Rex, every once in awhile you say something that entirely renews my enjoyment of watching your videos. Regarding bridge city, I actually use their mini block plane almost every day (but it took me WEEKS to figure out how to dial the bloody thing in, and frankly, I'm not certain I'm actually using it as intended, vs simply stumbling onto a solution that worked). Same kinda weirdness: almost tech for tech's sake. Although, to be fair: that one DID come flat as float glass and with a similar edge (those should guide things can serve double duty on rabbits or shoulders where you need to support one side of the plane, fyi). See, they use this little magnet to lock the blade down. It DOES work (and it's a great little apron plane) but if I'm at the bench I'll reach for the squirrel tail Veritas #1 before it for fiddly endgrain on thin stock every time. Would I buy another one of the bridge city plane line? Totally. Circa 2000-ish. Before the Chinese bought em. Now? If imma spend that kinda money, it'll be on TWO from Veritas or Lie Nelson.
