The more planes you get, the more planes you'll want. A jack plane is 14"
and is kind of all purpose. A smoothing plane is shorter, sometimes wider. I
have a few smoothers of different widths to which I have added a convex
curve to the blades so they don't leave any ridges from the edge of the
blade. I have a jack, and a foreplane which is 18" which I use for joining.
A few block planes round out the bunch.
Some of the planes are old Stanleys, the foreplane was a Record bought new,
very good out of the box and I'm looking to upgrade to a Lie-Nieson block
plane, just haven't bit the bullet on that one. I use my planes all the time
and I don't make a lot of furniture either.
One suggestion: When it comes time to replace the blades, I might suggest
buying Hock blades, sold through Garrett Wade and probably a few other
places. These are good and heavy and of very hard steel.
Just one question: What were you using before you started using planes?
John Coffey Locust Valley, NY
