The Plane, Boss, the Plane!

Despite the electron smashing power of most of my shop, I think I fall into Rob’s Category #2, The Power Tool Woodworker Who Uses Hand Tools. Over the past few weeks, I’ve been working on building up my hand tools in the plane department. I certainly don’t have the kind of money to be splurging triple-digit dollars on brand new Lee Neilson planes, so I went where any frugal, computer-savvy shopper goes these days – eBay & Craigslist.

Over the last six weeks or so I’ve discovered that if you are patient enough, you can find what you’re looking for on a tight budget.  My first forray into a “serious” hand tool purchase was this Stanley #190 Rabbet plane, which I scored for $25 after shipping:

To be honest, this was a bit of an impluse buy. I don’t know that I really need a rabbet plane and I’m pretty sure it didn’t need to be my first plane purchased.  But the auction was ending that first night I was looking and you’d be hard pressed to beat the price.  This one is the plane that (so far) needs the most clean-up work.  There’s some rust and dirt to clean off and the japanning (which I think is just a fancy word for black paint, but I’m not sure) is mostly gone. I imagine that this will come in handy once I start using some “real” joinery, like rabbets, mortise & tenons, or the occasional  1 1/4″ dado!

My second winning bid was for a set of two Stanley #110 Block planes. I think these were the big steal, coming in at $18 for the pair, including shipping:

Unlike my rabbet plane, I know I’ll get immediate use out of at least one of these guys. The first task will be paring some end grain off a few boards that were cut just a little longer than their mating pieces in Briana’s crib. There are an endless number edges I’ll be chamfering on that project as well, I’m sure.

My latest plane pickup (arrived just this week) is the big dog, a Stanley #7 Jointer plane:

This one came in at a cool $72 after shipping, but that’s a great pound-for-pound value (and this thing is heavy).  Once I get around to building a laminate-top workbench (somewhere down around 4 or 5 on the project list), I’m sure this guy will be a huge help.

Despite the shoddy appearance of the rabbet plane, all of these tools actually have very flat soles. There’s hardly any light that peeks beneath a straight edge held against the soles, so just a little TLC is in order to get them dead-on.  For the blades, I have a combination wet stone to do the sharpening:

I sharpened my first blade tonight, one of the block plane blades.  I figured that they were a decent size to work with (fit easily in my hand); plus I have two of them, so if  I screwed up I wouldn’t be in too big of a bind. I think that it turned out alright, but if anyone has any techniques they’d like to share – please leave a comment; I’m sure there’s plenty I have to learn in this arena.  The satisfying part about laboring with the blade and the stone is the result – a whole new way to create “sawdust” in my shop:

These are my first shavings ever, from the end grain of a 3/4″ red oak board that was lying in my scrap pile. It didn’t take much effort to create an incredibly smooth surface.  Between that and the curls, I’m definitely hooked on planing, something Mrs. ShopOwner is undoubtedly pleased with, given my recent flurry of spending…