Help with hand planes

[KyleD]

 Now I've just for to stop buying tools and buy some wood..

[adamcherubini]

[quote="Leandre" pid="8134435" dateline="1679520711"… every plane is a smoother, that make me chuckle. I think this will be a nice learning process. Now I've just for to stop buying tools and buy some wood..
[/quote]

Good! There are a lot of opinions about first planes, including real puzzlers like low angle jack planes. The reality is, for most woodworkers, they aren’t planing to make their stock flat. It’s already pretty darned flat. So length and width of the plane really don’t matter. Ditto blade angles, shapes, mouth openings. It’s all matters of preference and opinions. Took me a long while to figure that out.

In my defense, woodworkers like the illusion (allusion?) of being hand tool users and aren’t always forth coming about what they are actually doing. “I am a hand tool user” or “I’d like to try hand tools” I now understand to mean: “I’m going to machine absolutely everything, but I want to own a smoothing plane and I’d like to make test cuts with an expensive dovetail saw I’ll never learn to sharpen.”

[Admiral]

 I am trying to get myself into the habit of touching up a blade after use rather than letting it dull and require more time and effort to re- sharpen for use. Somewhere I read a woodworker say that this is called “sharpen more to sharpen less. “

This.  In use, edge tools benefit from a quick refresh, takes less than a minute or two and you're back to work ( takes a little longer when you have to remove a plane blade, but . . . . y'all get the point).

[Timberwolf]

This.  In use, edge tools benefit from a quick refresh, takes less than a minute or two and you're back to work ( takes a little longer when you have to remove a plane blade, but . . . . y'all get the point).

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I was surprised to see a booth at a woodcarving show where the guy was sharpening woodcarving knives for customers for three bucks a pop..using two Teal belt sharpeners...one with a fine abrasive belt and the other with a leather stropping belt.. But what really surprised me was the number of very competent and talented carvers that were not able to sharpen their own tools!!!!!!! It made me wonder how many "would-be" carvers that had given up the hobby because, even tho they had the artistic skills, they just couldn't put a decent edge on their tools. That's why I have always advised woodworkers to first, master the skill of sharpening...then start cutting wood..

[Arlin Eastman]

Timberwolf and Adam Cherubini know what they speak of about concerning the importance of learning sharpening. I struggled through it until I found the Lee Valley honing guide. With the guide, the chore of sharpening became easier and done more often. I am trying to get myself into the habit of touching up a blade after use rather than letting it dull and require more time and effort to re- sharpen for use. Somewhere I read a woodworker say that this is called “sharpen more to sharpen less. “

Also found very interesting reading in the Lost Art Press pocket reference “Sharpen This.”

Yep Lee sent the whole sharpening package to me and it does a fastastic job and makes it so easy to do so.  Then the next thing is finding a good stone or two to use it with.

[adamcherubini]

For what it’s worth, I started what I’d call “continuous sharpening” many years ago where I sharpen periodically during work and not as a separate activity upon completion of a job or day’s efforts. Depending on what I’m doing, I could be sharpening more than once each hour. When carving, I’m stropping every few minutes maybe.

Currently doing carpentry, I’ve been using 18v power tools, but still do an enormous amount of hand work. I’m sharpening with Diasharp extra (D8E) and extra extra fine (D8EE) plates. As great as these are, they are no where near finish quality. Due to the nature and location of my work, I don’t want to break out an oilstone. So I use a spyderco ceramic stone to finish. I ALWAYS strop after that, using leather charged with the green chromium oxide paste.

No affiliation: I shop at SharpeningSupplies.com where all this stuff is readily available and reasonably priced.

By the way, the irony of this post isn’t lost on me. I railed against “what to buy” posts and just posted my “what to buy” recommendations.

[rfeeser]

You should find useful information pertaining to your specific question and probably to several you will soon be asking when you get started planning.

[AHill]

A poorly sharpened blade on the finest hand plane will cause an inordinate amount of frustration when using the tool. So, I concur with the advice to get a good sharpening setup and learn to make a blade sharp.

I agree as well that you can't go wrong with either Lie-Nielsen or Lee Valley (Veritas) hand planes. That said, Woodcraft sells the WoodRiver line of planes, and even though they are made in China, they are very decent hand planes. They used to come with A2 tool steel blades, but I see that they are now only described as "high carbon steel" which probably means O1 tool steel. To be honest, for only $20 more, you can get the Veritas No. 4, with an A2 blade. It's a steal compared to Lie-Nielsen or Clifton equivalents at $100-200 cheaper. For that difference, you can add a low angle block plane.

[rfeeser]

Sorry. I got interrupted and forgot to include the URL.

You should find useful information pertaining to your specific question and probably to several you will soon be asking when you get started planning here. 
https://workshop.tjmahaffey.com/planes1.php