Hand tools for $100 #2: Buying the planes you really need.
Hand tools for $100 #2: Buying the planes you really need.
More videos and exclusive content: http://www.patreon.com/rexkrueger
You can buy 50 vintage hand-planes and spend the next year restoring them, or you can get three common and useful planes and get to work right now. In this video, I’ll show you the three planes that you will use for 80% of your woodworking even once you become a more experienced craftsman. These planes are common, easy to find, and generally cheap. They each have a specific and important function in the shop. Once you own these models, your ability to process stock in a clean and quiet environment will amaze you. You can always buy expensive machines later, but with good planes, you can get working immediately.
Rex, I´d like to know what is the purpose of the dual/twin mouth block plane and for what are they used for. I couldn´t find the answer anywhere. May be you can investigate. Thanks!.
I need those 3 steel planes, but i dont have enough money to buy those 3, do you have any recomended cheap steel hand planes
I like how far Rex has come in his on-screen comfort level. I get the feeling that the starchy, serious guy in this vid has melted right into the role and has filled out confidently. Good progress and kodos for staying focussed on the right area: excellent, Patreon-worthy content.
You have too many planes. It can’t be good.😄
Cutting champfers is no time to cut corners.
Lol, you buy both, of course!
I don’t know what’s up with the antique scene in Edmonton, but I just went to two different Antique Malls and they were selling rusty old bit braces for $15-$30, and hand planes with badly nicked blades for $50-$150… They’re more expensive than the new ones at at hardware store.
On the plus side, there are a ton of auger bits for bit braces for under $5, including one very neat adjustable radius auger bit
Great video, I just need to find a no5.. Btw you don´t think a No78 should be in that top essencial planes?
Thanks, greetings from Portugal.
If using an oil finish, wax or along those lines its fine to be 220 and higher. If u are staining and sealing, most woods wont take stain properly at that high a grit. I always see woodworkers over obsessing about how smooth something is, I watch them plane it, sand it up to like 320 then stain it, and often have to stain again if they have a desired look other than just having stain on it. Then putting sealer on it poly, oil base or latex, or a laquer . They basically did all that for nothing as u have to sand between coats to begin with, or should if u are doing it properly. Hard maple for example doesnt take the dark color stains well least the maple available to me, I and many other cabinet makers I talk to about finishing all say same thing. I will sand up to 220 with orbital, then come back and sand with grain with 80 to 120 grit by hand so that it can accept the stain, Reason i sand to 220 grit is to get the swirls from orbital out as they are to big at 120 unless ur paper is extremely wore out. I have stained and finished thousands of board feet, dont know exact number but a lot of sets of cabinets and stairs and some furniture pieces like tables , entertainment centers, and built in’s along with a few beds etc.. I used to use lacquer but primarily use conversion varnish now as it is a much better product, and produces a surface like glass. I use tinted conversion varnish in place of paint also, so I always achieve the same exact results. Moral of the story, dont stress about smoothness so much if u are going to stain and seal it, just make sure to take out swirl marks and always sand with grain on final pass, If doing a big project sand and sealer will do all the work for u, if smaller projects I dont waste my time with sanding sealer.
Those prices don’t apply in the West.
lets face it your a plane floozie
You should try Woodprix. You can get your money back if you don’t like it
Where does one find $5 No. 5’s? I know eBay is not cheapest, but the unbroken ones there are more like $40 (and grungy) and 70-100 for nicer.
I dunno, just get one electric plane? Never needed to use a hand plane in my life.
OK I admit I am late to the party here….. But based on your videos I have been expanding my tool chest. And I found something that really surprised me, AmazonBasics has woodworking hand tools! There priced well and amazingly there better quality than I expected. Granted they need some truing up but what new tools don’t. They also seem to model old tool features. Something to look at if you plan to buy new.
thats my kind of problem
2:00 It is not (be) fore… just fore, fore as this word proper meaning
I think you have more hand planes than all of the hand planes in all of North Dakota!
For those of you that have the knowledge or experience to answer my question from a moment ago but would like to have some more specifics you can go to craigslist too take a look yourself. Just head over too Craigslist and type the city and state of mine and that is Grand Rapids Michigan. Once craigslist brings up the sales in my location then go over too the tools section and type into the search bar Wood Planes. Or you can just skim your way through the tools section until you see the sellers post with the title being Wood Planes – 35$. I just went back to the craigslist add and there is only 2 pictures but the pictures are nice and clear. The 1st picture is the 3 planes lined up right next to each other facing up. The 2nd picture of the 3 planes are the planes lined up all facing down so you can see the bottom souls of the planes. It is in the 2nd picture with the souls of the planes where you can see that 2 of the 3 BL.planes have the adjustable mouth or throat that Rex goes over in this video. So for anyone that wants too take a look at the 3 Block Planes there you go but there better not be anyone trying to steal the planes away from me. LOL
"which one should you buy?" I look at my WWRKD ("what would Rex Krueger do?") bracelet, and say "BOTH OF ‘EM!" 🙂
They are nice things, I have two, I don’t think il have as many as you (he says)
Bought my first jack plane today. Question: do I buy a second blade/chipbreaker or go back and get the transitional jack plane that’s at the same antique store? Price is good enough that it’s probably a wash compared to buying a new blade/chipbreaker online. And is this how you start to have a ‘problem’?
Rex, I have some old planes from my father in law, I am not sure what model they are and who made them. Do you have any suggestions on how to identify the make and model on them? Thanks
Loved the video as usual. Rex, Paul & Joshua, a huge thank you to you guys. ^^
If anyone is interested after a lot of summing up & reading. Below are the choices I made: ( Note; the rust-buckets I restored took some unreasonable elbow-grease. take your time to find something balanced between price and touch up)
– No. 7 Jointer plane ( No.7 was the most expensive of the lot but You’ll never need for a larger nor middle one like No.8 or No.6. Worth mentioning is that a No.7 shines if you’re making a lot of table tops or in my case a workbench top (which a No5 will do with some more scribbling and checking). If you need to save money buy another plane iron for the No.5 to act as a "jointer-jack")
[ – No. 5 Jack / scrub plane ] – ( I use this one a lot. I kept it as a jack instead of grinding a really strong camber or widening the mouth. It’s also great for a shooting board.)
[ – No. 4 smoothing plane ] – ( Rex has a lot more videos on optimizing this type of plane. Paul Sellers also has really down to earth videos about it.)
– block plane ( personally, I think it’s just nice to have. I could do without and use something abrasive instead.)
The only essentials [ . . . ] in my opinion are one smoother (smaller plane like No.3 , "4" , "4-1/2") and one jack (No.5, "6").
Some more about planes if anyone is interested:
https://woodandshop.com/woodworking-hand-tool-buying-guide-handplanes/
Look, I want to start by saying, I have loved your videos. You took the information that new woodworkers need to know and broken it down into digestible instructions that will doubtless create a whole new batch of woodworkers – much like what Paul Sellers has done for my generation. So… Good job. Having said that, YOU HAVE OBVIOUSLY NEVER BOUGHT USED TOOLS IN A NEW ENGLAND AREA BEFORE!!! I have fifty years of woodworking experience, and your $5 price for a good used block plane or $20 for a Jack Plane, Smoother Plane, and a block plane TOGETHER (!!!) is off by about three times (minimum). I’m talking junk store prices, flee markets, weekend truck end gate sales, and even most lawn sales. My point is not to discourage you in your mission, it’s to NOT DISCOURAGE people who live in other areas of the country who may wind up looking for months and months and just thinking they are a good enough negotiator as Rex. They will NEVER get to actually woodworking because they will be spending all there time trying to find something as “good of a deal as Rex says” they should be able to find. If they have to drive five hundred miles away to find your prices… then how much does that add to the total price? Instead, let me suggest that you tell people what prices are in your region but to ALWAYS say that prices vary greatly from region to region. The reason I took the time to write is because, I think you want to encourage woodworking as your mission. Frustrating new people, who have no idea where you live, into thinking that $5 block planes are everywhere and $10 smoother planes are equally available will simply run crossgrain to your mission. Eventually, it will undermine your whole YouTube experience because, if people cannot duplicate your teachings into real world experiences, they will just give up. SOMETIMES you have owned up to this fact with a simple disclaimer. But on this video, you stated prices that I have found to be difficult to duplicating in several areas of the country. (I’ve tried Florida, Illinois, Washington DC, and Mid Atlantic states, in particular.) Just a though to consider. Otherwise, you are the “Paul Sellers” of a new generation.
Ok so I have to pick some of your brains, guys. I went to an estate sale and got 2 block planes for $5. Not too bad, eh? One is a Stanley 220 but was in heavy need of a good cleaning. Its very rusty. However, while cleaning it up, I noticed that the knob to adjust the depth of the blade spins, but the bolt does not move. I have applied some oil to it, let it sit for a while, even applied a little heat to the area like I had read on a forum, but i have yet to get that bolt to budge. Any advice? The other one is a vintage craftsman. It’s in a little better shape but doesnt have the knob at the front end. Also the blade is a little chipped. Are these good planes? Should I go through the effort of getting the craftsman operational? I feel like I only really need one but they were cheap so I got them both.
If u use a 5 and not a 5 1/2 ur a girlscout
Here i am with the remnants of gramps woodworking shop. The Plane i have (inherited) is dead simple: A block of wood with a cutout, a notch for a wedge, and a plane wedged in there. Setting that thing is a course of hitting it with a mallet. Up until now i didn’t know you could do that any differently…
This is super late but I’m glad I found this video. I just restored my late grandfathers No.5. I then went to a local goodwill and found a No.4 and 9 1/2 block plane for $19 total.
I have a question for you Rex. It can be answered by anyone in this community with any knowledge and or experience with owning/purchasing vintage block planes similar to the BL.planes Rex shows in this video. My question is 35$ a good price for 3 vintage block planes? I have bought other vintage/antique tools several times now from Craigslist. The tools I have now are a couple bit an brace drills, a #4 craftsmen hand plane, and a 5 or 5.5 Jack plane. Well the Jack plane I kinda have. I kinda have it because I am nearly done doing a restoration to it because of it being my Grandfather’s who has since passed away. So since I have the #4 and essentially the #5 I have been keeping an eye out on craigslist for a quality preferably vintage block planes. And this is where my earlier question and the 35 dollars comes in. So right now near my area of Grand Rapids MI there is someone trying to sell 3 what I believe to be vintage block planes and is asking for the 35 dollars. I can’t tell from the few pictures provided the company/maker and the number/size of the 3 BL.planes. Thankfully however I can tell that 2 of the 3 BL.planes have the adjustable throat that Rex speaks about in the video. So if the 35 dollars is a good price for all three planes that’s great. But if it isn’t a good price and I should offer a lower price what would be an excellent price as well as an acceptable price for me too pay. I want to know what both of those prices are so that I know where I can start with and then end with my offers too the seller of the 3 block planes. So any guidance from Rex or anyone else in this YouTube creators community will be greatly appreciated. I already thank anyone who has read my comment with your time.
Rex you might be interested in these planes: https://www.etsy.com/listing/855314264/antique-wooden-planer-hand-made-planer?ref=shop_home_active_221
Hi Rex. Do you have any vids on card scrapers or how to make a burnisher?
Belgium. Keep up the g/w oodwork
Pizzicato polka!! Great intro.
Most european wood planes have to be ajusted with a hammer
It is so archaic – I ♥️ it
Merci
The fore plane graphic shows an 8 inch DIAMETER circle for the camber on the blade. Should this be an 8 inch RADIUS? The 8 inch radius is described in the smoothing/scrub plane video. I’ve got a plane blade I need to turn into a scrub plane blade and want to get it right.
Hey Rex, I’ve been watching a lot of your videos… started with much more recent ones… where you’re building wooden planes with buttons… to tap… adjust…
I love it! It really shows growth in your techniques, and uses! Is it for everybody? Probably not, but, it wasn’t for you, and now, I guess… it is?
Not going to sugar coat it. I think you have a thing for planes.
You have a problem? Yes, that was _plane_ to see. 🤭
No you don’t have a problem you have a love of hand planes.
i found a 140? among my grand uncles tools -would that be a good block plane?
I love you Rex, I really do, but at 3m43s, you switched out the chipper,not the iron and called it the iron or am I crazy? Just show me the error of my thinking and we’ll move on.
Chas
Thanks a lot for explaining all that things about planes. It was very helpful for me.
What’s the use case for the corrugated sole jack plane you showed near the end of the video?
The thing is they are all so good, even if you had to pay more, 10 or 20+ years later they are still great and worth every penny… However sometimes cash is tight so finding any of these Stanleys for 10 dollars is a gift…
I got the block plane. Long way to go. I better get going. The budget’s pretty tight with gas the way it is.
Just getting started watching your videos. I’ve noticed the COVID tax (auctions? what are those?) has hit these prices pretty stiffly. Good videos though.
Is the "Before Plane" the same as a "Scrub Plane"
I appreciate all the work and editing done just for the first minute of the video…