Plane Bevel Ups and Downs | Paul Sellers
Plane Bevel Ups and Downs | Paul Sellers
Here Paul Sellers discusses the differences between various jack planes in action to compare cutting performances.
To find out more about Paul Sellers and the projects he is involved with visit http://paulsellers.com
Hey Paul, sorry for commenting in an old video, but… You know what bothers me about plaining? That those beautiful shaves end up going to the trash. ๐
There should exist something to do with them!
your awesome man! so much learned here! just got my Stanley 71 1/2 router plane and going back to your sharpening video. aint got to my Stanley no. 4 yet but its coming. playing with Japanese planes too and like them as well! I’m newbie just having fun so thanks for what you do sir!
My grandfather had several wooden planes. No idea what happened to them but I wish I still had one now! I have seen them at car boots so may get one. Great shot looking down the plane irons. I just love to take a piece of ROUGH timber and plane it absolutely smooth.
thanks for enlightening me..this is the 1st time I’ve seen anyone using the wooden planes of yesteryear; they are normally in the background shot of well kitted out workshops.
My first handplane I bought was a Hong Kong style bamboo laminate plane for 25$. I had to do a little work on it, flatten some tool marks in the blade opening and the sole. Yeah you gotta use the mallet to adjust it, but it slides like butter and takes super skinny shavings.
It’s my observation that the "process" of making something in wood has gone. It is now simply about the end product and as such people jump straight onto machinery, planer/thicknessers, mortisers, dovetail jigs etc. They may as well go and buy the machine finished products in the shop (probably after the cost of wood even cheaper). Where has the joy of hand crafting something in wood from first principles and with personal skill gone? Workshop tools are subject to mass marketing techniques as with any product.
He is so very right about technology and capabilities of today. We have all the information today at our finger tips, the masses have opinions but no skill. Unfortunately the masses are just end users.
The more I start to hands on… the more I listen closely to what Mr Paul is saying.
Those wooden planes are just cool.
I love the demonstration that more expensive and fancy tools are not better than basic tools. Paul demonstrates this for planes, but in other video also for chisels and saws. What is important is sharpness, adjustment, skills and uhh… sharpness. Bad news for tools fetishists.
if you have
And … the jobs a good ‘un!! Spending serious amounts of money on a tool will not give us the skills we need to learn to do the work. That, is what we have Mr. Paul Sellers here for – to teach us to teach ourselves what we really want and need to know, to work wood the way we would like to!
i still don’t get it,,,,,,,,,,,,,can you turn the blade to bevel up or bevel down on the same plane or do you need to have a plane that is specific for the bevel to be up or down…..thanks for any info .
This is great.
The only fault with the wood plane they took too long to set, when I went to college we only had those, happy days.
When ever I have a question I can always count on you to help answer it.. Your the best Sir Paul
I have had to flatten the sole of a Stanley plane as it wasnโt working. I used a worn out belt on my edge sander. I find the tote on my Stanleyโs a bit narrow. I have a Qiangsheng and it is far more comfortable but rather heavy. My favourite planes now are a wooden 4 with a wide open throat, thick blade and no cap iron; and two home made wooden planes with Veritas ironware. I find the lateral adjuster on these a bit short. When the irons are sharpened they all produce shavings equally well. For me itโs a matter of comfort. I have never had a Veritas complete plane so I canโt comment, but other Veritas stuff I do have is really top notch. The handle on your bevel up looks rather peculiar. One large drawback to my Stanleys is the sides not being 90* to the sole, which precludes use on the shooting board. The wooden planes are ideal for shooting.
Once again, myth busting and poking more than a few holes in many of the modern ‘sales pitches’ for why the older standard tools need improvement! I do follow the manual methods of non powered sharpening – no room for a basic amount of machinery in a postage stamp sized shop. Everything that goes in that space needs to earn its keep. Thank you for posting all of these great videos.
A plane ride with Paul Sellers at the stick. What a treat and who would have predicted the landing. Marvelous! My fatherโs old Lakeside (from Montgomery Ward} just got a new life.
Dear Mr. Sellers, thank you for the video! I see other videos recommending the low angle jack plane for more figured grain. Here you are comparing them to a narrow piece of wood. What if you are planing a broad top, figured grain, and the plane just keeps getting stuck…? Thanks in advance, I do hope you will read this… all the best!
I’m not going to read the comments on this one. There are going to be some seriously butt hurt expensive plane owners.
This vid is 7 years old. I’m amazed.๐
Still using all my old hand planes that I bought when I was at school over 60years ago. They work as well today as they have always worked. Manufacturers are trying to fool us that because we are in the computer age which is evolving we have to apply this logic to everything – not with hand tools used correctly.
Paul is so right,when you look at the work of Chippendale and Hepplewhite what they achieved with the tools of their day,still unsurpassed
I think part of what was lost is the knowledge and care
Your full of crap ! Put an old Stanley against a lie lie Nielsen there is no comparison.. the chip breaker and blade canโt be compared.. the lie Nielsen is a much better plane and adjust better than old ones..
Oh good heavens he said he dearly loves that Sorby , if you’re sitting on one in your kit now gents it just tripled in value.
I donโt think we should dismiss any old technology as it has been proven they work. However, nor should we dismiss anything new either, most things have to progress to survive. Itโs all about open minds.
Mr.Paul,True!what you said in the introduction that the carpentry craft was at its zenith.Glad to see wooden plane.It reminds me that my maternal grand father was a carpenter in Kolar Gold Fields(KGF) in British India.He had wooden plane.All his tools were made in England.He was trained and worked as carpenter under British Engineers.Great memory.I am 70 years old now.
I used to make a little money making stuff, but I was hack. I never made enought to keep myself. It seemed that I had a job to support an exspensive hobby. I believed someday I would make enought money to have big shop filled with power tools. I had to give it up, and left a box tools at my parents home. Time moved on, and it became apparent that I needed find an occupation to feed myself when I aged out of my current employment. I enjoyed these videos, and they made me believe I might beable to pick up with wood working, where I left off. I tried to regain the tools I left with my parents, but after a few decades, it becomes confused as to who own something. There are dozens of video showing how to fix up old hand plane. After the third time buying something off ebay, and having it either un fixable, or missing parts, I refused to buy anything I couldn’t examine first. I tried to pick up items from people selling them from home. On the weakend I would drive to people’s homes, and examine items they were selling. In most cases the items were damaged, missing parts, or companies I’ve never heard of. Under the eye of the seller, I did buy a few items, but it was always a mistake. All this time my wife would ask, "What are you going to use that for?" A paper weight my dear, a paper weight. After driving for forty minutes to a man’s home, and looking at Stanley hand plane with a crack in the mouth, I tell him, "I can’t use this. It broken." This seem to offend him, and he tells me I’m wasting his time. and I should pay him something for wasting his time. I tell him I’m giving him nothing, and he starts chest butting me. After I get out his home
Seriously impressed by that plane cam. Never seen that done before ๐
Still a good video.
i Love this common sense thinking. Even more believable by not commercializing video.
Still would like to know shaving thickness and what grit blades where sharpened to.
Thanks Paul for taking the mystery out of getting a decent plane.
I just picked up a Bailey 5-1/2C because I did not want to spend $350 for a Veritas bevel up Jack. Got $70CDN into this one and I am happy with that. I will clean it up and sharpen it. I expect good things from it. From a site it appears to be made between 1924 and 1939. Old enough it does not have a frog adjuster screw.
Thanks Paul. You just saved me a couple of hundred quid.
Thank you Paul!! I love the bevel up planes for the low center of gravity๐
In early 2020 and the 28 dislikes work/ed for which Bevel up Plane Manufacturer? ๐
I use my granddad’s Stanley no.4 for everything.
Hi Paul:
Can one just strop a plane iron/chisel to refresh the cutting edge to avoid going to the cutting stones every time? I’ve read both opinions but trust yours.
I have the veritas in the smooth plane you add I higher angle blade (38 degrees?) it works well and is one of my go to everyday planes. But in a Jack I wouldn’t have one. I have an old wood one like the first one he used and a 37" jointer that I wouldn’t part with that are my favorite long planes and a beat up old coffin plane that is my most used plane of all. So I think he is right the old stuff is really just as good or better. Especially when it comes to trim planes.
I have 4 wooden planes that I bought off Ebay and restored. They are wonderful to use. Almost not enough friction with the wood against wood. Funny thing that. Ialso have an old Record metal plane, a few new Veritas, Woodriver, and LN planes. All are wonderful to use. Love all of them, bevel up and bevel down.
I will say it’s nice to sharpen the bevel up planes since it’s one less step not having to deal with the chipbreaker. Saves that extra 45 seconds for another sip of coffee. ๐
Maybe your 50 year old Stanleys are great but my 15 year old one was rubbish. Needed lots of work on the base, frog was a bit wonky etc. not sure the new ones stack up. My new wood river is a dream in that it was great out of the box
"(…) and i can pick up a plane from that era and go all the way through history, decade after decade after decade, and see that plane, the value, the efficacy of that man’s engineering it still stand against all the best today… [CHUUIIIIIIIIIIIII] WOOOOOOOUUUUUUUUHHH!!!" Love that way serious, knowledge and cheerfulness can be met into someone! ^^ I think this guy deeply loves what he does. ๐
What do you do with all the shavings and the sawdust? Do you throw it into trash or do you use it for anything else (like mulch for plant beds etc. )
Well. That blew a lot of the BS away, didn’t it? Bevel up, bevel down, no difference. The secret is in the sharpening, not the brand name.
Takes me back to my roots. Really liked this video. Some planes are better suited to the stock than others and your personnel geometry will also figure in this too. This is no nonsense woodworking, well done Paul.
This is the lie of global capitalism. Everything gets worse and we keep on believing that everything’s getting better.
Oh boy you are my woodworking master ๐ , like your explanation .
Anyone who knows loves a good set of old moulson bro. irons