Hand planes

[Dan Thibert]

I have a #5 Stanley Jack Plane and would like to use it to smooth out a drawer face I am putting together. I saw a #7 or #8 jointer plane at Leo's house and other than making me drool and want one, do I need one?

I do not have a planner or jointer so would like to use hand tools to do this work for now. Would my Jack plane be a good all around tool?

Thanks
Dan

[Bill Satko]

I have a #5 Stanley Jack Plane and would like to use it to smooth out a drawer face I am putting together. I saw a #7 or #8 jointer plane at Leo's house and other than making me drool and want one, do I need one?

I do not have a planner or jointer so would like to use hand tools to do this work for now. Would my Jack plane be a good all around tool?

Thanks
Dan

You can get by with using the jack plane for both smoothing and flattening operations. I say that with a little caveat. For smoothing you would want to close up the throat and for flattening you would want to open it up so that you can take bigger shaving, making it go faster. On my bench plane the moving of the frog is a simple operation (I do not need to remove the blade). It may be on your plane it is a more time consuming task. If it is then you might consider setting it one way and buying another plane (either a smoother or a jointer).

I have a smoother, jack and a jointer. All three are used, but if I could only have one plane, it would be a jack. If I only could have two, it would have been a smoother and a jointer (or maybe a fore plane).

Hope this helps in some way.

[Dan Thibert]

What is the difference between a smoother and a Jack plane?

[Bill Satko]

What is the difference between a smoother and a Jack plane?

Mostly length, but it is also set up to take a very fine shaving. It is used to smooth the surface and clean up after using the larger planes which are generally use for hogging away material quickly and in case of the very long planes making the wood very flat. Because the smoother is shorter it can "clean up" the valleys left by the longer planes. Smoothers are generally in the size 3 to 4 1/2 range (using Bailey sizes), but even a jack can be set up as one, it just won't do as fine of job in some cases.

Take a look at Lie Nielsen's website for a look of an example of a smoother. Look under bench planes. Oh! One more thing before you go there. Give your credit card to your wife and make her promise not to give it back to you, no matter what you say later.

http://www.lie-nielsen.com/

[Dan Thibert]

I've been to Lie-Nielson and I can not even afford to look
Those are not planes those are works of art

I think I may even have a smaller plane that may be a smoother plane size
I got one plane from my father in law years ago and it sat doing nothing and just got one from my father. The one from my father is the #5 I am pretty sure and the other is smaller but I do not remember what size it is. I've cleaned both of them up and sharpened them.

So lets assume it is a smoother what would I use each plane for?

The Jack plane for jointing and getting a flat surface, and the smoother to get a smoother surface?

The jack plane would be set for larger bites of wood where the smoother would be set for very light shaving?

I appreciate your help
Dan

[ken werner]

Dan, for almost all the info on planes you might want, spend some time here:

http://www.supertool.com/StanleyBG/stan0a.html

[larry merlau]

careful dan you treading on some very slippery slopes and kens link is a very good one to start with ..sounds like you have a no. 4 as your other plane give us some pics and we can give you a better idea of where you could head..

[Dan Thibert]

Looking forward to going home and looking, and maybe taking some pics

[Rob Keeble]

careful dan you treading on some very slippery slopes and kens link is a very good one to start with ..

Yup and now I have Larry, Ken and Bill to thank for me looking at planes.

This probably can be worse than the spinny vortex I mean how many Lathes can you have. Ooops dont let Chuck see this post. He has as many spinny things as i have screwdrivers.

[Frank Fusco]

Surprised no one else has already said this. But, if you have one plane of one style and you see another plane of another style, you need it.