In what way new hand woodworking planes are better then the old one ?

Martin Roy

Member
Messages
17
I have the old hand plane for my DIY woodworking stuff , just curious what technology aspects are improved in the up coming planes, in what aspects they are better then the old ones.

And Kindly suggest me the brand also, which is best in quality and price ?
 
the average guy would say that LNs are the best made for the money these days but the old one work well to.. the new steel being used in the new irons do hold an edge longer but the old ones do get as sharp as the new stuff. provided ypou use the sam method to get there. the newer planes in certain brands have refined there adjustment and builds to better maintain the quality of cut with the least amount of effort..some of the older planes made you earn your shavings more than the newer models..as for brands go you will get many opinions on that.. here is what i think and i am sure others will differ, and this doesnt necessarily mean all model of the brand either..

L-Nelson, Veritas(lee Valley), old stanleys.
 
Got to agree with everything Larry said, as well I'll add a little of my point of view.

I don't think that it is so much an "Old vs New" debate, but a good quality vs poor quality debate.

There are some old planes that can certainly be tuned up to work wonderfully, but then there are some old planes that where not very good to start with, or they have been used and abused for so long they are used up.

Same can be said for new planes, some, like LV or LN planes are very very good, while others, are poor copies.

I honestly believe that you can find some real bargains in used planes, if you put some sweat equity into them, but if you buy a new plane from the likes of LV or LN, you will be getting a very good plane, period.
 
Metallurgy has improved somewhat, and the steels used in new plane irons (blades) are generally better than the old stuff.

An old plane with a 'new steel' iron, assuming the bedding (fit of blade-to-frog-to-bed) is solid and the sole is flat, will be just as good an an equivalently tuned new model.
 
If you want to replace / upgrade the blade of an old plane, many folks use Hock blades for this.

I'm very new to hand tools in general. For me, an advantage for getting a new(er) plane is that I can focus my initial efforts on learning to plane (and sharpen :doh: ), instead of restoration / quality evaluation. For such a beginner, I'd give the nod to Lee Valley's Veritas brand over LN (Lie Nielsen) due to cost, even though my first handplane was a gently used LN #62 low angle jack.
 
The difference lies not only on the blades but also on the tight tolerances that new high quality ones are made.

Old Stanleys no matter whether they are Bayleys or Bedrocks have cast iron bodies, with all the drawbacks that cast iron had in those days such as dimension variability, hidden bubbles, and built in tensions that sometimes led to breakage.

LN's for instance use ductile cast iron bodies, that means that in case of dropping them they will not crack or break. Chris Schwartz has a video where he hits with a hammer a bailey body and a LN body and the first one breaks and the other doesn't.
I have a #4 bayley that I upgraded with a Hock blade and lapped both sides and sole on a lapping machine and it works like charm provided the blade is sharp (obviously) I can even plane hard maple end grain with it without much difference from a low angle block plane.

The new tempering and anealing technologies together with the more precise composition of steels and alloys allow for better blades.

However, as these things are verymuch market and profit driven I wonder where is the limit, from prices ranging from a few bucks to a couple of thousands that a Holtey plane may cost. In old times they were just tools to earn your living and they were expected to work well enough.
I doubt that any professional woodworker from those times would buy a Holtey. Can you imagine a Holtey plane tossed together in a tool chest with other tools to be scratched and nicked? I would not even dare make more than a few shavings with it.
 
Many many Thanks for all you guys, really stunned from your detailed and quick response, already asked this question in yahoo answers but didn't collect the satisfying answer. Feeling proud to be the part of this family, would ask many other questions to get a plenty of knowledge.:p

Regards.
 
hey martin its our turn now:) why dont you put your location in your profile so we are able to tell where youare from never know we might just stop by some day for coffee or invite you over for some:)
 
we might just stop by some day for coffee or invite you over for some:)

Hi Larry I am basically a Canadian national from Mississauga... Recently I am on a tour to visit some historical places in the sub-continent ... So from where you belong.. We may meet each other some day perhaps....:type:
 
my main reason to collect and use older planes is that they will increase in value.
besides it`s kind of cool wondering what a given plane has helped create before i was even a gleem in my daddy's eye.
 
Want to ask a thing more ..........

One of my online friend said that modern planes are inexpensive than older planes cuz modern plane manufacturers use inferior metals and inferior processes because they consider them to be adequate. Is that so ?:doh:
 
One of my online friend said that modern planes are inexpensive than older planes cuz modern plane manufacturers use inferior metals and inferior processes because they consider them to be adequate. Is that so ?:doh:

depends what planes you're talkin' about..
 
You need to distnguish between the modern high end plane makers and the mass-produced low end ones.

Until I bought my first high-end modern plane I didn't understand how a plane should work. Once I did, I was able to undertand how to tune some old ones to get similar performance. I also have another modern high end plane that is modeled after a hard to find old one. The modern one is probably less expensive.
 
I have the old hand plane for my DIY woodworking stuff , just curious what technology aspects are improved in the up coming planes, in what aspects they are better then the old ones.

And Kindly suggest me the brand also, which is best in quality and price ?

Martin,

If you do a search for Matt's Basement Workshop, the guy who runs that site is really into hand planes. He posts several pod casts. One is a video pod cast called "The Daily Matt". It is about 10 min long or less. In it he talks all about premium, mid grade, and lower grade hand planes. Very informative! :thumb:
 
My hand plane experience

Hi,

I have had hand planes for years and used them only when desperate. In the last three years I have learned a lot.

My planes are an old Stanley Sweetheart, Stanley block plane, Veritas (Lee Valley) Low-Angle Smooth Plane 05P25.01 With two A-2 irons, Veritas Low-Angle Block plane 05P22.01 (My son, Glenn, has this same block plane. He also has the Large and Small Totes that let it work as a small Smoothing Plane (P0522.17 and .15)).

I worked and worked with the two Stanley planes, purchased books about planes, took them to Wood Working meetings, etc. I improved
their (and my) ability to work well.

I looked longingly at the Lee Neilsen planes at the WW show. I also noted that it took their "expert" a good fifteen minutes to
alter the iron adjustment and get the plane re-tuned. The LN felt heavy (good) and solid. It worked very well when tuned by the
expert. However, I seem to be unable to tune it as well as the expert. I could not adjust a LN any better than the old Stanleys.

I thought I went way out on the proverbial limb and purchased the Veritas Smoothing Plane---Something like "I can't believe I spent
this much money on a plane."

The FIRST time I set the plane up for use it took about 15 minutes. It did MUCH better than the Stanley's. Even thougth the Stanleys were tuned to the optimum that, I or other wood workers, could achieve. After having learned on that first set up of the Veritas, future blade changes, aligning, setting proper iron and throat adjustments took only a few seconds and the result is far superior to what I can achieve with Stanleys or LNs.

I use my hand planes all of the time now...I do things with them now that I would not have dreamed that I could achieve.

The Veritas planes opened a whole new world to me. The Veritas planes adjust so well and so fast that they are MY STANDARD. I know this sounds like I own Veritas stock...however I have no connection with them.

You now have what my wife's brother would say, "That's one darn fools opinion."

Enjoy,

Jim
 
Last edited:
Top