If we think of the earliest plane as being a blade stuck in a flat block then these two elements will be the most important to consider. The quality of the blade and the flatness of the sole or bottom of a plane. With the earlier wooden planes flatness of the sole was not difficult to adjust, with metal planes manufacturing quality becomes a serious issue. Thankfully manufacturers have in the past 10 years addressed this issue and the flatness of the sole of some of our planes now means they do not need any attention.
That is a serious improvement as I can remember the time when every plane brought in to the workshop needed flattening on a steel or glass surface. This process was time-consuming, boring, not particularly effective and needed repeating possibly two or three times. We still have a very expensive large granite surface plate guaranteed to be flat to sub atomic dimensions, each plane that comes into the workshop is still tested on this slab. We place the plane on the slab and check around it with.001 feeler gauges. I have sent a couple of planes back in the past ten years "Tom won't be pleased" was what I was told and frankly I don't care, but it has only been a couple. This is progress.
There are about 15 student benches in the workshop. If I look under each of them what we would find is either a Clifton plane or a Lie Nielsen plane. We have had Veritas planes in the workshop they were fashionable at one time but we have had real problems with them maintaining absolute flatness of the sole over a period of time. This may well have been a manufacturing problem that they've overcome but we haven't seen more recently manufactured planes in order to test them so we cannot recommend Veritas at the moment.
The other crucial element to consider is the blade. Lie Nielsen offers an A2 cryogenically treated blade. This in my experience is a blade which will hold an edge for a very long time however it will not take a sharp edge as I would like. I've spent over 30 years working with high carbon steel blades, in my experience they take a much sharper edge than is possible with the A2 steel. A high carbon steel edge is keener, more sharp, but it needs sharpening more often. The very best blades in my opinion for planes are manufactured by Clifton these are forged welded high carbon steel blades that come close to the qualities of the very best Sheffield steel.
Clifton bench planes made in Sheffield are less expensive than the Lie Nielsen equivalent. I see students every year buying Lie Nielson simply because it is more expensive. They think paying a little more they getting a better tool. I think they're mistaken. If I were buying bench planes now they would all be made by Clifton.
Learn Fine furniture making and designing skills the professional way at David Savage's Woodworking School where we run an intensive one year course in furniture making with real experts.
David Savage is an Internationally recognized professional Furniture Maker and Designer with over 30 years experience.
You can contact David through his Woodworking Courses website
This article was published in 2010. If you liked this article view our current advice on woodworking hand tools.
More info: http://www.finefurnituremaker.com/