I have not had much of a chance to use it but I’ll share my thoughts. This is much cheaper than the other “premium” hand planes so I didn’t have the expectation that it would be perfect right out of the box like an L-N even; some of the reviews made that claim though. The short version is that I am not going to be sending this one back. . . My impression is that it is much better than a plane you would expect from the regular suspects in the modern era (useless) but not quite up to the standards of the big guys. There are things I like and things I don’t like so much but my complaints fall mostly outside of the performance category and IMHO justify the lower price compared to the premium makers.
Performance and Feel – I didn’t expect it to be perfect right out of the box (and it wasn’t) but that is how I tested it. I didn’t even hone the iron; what I got is what I used. I was able to peel nice thin shavings without further sharpening or set up. I wouldn’t call them angel farts, but nice translucent ribbons. I did not try any endgrain cuts because it didn’t occur to me to try until just now. I did use it on several different woods and liked the results (spruce, Honduran mahogany, sapale, osage orange, curly maple, curly white oak). The bed is stout and being a low angel bevel up plane, the frog is machined from the bed casting itself, this combined with the wonderfully thick blade produced no chatter to speak of. The bedding angle is 12 degrees with a 25 degree primary bevel giving a cutting angle of 37 degrees; a 30 degree secondary bevel will give 42 degrees (close to standard bench planes. Many people get a second iron and grind a 50 degree bevel resulting in a 62 degree cutting angle which should eliminate tear out in even the most difficult woods.
Being able to adjust the mouth instead of move the frog is very convenient. The Norris style depth/lateral adjustment mechanism is something I haven’t decided on yet. I think most of my reservations are born out of my inexperience with and and my concern about over tightening the lever cap (it doesn’t actually have a lever so I suppose I should call it something else) but more on that later. I hadn’t made the connection that you can’t advance the blade with you finger while planning to set the depth. That in and of itself is not a big deal to me and it probably should have been obvious. That said, I had to learn how much to turn to get the increased cut I wanted. There is a degree of backlash in this style adjuster and I don’t have a feel for it yet. I also think that the feel will be improved when I get used to tightening the lever cap properly. All that said, I was able to get it adjusted well enough without any annoyance, so things should only get better. The blade is nice and heavy and made from A2 steel. I don’t have any A2 blades but I think I will like it. I tend to put off sharpening a little too long, once I am doing it I don’t mind if it takes a while; A2 should fit in nicely with that. . . The tote is a bit too upright for my taste, I would prefer it to be swept further forward 5 degrees or so. It is also thicker and less refined than I would like. I’d much prefer the narrower (front to back) and more rounded (no flats on the side) shape of my 19th century Stanly tote. I suspect that I will just get used to this and won’t notice after a while. My biggest complaint would be the lever cap. It is aluminum and quite thin. I’m sure it is actually up to the task at hand, after all it shouldn’t really have that much stress on it, but it feels really cheap and fragile. I was afraid to over tighten it at first, so much so that twice I turned the plane over to sight the iron down the bed only to have the lever cap and blade slip loose and fall out. Part of me wants to make a new one from some African Blackwood scraps I have and add a nice inlay too.
Fit and Finish – Here is where it becomes obvious that this is not quite ready to run with the big boys. The machining is pretty good inasmuch as it appears to be pretty accurate where it counts, I have not yet checked to see just how flat the sole is because I always assume you will have to do some flattening. I will say that it appears to be very close. The adjustable mouth seats well but feels a little (for lack of a better description) gritty when adjusting compared to the adjustment on my 60 1/2. I am sure that some light file work will smooth that right up. This is the first time I have used a brand new plane, it is possible that the feel will get smoother with a little use. I do want to knock the corners from sole to sides down a little, they are pretty crisp and I could see them marring a surface with bad technique. The back side of the mouth is nice and straight and the bed angle looks to be ground accurately (a noted problem with the earlier offerings). Like the mouth closing, the adjustment for depth of cut and later movement don’t feel quite as smooth as I would like. Admittedly a large part of this is probably from my inexperience with the quirks of the Norris style adjuster.
The paint is okay but not great. It is definitely like the thick japanning you see on the vintage stuff. It seems a little thin. When I removed the tote, about half the bearing surface took the paint with it. It could be that the tote was screwed on while the paint was still soft or that I can expect the paint to chip off easily; only time will tell. The brass hardware is noticeably cheaper than what I am used to seeing on the old planes I have. Certainly up to the task but will probably not hold up as well over the next 100 years. Some of the brass bits had small dings scratches, it looks like they had all been rattling around in a drawer together, or, like they were on a plane that has actually been used (basically, not a big deal at all). The tote and knob are cherry and look nice. The knob on mine has a large blemish that looks like a burn mark on the top. Again, this is nothing to worry about but something that would not have come out of the L-N factory. The tote was well finished other than the shape I mentioned before, I have no complaints.
Overall my impression is that this plane is just about right for its price point. It is markedly cheaper that the fancy premium maker’s offerings with an expected reduction in quality. However, the decrease in quality is not as noticeable where it actually counts. Certainly it is difficult to produce tools that are flawless in function as well as looking like show pieces and still be low priced. It would seem that you get to pick 2 of the three. This offering picks the two I would have picked. I feel like I bought a Toyota instead of a Lexus. Further, this Toyota has features and quality not available on the Yugos you would buy from the big box stores.
