Apologies for the outdated map of Europe. I grabbed the first thing that was bright and had bold lines. Okay, now no one else needs to tell me about it. I'm good. Promise.
Yeah, this style is "the" plane style over here in Germany. I just got a quite old Doppelhobel (jack plane) gifted from my neighbor when he heard I picked up woodworking, shortly before he passed away. Was a master cabinet maker back in the 50s and 60s. I definitely have to learn to use it decently now...
Hi Rex. Even though I use full metal planes, I love to pick up high end wooden planes on fleemarkets for just a few €s and bring them back to life. These were developed through the centuries and used by generations of carpenters. They really do have their place today. Greetings from Germany to all of our wood loving friends.
And Obi or Hellweg only sell these kind of planes and it doesnt even have a protecter for the thumb and pointfinger so your resting your hand behind the iron and it doesnt have a chipbreaker. Pure horror and i would kill for an metal one.
@@durstloscher2362 Obi and such sell the "EKO" variant of this plane - they all made by Pinie in CZ. Rex shows the "Standard" variant and there is yet a "Premium" one with Reformhobel adjustment system For an affordable metal plane try "Silverline" on Ebay - they need tuning but make a good plane once that is done.
I live in Denmark, and must admit that I haven't seen an iron plan until a few years back. All wooden planes here... and I actually had a wooden vice (with the wooden screw) on my bench in the 70-ties and 80-ies.
Another thing about wooden planes. They go back in time for thousands of years with very little change. And really, other than being made of metal the modern ones are pretty much the same. I like the fact that the way we use it is about the same as the way the egyptians used it. And after seeing the egyptian exhibit at the Metropolitan Museum in NYC last April, I am super impressed with what our ancestors did with basically the same tools we have. So, way to go!
Like others already mentioned, I don't believe the plane is supposed to have a mouth like this. I have the scrub plane from this company which has exactly this kind of wide mouth (albeit with a cambered iron) and a jointer plane with a mouth which is much narrower, as jack planes should be. Checking their website, the high bed angle suggests that what you have is "hoblík cídič" which is intended for final fine smoothing of hard lumber. Closer to your typical wooden plane would be the "hoblík klopkař" model with a more typical 45° bed angle and a narrow mouth shown on Amazon.
I really appreciate your enthusiasm about hand tools. You showed the advantages of continental handplanes. There are aspects that I never see before your video. greetings from a continental fan
Rex:"... so big that I can look through it and see you. you need to clean your house..." me: *remove the bottle of vodka from the table, kick the bear out into the street*
Best feature I can see is that big front handle that helps distribute the pushing force. How about a video looking at retrofitting a similar handle on to a metal plane?
The part number shows it to be a smoothing plane on the Pinie Website. The scrub planes do not have chip breakers and also have cambered (rounded) blades so are a challenge to sharpen.
Hi Rex, I am happy you promote products from Czech Republic, especialy when we talk about company based only 2 miles from village where I live! Thank you!
The perceived & historical quality of Czech (and poss. Slovak) exports is refreshingly high.....in a world that readily defaults to Mexican Stanley.....and single-use Harbour Freight kit..... Cz firearms legitimately claim their rank for reliability & lasting design.....!
@ It just goes to show that it's better to have a long-term occupation by Austro-Hungary/Germany than Russia :D Some elements and sometimes even whole designs of Czech tools are identical to those from companies like Ulmia and ECE. But! Be aware that capitalism takes its toll everywhere. Pumping money from engineering to marketing, lowering quality. Recently I was informed that a retailer no longer sells some Czech brand of measuiring equipment due to diminished quality. I went ahead and bought the machininst square in Class 1 (?) accuracy from a known German manufacturer MiB. Jeeeesus! I had to bring it probably from Class 4 up a notch by myself. It was a DIY kit basically! I no longer buy new company products from stationary stores and I always film the unpacking. You won't believe the audacity of some customer service representatives.
Hello rex, thanks for great review! As I use the pinie planes quite often (couse they are made in my country), there is little bit more info. The plane you have seems to be some kind of a scrub plane really. Pinie does make smoothing planes of course, but they have the classic narrow mouth (eliminating the problem you encounter when planing the end of the stock). And about the quality, Pinie does make three grades of quality - EKO, classic and premium planes. They differ in quite a few things (most notably body material and iron material and hardness). In case you guys decide to buy one, I recommend going for the classic/premium as they have better irons. They also sell the irons seperatly, so in case you want new iron for your old continental wood plane they are a good choice. Here in Europe, these wood planes are really super common, and you can get them second hand for really small prices, like 2-5$, and like 10$ for the well preserved ones. I even got well preserved wooden jointer coming from late Austria-Hungary (made 1911) for 5$! On the other hand the Stanley-like steel-body planes sell for crazy prices, as they are rarity here. Always love to watch your videos mate, keep up the great work!
I have infinity wooden planes and I like them. It appears, though, that the one you show here is not the smoothing plane but the scrub plane (the large mouth). The smoothing plane has a much smaller mouth.
The mouth size certainly makes sense for a scrub, but a true scrub plane would only have a single iron (no use having a double iron in a scrub) and it would be supplied with a cambered edge , with a _very_ pronounced curve on it.
It's what you call "doppelhobel" in germany. I think it's the equivalent of a jack plane. We have the same plane with a single iron, don't know where there's a need for that though
So, looking at the pinie website, this is clearly a Classic plane: it has the hornbeam sole and does not have mechanical adjusters. You can also see that the sole has not been significantly reduced in thickness. There are three planes in this size class: the scrub, the bench, and the Jack. In current production, only the jack of these three has an iron with a chipbreaker. They don’t show the mouth profile of any of the three on the site. But I don’t see anything with separate inserts anywhere. I would say that this looks like it’s the scrub plane except with a jack iron.
@@JasperJanssen I've bought a professional line smoothing plane from Pinie because of this video, and it is superb, i LOVE it, and the profi iron (which is only a few more euros) is very good in fact.
Thanks for the review. I bought Pinie smoother and jointer arter that. I've been using them for some time now. You can bypass the issue with the chipbreaker by clamping both the chipbreaker and the blade sideways in a vice before tightening the screw. It prevents the chipbreaker from sliding side to side and mostly from shifting forwards or backwards. Also AFAIK the one you have is from the older line (I actually asked this question to the distributor here). The one I have has 45 degree pitch and a narrow mouth. All of their "classic" series planes come like this now. It costs 20 bucks here in Russia.
You could always inlay a triangle shape of hardwood on the sole to close the mouth and create a true smoothing plane. Or just round the corners of the iron and create a true scrub (fore) plane.
I have a second hand one of these with a cow horn handle. I rather like it and I modified it like you did for comfort. You could fill the big mouth with a slab of shaped beech . I glued some foam behind the iron for comfort. I don’t possess the perfect plane. Hammer adjustment is not as good as the Stanley system. I have a Qiangsheng 5 and the handles are really really comfortable and the blade and adjustment mechanism are superb, but it is very heavy. My home made wooden planes use a mixture of hammer and Veritas Norris type adjusters. I find the arm of the Norris is too short for leverage so I end up tapping the blade laterally with a hammer. One day I might just buy a Lee Nielsen or Veritas number 5, but the cost is high and it would probably make most of my other planes redundant. So what would be my ideal. I guess it would be a Stanley with Qiangsheng handles and a Veritas blade. And somehow get a machinist to reduce the free play in the adjuster. Meanwhile I use my edge sander and sanding thicknesser a lot. And my homemade planes because I made them, and they sit on show handy on my bench. Rather than adjusting them I set the blade protrusion different in each. Great video presentation says it all.
Pinie have redesigned the mouth I understand. On the more recent planes (I got mine over a year ago) it is much smaller. I use mine as a smoother. Once it is commissioned - flatten the sole and fettle where the iron sits to maximise contact, oh and shorten the wedge a tad to allow the shavings to escape - it works beautifully. I also had the same problem with the chip breaker and dealt with it the same way. The hornbeam sole really burnishes the wood.
The great thing for us continental Europeans is their price on garage sales: high quality irons, great bodies in a variety of sizes and a lot of pieces to build/combine Your own collection of good planes go for 10 to 15 bucks for a whole bucket - these are so numerous in Europe they aren't even worth a lot when really antique. Another good thing is their adaptability formwise, so You can build next to any form out of a not-so-good-any-more body with Your simple woodworking tools You already have. There are sets of profile planes for next to ANY form of trim common in European the last two centuries in nearly every "antique" or restoration workshop, and You can very easily build those You do not yet have - I keep a drawer with "scrap" planes to cut profiles in the sole when needed. A stanley 45 is a nice treat, but specialized woodies are the better choice should You do more than some inches of profile per week. And they do not corrode no matter how "marine" the environment You use 'em in.
Swedish woodworker adding my two cents. That's a scrubplane, must be a translation issue, it smoothes rough bords, it's not a finishing plane, you only need to put a raidius on the steel. I use one often (same design, the horn really gives it more power) on plit timber before using the jackplane (also with a horn) but I use a coffin style plane as a finishing plane (same planes that my great grandfather used but I have added new soles to the ones I use).
Not really true, srub planes already have rounded off irons and also single irons. This one has two irons and therefore is kind of a doppelhobel (jackplane?) witha strangely wide mouth. Don't reslly know why it is that wide
My favourite smoother is a coffin style but with the raised back like the continental style, you can operate it one handed and it fits so nicely in my hand.
I pretty much use only ECE and Ulmia planes very similar to this one (minus the huge mouth). I do think that large mouth will give problems for most. A good, used ECE or Ulmia can be had for $60 on eBay and have all the plus feature and not the minus, huge mouth opening. No idea why they thought that was needed on anything other than a scrub plane. The ECE and Ulmia planes come in either 45 deg or 49 deg angles depending on whether it is a Jack or a Smoother.
A spherical washer might solve the problem of the screw not being flat against the blade. It’s actually two pieces , one convex the other concurve. They’re great for angular misalignments like this.
Hey Rex, something I've noticed that might be worth mentioning in your videos is that tear-out can be significantly reduced by using a planing stop rather than a vice. It's because the board shifts so much while planing in a vice (you can see that happening here th-cam.com/video/zCtMQaE5MrU/w-d-xo.html). That shift leaves the grain less supported for the cut, causing more of a "levering" than "severing" action when the blade runs over it. I don't have a flat bench or fancy bench dogs, so i usually just clamp a low-profile piece of wood to the bench as a planing stop, but i come out with dead-flat pieces, even for very large surface planes
The horn is made that way so you can gently lift it while pushing like the motion you use in a Scythe, the forward down pressure of the rear hand keeps the plane flat, the forward up motion of the forehand keeps the glide and holds the weight of the plane up. Listen to the web of your thumb for a grinding sound, it should be a distant whisper instead of feeling the wood contact. Most of my grandfather's continentals had a longer screw for the chip and a cam block with metal pins to fit under the head and pivot. Its been half a lifetime since my mom dumped about $10k worth of hand wood tools for $90 at a garage sale 8(. She kept all the junk phillips screwdrivers for some reason.
The very nice maker of wooden planes is ECE Emmerich in Germany. They are awesome, especially the absence of any back-lash in the mechanism. Sold in the USA in a variety of catalogs, certainly shown in LeeValley/Veritas. Highly recommended. I have their primus smoothing plane and it is amazing to use.
Now I know what they're called, thanks. I have one I got at a local flea market here in Ukraine for a couple bucks. I think I'll snag a couple more to play with before I head back to Maine.
Try this when you nest use that plane. Turn it around so the blade is facing you. Put it so the blade is facing you. Instead of pushing it through the wood pull it toward you. It works a lot better and is easier to use. Basically, it is like a Japanese pull plane. I have had one for about 20 years and it is lovely that way.
I have a JP80 No.51 that I inherited from my late grandfather who died in '02. I have no idea how old it is, but it is probably older than I am (and I'm 44). The sole looks like some sort of hardwood plywood with the layers across the sole. the size of the mouth is adjustable and the blade and chip breaker are held in place by a locking plate of sorts with a big finger screw. I have never used it, and it has been stored in an unheated garage for ages so the metal parts are quite rusty and the blade is dull, but maybe I should restore it when I get the time and see what it can do.
@Ken Fullman In the 1990s that maps "Germany" would not include all of Austria and large parts of Poland and the French Alsace region. That whole map is just a complete mess!
I bought an ECE plane with a screw adjuster off ebay and its BY FAR my favorite plane. Light, narrow adjustable mouth. Also they don't need lubrication but it still helps.
Rex Krueger here’s a link to the one i have (no affiliation at all with whoever is selling it) www.ebay.com/itm/2-ECE-Garantie-Planes-Primus-Smoothing-Plane-Scrub-plane-Nice/193131796997
Hey Rex I am a professionell wood worker from germany. I only learnd to use this type of plane. I aktualy was confused about all the planes you are normaly using, because i never see something like this here. Thanks for the little lesson on planetypes.
Loved video, I have a original Boka German jack , has no metal chip breaker as the wedge has a cut out for chip breaker, its sharp always as steel is thick , I use this on Aussie Hardwoods and edging sleepers , blade last 10 times longer than a metal plane , no fiction ,a great plane , tradesman forget these planes have there place too. happy 2020
I know I'm a little late... But to the problem of the mouth falling over the end of your board there are 2 simple ways. A) avoid it by planing oversized and cutting to length after planing or B) reduce pressure on the horn as you approach the end of the board. I live in Germany where this kind of plane is the go to kind and that's just the technique I was shown by my grandfather and my uncle (my father showed me more metal work than wood work - and yes I'm more of a jack of all trades than a master of any... ) My first success with planning was taking a scrap of wood and a plane I restored and producing a whole lot of thin slices (about. 5 mill). But those didn't go to waste, I pressed them flat and wove them to small boxes. Let's not talk about those😅, I learned planing 👍
Ok....I have a set of Infinity wooden bench planes. The only one with a mouth opening like the one you showed was the scrub plane with the radiused iron., . The rest were pretty tight and they all worked well. Not to mention, instead of being adjusted with a hammer, they all have Norris adjusters...even the long jointer plane.. awesome planes...if you like wooden modern planes...
There is one trick you can do with these planes when working with real hard wood: turn the iron to get a blade angle of about 75°. One caveat of these planes is that the sides are often not square to the bottom, which is bad when using them on shooting boards. I'm considering to buy one cast iron plane for this, after I am done restoring the wooden planes I "inherited" when I bought my house.
Fascinating! Thanks for the informative video Rex! I've seen a continental style plane in an antique store near me, and now I might have to consider buying it.
Comming from a small country in Balkan region - the look you gave to the wooden plane on the begining of the video was almost the same i gave when i first save the Stanley or Bailey :D Before your chanel, continental plane is all i knew. I own an Ulmia Ott Matador - on ebay its around 40 euros (thats about $50), but i bought it on a fleamarket for $3, and yes, the chipbreaker slides very much, so i need to tap it a bit to align it with the blade.
Yes. Awesome. More comfortable in the hands than Anglo-American planes and less expensive for the quality. I've practiced to the point that my ECE smoother is taking 0.001" to 0.002" shavings consistently; while the Primus mechanism is tricky to get a handle on, it took about as much fettling as a Lie-Nielsen -- i.e., none. For $99 off Highland Woodworking one can get a hammer-adjusted ECE smoother that will do the job with practice. For a hand-tool noob, this is a great option in comparison to buying a Stanley off ebay for $40 + $20 shipping and then trying to fettle it to high performance.
Got a similar one without a chipbreaker. Looks fine. Still had no chance to try it out, but this video makes me rather optimistic about it, though its mouth is the same big.
I think what you have there is a Doppelhobel. its used to clean up after the scrub plane (Schrupphobel).Smoothing planes have narrower mouths. There is a simple smoothing plane and a more sophisticated version called Reformputzhobel. If you want to see high quality wooden planes Google Ulmia or ECE
I bought a similar planer in good condition (it still needed to be restored a little) at the local market a few years ago for 300 rubles (3-4 bucks). In Russia, this is indeed a very popular type of wooden planer. Mine doesn't have such a big mouth and doesn't have that special rest for the working hand behind the knife, but I'm happy with it.
i've gotone of these nice planes, i think that it was given to me they are sold here in the UK by ALDI as part of their Workzone range, there light and easy to handle and give good results
Rex, It would be interesting for you to make a horn style handle for one of your Bailey style planes. Jus to see if you can improve the performance. Keep up the great videos.
hello guys .. I'm a carpenter from the Czech Republic and in our country this planer is called a knocker ''klopkař'' (in czech) and it's used as a universal tool. it is not specialized in anything. we have three basic types. gigantic one for leveling , universal one (its in video ) and one for smoothing, ... then we have for exaple a planer that has iron teeth and the iron is almost at 90 degrees its for super rough jobs . I know dozens of types of European planers, from planers that are half a meter long to the planers that I carry on my handlebars. it measures about two centimeters and is used to make musical instruments. and that's not the smallest I've seen... the smallest measured one centimeter :) maybe less .. i have small collection with some, you wouldn't even know it was a planer :) I have to point out one thing... in Europe we never use only one planer, we always change several types for each job .. for example, for one of the jobs that were on the video, I would not use this planer .. I would use three completely different ones .. this planer used for everything and nothing if you understand me
@@jirik8483 No on ve videu tvrdi ze ma uhel 55 stupnu coz nema podle vseho zadny hoblik od pinie . Ale jestli si to pamatuju dobre tak mas pravdu protoze na nem ma oznaceni 3A 45 a to je oznaceni cidice ... to stejne americanum nema smyl vysvetlovat nakonec tam nekde napelej hrebik do pohledovy plochy
In fact on amazon it is sold as smoothing plane, but found it on their native site in Czech, and by the mouth it is a scrub plane for roughing. Smoothers and levelers come with tight mouths also, and on the amazon the sole is also pictured as tight...
Did you ever finish this series? I have been looking for more on your "Budget plane shootout" but I can not find more. I am new to you channel but find it very interesting. Thank you for all the great content.
Hi Rex, been enjoying your channel for quite some time. I had found a "continental" plane (i live in greece, so it's just a plane here) at the flea market for like 5 euros. I was watching your video some days ago and i decided to dust it off, sharp the iron and glue it back together, since the handle was off. It now works great, thanks to your other videos about sharpening and i was amazed. Many thanks for your content. Only thing i did, was i turned the handle clockwise a little bit, so it's more comfortable to my hand.
It's a perfectly ordinary plane (-: Except maybe for the mouth which makes it look more like a scrub plane shipped with a smoothing iron by mistake. Measure the body, browse the Pinie website and you may be able to find which plane you have, because the sizes differ slightly from type to type. As far as I can tell the bed angle isn't 55° (2:59) and the spec for the Pinie smoothing plane says 49°.
When he set it behind the angle guide, I had to watch it twice, And I decided there was a difference but only 3-4 degrees. So I'm going with your 49, even though Amazon US lists it as 45 degrees. Amazon also lists two versions, one is standard, and it shows a picture of the sole with a small mouth. The other is "scrub plane with standard blade." Since it is 15 bucks cheaper, I think the idea is you can curve the blade yourself. I bet most people who buy wood planes can handle that.
@@mildyproductive9726 Most Pinie planes (according to their website pinie.cz) have the bed at 45°. Their smoothing plane has the bed at 49°, but the large mouth IMHO really looks more like scrub plane. I am a bit confused.
I think it is better to just buy a few used planes. I dont know how it is in US, but over here in Sweden you can find wodden planes for about 10-20 $ on auction sites. They will take an hour or so to fix up - but they are clearly worth it.
The USA is a big place so it varies region to region. Some places there's lots of tools and they're cheap. Some places there are not many tools and what you can find is expensive. Where I'm at there's not much but it is mostly cheap. I've never paid more than $20 for any plane I own. I don't have anything fantastic though. Some are in pretty bad shape really.
Did you ever actually do the shootout you mention in the video? There was the video about planes from India, and then this one, and in both you said you were going to do a roundup video summarizing everything you learned about budget planes; but I can't seem to find it. Thanks.
The reason the iron was close to flat isn't a matter of cost or effort, it's the choice of steels - something relatively low alloy but with stability additives. It probably costs about $1-$2 in materials and machine cost to make those irons (we've got an odd idea thanks to boutique irons now that irons need to be made out of some kind of more expensive alloy that's easier for the heat treater, or that has wear resistance - but takes proportionally longer to sharpen, or sometimes more). Strip steels (like the stuff razor blades are made from) are intentionally made to limit handling and heat treat complexity, and generally tolerate things like being punched out instead of cut (that's a big deal when $1 per iron counts).
10:30 That's because you're supposed to put more weight on the front, when you're in the back of the workpiece and put more weight on the back of the plane, when you're at the end. In Germany you learn all this as an apprentice in job school
Hmm. Infinity seems to have updated their lineup. All the bench planes have screw adjusters for the blades now. and their smoothing planes have normal sized mouths. All the benefits you described and few of the downsides. Tempting, very tempting.
i have the same brand, it’s a bit different, no chip breaker, all beach, slightly different body design, was about 25 euros and i didn’t do a damn thing to it, no sharpening or sanding, it works great
I have a #4 and a #6 bailey pattern, but I find myself grabbing my wooden Japanese plane more times than not. I like the feel and weight of the wooden planes. I think I’m going to get a couple more Kannas and leave them set for different cut depths.
I had an ECE Primus, the fancy one with the adjuster. Didn't like the adjuster at all so I sold it and bought another ECE double iron plane with the wedge. Really nice planes and although not exactly a budget version they aren't hugely expensive either. I wish they would do a No.3 version (7 1/2") with a 1 3/4" double iron.
A properly prepared and installed chip breaker will prevent tearout. Thin shavings and a very small distance between the edge of the chip breaker and blade take care of cross grained stock. The size of the mouth doesn't matter at all when the chip breaker is engaged. Rex, if you still have the plane, would it be possible to give it another test?
Wooden washer, maybe with an angle to it, for the chip breaker? Same idea that you had adding a wooden shim for the cheap cast iron plane to stop the blade from moving around.
2:46 The angle is just the difference between a (in German) Putzhobel and a Schlichthobel (literally cleaning plane and leveling plane), I guess it's smoothing plane and jack plane? A Putzhobel has about 50° and the blade mouth is normally very narrow and it is used for the final finish of a surface, a Schlichthobel has 45°, a single iron and is just used to make he surface even - and even enoigh for a Putzhobel.
HA! I would not have gotten that “let’s get down to business” “Mulan” reference if I didn’t have a 4 y/o daughter listening to Disney songs constantly. 🎶 “I’ll make a man out of y-“ DAMMIT REX!!!! Thank you for the great content!
The trick to using these is using that front horn to push forwards and using your other hand to push down at the back, rather than the other way around as you would with many metal planes (hence why the horn doesn't have a rounded top). The iron being closer to the back of the sole & your weight being at the front of it has as much to do with that rolling you were getting at the end of the board as the giant mouth on that model I think. I'd be interested in seeing your take on cheap router planes, if you can even manage to find any. I've been looking to get one for ages since they're so useful, but those with microadjusters all appear to be very expensive, & the lack of variety means even second hand models maintain their price quite well.
I got one of those Pinie planes when I started with woodworking and it´s terrible for smoothing because of the large moth. I have no idea what they were thinking when they made that thing. There are much better wooden planes for cheap money. There are lots of used ECE and Ulmia Planes on Ebay and they work really well. The Pinie Plane makes a decent scrub plane, when you round the edges. The huge moth is an advantage for a scrub plane and the wooden body glides much easier than a cast iron plane. I still use it for rough work.
I have an old horn plane I picked up at a yard sale. I can't say I'm a fan of the design personally. When I cleaned out my tool cabinet it got relegated to an overflow toolbox because I never used it. I paid big for it too. $15 if memory serves me. It has a two cherries iron in it.
this kind of planes work very well, but you should definitely go for some quality product. Therefore i would recommend ULMIA. Alas it is not on the low budget side. Before I forget.....You are doing a very good Job. Thank you.
In Czech Republic where I live you can get these at around 18-20 USD, and are very common, If I wanted to get similar US style steel plane it would cost 60+ USD.
Rex this plane you tested is a scrub plane. It has a wide mouth for rough work. You should re test a smoothing plane by pinnie/ infinity I believe a lot of the issues you had with actually planning would be resolved.
Ok Rex, you've had your excursion into low angle, bevel-up planes, but we're ready for the promised "end-of-summer" inexpensive smoothing plane shootout. This was the last video in that series, so let's have it... Where should I spend my money on a cheap plane! We're counting on you to weigh in!
You should have inlaid a piece of end grain hardwood at the spot where the mouth is. Just make 2 cuts straight and square across, chisel out the waste, make a piece to fit and glue it in place. you may have to open the mouth a little. ~0.5 mm is about right for a general handplane, it will take fine to medium cuts About the chip breaker: you could posibly try to straighten it out a little to lessen the gap between the iron and chip breaker, this would also lessen the angle of the screw Another tip: if you put the iron and chipbreaker in the vise together, it won't move!
Nice video, I have that same plane, got it at a knockdown price on ebay, To be honest I didn't like the wide mouth, But i do like wooden planes but prefer the metal Stanley type planes adjustment, So I found a pair of whats called in America, Transition Planes, They are a wooden bodied plane but with a normal metal plane iron adjustment system. I have both a smoothing plane and a jack plane, made by Marples in the early 1960's specially for schools and you really get the best of both worlds with them, and they only cost me £60 for the two.
Rex, the problem with the chip breaker, couldn't you throw on a thin gasket/o-ring and use that to fix the incorrect tap angle? IE: Let a compressible ring destribute the force.
I'm from Poland and i found that this company "Pine" makes handplanes for other tool brands so you can buy them for even half of normal price but irons are porly manofactured in those versions .
the mouth of the plane is interesting. I own one just like yours, excpet the mouth (with the iron set for minimal cut) is only about 3 milimeters (1/8"), and the plane never gives me any tearout issues. also, mine has the 45 degree blade angle and nowadays they even make them adjustable, so looking forward to another one of your reviews!
One advantage of these planes is that you can get them very cheap second-hand because they are not collectable and most people assume that they are not worth anything. I got one for free when I went to pick up some stuff I bought on eBay. Another I got for about $25AUD ($15US). Most second hand No.4 or No.5 metal planes will sell for at least twice that.
You know, that that plane is from Czech Republic and your map is missing that country? (i'm from one country over and own several of their planes). Also in europe that plane cost depend on model 11 - 23 Eur ( like 15 - 25 USD). So for 60 you can for sure get better in USA, but for under 20 can't find any better in Europe.
Apologies for the outdated map of Europe. I grabbed the first thing that was bright and had bold lines. Okay, now no one else needs to tell me about it. I'm good. Promise.
Rex Krueger lol I guess getting the map of Europe wrong is TIGHT
@@oliverdelica2289 it was barely an inconvenience
Mikhail Galatinov yeah yeah yeah😂
Mikhail Galatinov hi 5 on the Screen Rant references
I was thinking that you just make joke, that the plane is from Germany insted of Czech Republic, which is missing on the map.
Yeah, this style is "the" plane style over here in Germany. I just got a quite old Doppelhobel (jack plane) gifted from my neighbor when he heard I picked up woodworking, shortly before he passed away. Was a master cabinet maker back in the 50s and 60s. I definitely have to learn to use it decently now...
Hi Rex. Even though I use full metal planes, I love to pick up high end wooden planes on fleemarkets for just a few €s and bring them back to life. These were developed through the centuries and used by generations of carpenters. They really do have their place today. Greetings from Germany to all of our wood loving friends.
Many thanks!
in germany they are all over the fleemarkets. the metallic ones are actually way more rare here
And Obi or Hellweg only sell these kind of planes and it doesnt even have a protecter for the thumb and pointfinger so your resting your hand behind the iron and it doesnt have a chipbreaker. Pure horror and i would kill for an metal one.
@@durstloscher2362 Obi and such sell the "EKO" variant of this plane - they all made by Pinie in CZ. Rex shows the "Standard" variant and there is yet a "Premium" one with Reformhobel adjustment system
For an affordable metal plane try "Silverline" on Ebay - they need tuning but make a good plane once that is done.
@@durstloscher2362 dont disregard them thoug. They can still be exelent.
Im in France, i never found any metal one... Managed to find an ulmia with ajustable mouth for like 5€ ... Good aswell
I live in Denmark, and must admit that I haven't seen an iron plan until a few years back. All wooden planes here... and I actually had a wooden vice (with the wooden screw) on my bench in the 70-ties and 80-ies.
I live in Denmark too.. have mostly seen old metal Stanleys... Maybe this is local choices?
I'm on Sjælland...
Another thing about wooden planes. They go back in time for thousands of years with very little change. And really, other than being made of metal the modern ones are pretty much the same. I like the fact that the way we use it is about the same as the way the egyptians used it. And after seeing the egyptian exhibit at the Metropolitan Museum in NYC last April, I am super impressed with what our ancestors did with basically the same tools we have.
So, way to go!
I have been using one for decades and love it. One note is that they are also very easy to use on the pull.
David Clark, this is what lead me to give Japanese planes a try!
Like others already mentioned, I don't believe the plane is supposed to have a mouth like this. I have the scrub plane from this company which has exactly this kind of wide mouth (albeit with a cambered iron) and a jointer plane with a mouth which is much narrower, as jack planes should be. Checking their website, the high bed angle suggests that what you have is "hoblík cídič" which is intended for final fine smoothing of hard lumber. Closer to your typical wooden plane would be the "hoblík klopkař" model with a more typical 45° bed angle and a narrow mouth shown on Amazon.
Exactly, it's "hoblík cidič" or translated it's "smoothing plane" ;)
Reminds me of my Grandfather's Ulmia Bench Plane. Been using it for over a decade and I love it.
Ulmia is a well known brand from Germany and still in business.
I really appreciate your enthusiasm about hand tools. You showed the advantages of continental handplanes. There are aspects that I never see before your video. greetings from a continental fan
Did I miss something? I never saw or found the shootout result video for budget planes. Love the videos and tips by the way. Thanks!!
ya where is it
wondering too
I’m not 100% but I think he sorta decided on the Stanley low angle Jack
@@cjoe5977 no he said it doesn’t make a good smoother I think he decided on the India planes
th-cam.com/video/cR5H6OOB8z4/w-d-xo.html
Rex:"... so big that I can look through it and see you. you need to clean your house..."
me: *remove the bottle of vodka from the table, kick the bear out into the street*
Nas vidania
@@silentwisdom7025 it should be "Do svidania"
Hey! The bear is not at fault here, is just a pet!
wow, that map is so insane, i don't even know where to start. It's not even old, it's an alternate history map :)) My country it's not even there.
Best feature I can see is that big front handle that helps distribute the pushing force. How about a video looking at retrofitting a similar handle on to a metal plane?
That’s most definitely a scrub plane. I have one along with its smoothing plane brother, bought direct from Pinie in Czech Republic.
they make a scrub plane, same giant mouth but with a cambered iron and no chip breaker
@@shannonburke5286
It is still a scrub plane rather than a finish plane but it is good enough to perform as a finish plane.
The part number shows it to be a smoothing plane on the Pinie Website. The scrub planes do not have chip breakers and also have cambered (rounded) blades so are a challenge to sharpen.
Hi Rex, I am happy you promote products from Czech Republic, especialy when we talk about company based only 2 miles from village where I live! Thank you!
I recently bought an OPP Rakovnik very narrow scrub plane with an exotic wood sole for one quarter of the price!
I think your country makes some great stuff!
The perceived & historical quality of Czech (and poss. Slovak) exports is refreshingly high.....in a world that readily defaults to Mexican Stanley.....and single-use Harbour Freight kit..... Cz firearms legitimately claim their rank for reliability & lasting design.....!
@ It just goes to show that it's better to have a long-term occupation by Austro-Hungary/Germany than Russia :D Some elements and sometimes even whole designs of Czech tools are identical to those from companies like Ulmia and ECE. But! Be aware that capitalism takes its toll everywhere. Pumping money from engineering to marketing, lowering quality. Recently I was informed that a retailer no longer sells some Czech brand of measuiring equipment due to diminished quality. I went ahead and bought the machininst square in Class 1 (?) accuracy from a known German manufacturer MiB. Jeeeesus! I had to bring it probably from Class 4 up a notch by myself. It was a DIY kit basically! I no longer buy new company products from stationary stores and I always film the unpacking. You won't believe the audacity of some customer service representatives.
Hello rex, thanks for great review! As I use the pinie planes quite often (couse they are made in my country), there is little bit more info.
The plane you have seems to be some kind of a scrub plane really. Pinie does make smoothing planes of course, but they have the classic narrow mouth (eliminating the problem you encounter when planing the end of the stock).
And about the quality, Pinie does make three grades of quality - EKO, classic and premium planes. They differ in quite a few things (most notably body material and iron material and hardness). In case you guys decide to buy one, I recommend going for the classic/premium as they have better irons. They also sell the irons seperatly, so in case you want new iron for your old continental wood plane they are a good choice.
Here in Europe, these wood planes are really super common, and you can get them second hand for really small prices, like 2-5$, and like 10$ for the well preserved ones. I even got well preserved wooden jointer coming from late Austria-Hungary (made 1911) for 5$! On the other hand the Stanley-like steel-body planes sell for crazy prices, as they are rarity here. Always love to watch your videos mate, keep up the great work!
I have a Pinie Jointer plane, it's a beast but lovely to use.
I have infinity wooden planes and I like them. It appears, though, that the one you show here is not the smoothing plane but the scrub plane (the large mouth). The smoothing plane has a much smaller mouth.
👍
The mouth size certainly makes sense for a scrub, but a true scrub plane would only have a single iron (no use having a double iron in a scrub) and it would be supplied with a cambered edge , with a _very_ pronounced curve on it.
It's what you call "doppelhobel" in germany. I think it's the equivalent of a jack plane.
We have the same plane with a single iron, don't know where there's a need for that though
So, looking at the pinie website, this is clearly a Classic plane: it has the hornbeam sole and does not have mechanical adjusters. You can also see that the sole has not been significantly reduced in thickness.
There are three planes in this size class: the scrub, the bench, and the Jack. In current production, only the jack of these three has an iron with a chipbreaker. They don’t show the mouth profile of any of the three on the site. But I don’t see anything with separate inserts anywhere.
I would say that this looks like it’s the scrub plane except with a jack iron.
@@JasperJanssen I've bought a professional line smoothing plane from Pinie because of this video, and it is superb, i LOVE it, and the profi iron (which is only a few more euros) is very good in fact.
Thanks for the review. I bought Pinie smoother and jointer arter that. I've been using them for some time now.
You can bypass the issue with the chipbreaker by clamping both the chipbreaker and the blade sideways in a vice before tightening the screw. It prevents the chipbreaker from sliding side to side and mostly from shifting forwards or backwards.
Also AFAIK the one you have is from the older line (I actually asked this question to the distributor here). The one I have has 45 degree pitch and a narrow mouth. All of their "classic" series planes come like this now. It costs 20 bucks here in Russia.
Actually why do you use smoother from Pinie? "Klopkař" is the jack of all trade plane you want.
You could always inlay a triangle shape of hardwood on the sole to close the mouth and create a true smoothing plane. Or just round the corners of the iron and create a true scrub (fore) plane.
Idea for a video (or a series):
Comparing old continental style tools, techniques and styles to US/UK styles. See where we can learn neat old tricks.
I have a second hand one of these with a cow horn handle. I rather like it and I modified it like you did for comfort.
You could fill the big mouth with a slab of shaped beech . I glued some foam behind the iron for comfort.
I don’t possess the perfect plane. Hammer adjustment is not as good as the Stanley system. I have a Qiangsheng 5 and the handles are really really comfortable and the blade and adjustment mechanism are superb, but it is very heavy. My home made wooden planes use a mixture of hammer and Veritas Norris type adjusters. I find the arm of the Norris is too short for leverage so I end up tapping the blade laterally with a hammer. One day I might just buy a Lee Nielsen or Veritas number 5, but the cost is high and it would probably make most of my other planes redundant. So what would be my ideal. I guess it would be a Stanley with Qiangsheng handles and a Veritas blade. And somehow get a machinist to reduce the free play in the adjuster. Meanwhile I use my edge sander and sanding thicknesser a lot. And my homemade planes because I made them, and they sit on show handy on my bench. Rather than adjusting them I set the blade protrusion different in each.
Great video presentation says it all.
Pinie have redesigned the mouth I understand. On the more recent planes (I got mine over a year ago) it is much smaller. I use mine as a smoother. Once it is commissioned - flatten the sole and fettle where the iron sits to maximise contact, oh and shorten the wedge a tad to allow the shavings to escape - it works beautifully. I also had the same problem with the chip breaker and dealt with it the same way. The hornbeam sole really burnishes the wood.
The great thing for us continental Europeans is their price on garage sales: high quality irons, great bodies in a variety of sizes and a lot of pieces to build/combine Your own collection of good planes go for 10 to 15 bucks for a whole bucket - these are so numerous in Europe they aren't even worth a lot when really antique.
Another good thing is their adaptability formwise, so You can build next to any form out of a not-so-good-any-more body with Your simple woodworking tools You already have.
There are sets of profile planes for next to ANY form of trim common in European the last two centuries in nearly every "antique" or restoration workshop, and You can very easily build those You do not yet have - I keep a drawer with "scrap" planes to cut profiles in the sole when needed.
A stanley 45 is a nice treat, but specialized woodies are the better choice should You do more than some inches of profile per week.
And they do not corrode no matter how "marine" the environment You use 'em in.
Swedish woodworker adding my two cents. That's a scrubplane, must be a translation issue, it smoothes rough bords, it's not a finishing plane, you only need to put a raidius on the steel. I use one often (same design, the horn really gives it more power) on plit timber before using the jackplane (also with a horn) but I use a coffin style plane as a finishing plane (same planes that my great grandfather used but I have added new soles to the ones I use).
Not really true, srub planes already have rounded off irons and also single irons. This one has two irons and therefore is kind of a doppelhobel (jackplane?) witha strangely wide mouth. Don't reslly know why it is that wide
Exactly, it's smoothing plane named "cidič", jack plane is called "klopkař" :-) :D
Thanks Rex. I am looking forward to your "summarization" video.
My favourite smoother is a coffin style but with the raised back like the continental style, you can operate it one handed and it fits so nicely in my hand.
That does sound nice.
Thank you for this review, living in the UK have been thinking about buying one of these from Germany, might just go ahead with the purchase now
I pretty much use only ECE and Ulmia planes very similar to this one (minus the huge mouth). I do think that large mouth will give problems for most. A good, used ECE or Ulmia can be had for $60 on eBay and have all the plus feature and not the minus, huge mouth opening. No idea why they thought that was needed on anything other than a scrub plane. The ECE and Ulmia planes come in either 45 deg or 49 deg angles depending on whether it is a Jack or a Smoother.
It is really a scrub plane rather than a finish plane but clear is good enough when set up to do finish work.
A spherical washer might solve the problem of the screw not being flat against the blade. It’s actually two pieces , one convex the other concurve. They’re great for angular misalignments like this.
Yeah Rex summer is over, been waiting anxiously for final plane shootout.
Hey Rex, something I've noticed that might be worth mentioning in your videos is that tear-out can be significantly reduced by using a planing stop rather than a vice. It's because the board shifts so much while planing in a vice (you can see that happening here th-cam.com/video/zCtMQaE5MrU/w-d-xo.html). That shift leaves the grain less supported for the cut, causing more of a "levering" than "severing" action when the blade runs over it. I don't have a flat bench or fancy bench dogs, so i usually just clamp a low-profile piece of wood to the bench as a planing stop, but i come out with dead-flat pieces, even for very large surface planes
The horn is made that way so you can gently lift it while pushing like the motion you use in a Scythe, the forward down pressure of the rear hand keeps the plane flat, the forward up motion of the forehand keeps the glide and holds the weight of the plane up. Listen to the web of your thumb for a grinding sound, it should be a distant whisper instead of feeling the wood contact.
Most of my grandfather's continentals had a longer screw for the chip and a cam block with metal pins to fit under the head and pivot. Its been half a lifetime since my mom dumped about $10k worth of hand wood tools for $90 at a garage sale 8(. She kept all the junk phillips screwdrivers for some reason.
The very nice maker of wooden planes is ECE Emmerich in Germany. They are awesome, especially the absence of any back-lash in the mechanism. Sold in the USA in a variety of catalogs, certainly shown in LeeValley/Veritas. Highly recommended. I have their primus smoothing plane and it is amazing to use.
You realize I showed an ECE in this video, right?
Now I know what they're called, thanks. I have one I got at a local flea market here in Ukraine for a couple bucks. I think I'll snag a couple more to play with before I head back to Maine.
Try this when you nest use that plane. Turn it around so the blade is facing you. Put it so the blade is facing you. Instead of pushing it through the wood pull it toward you. It works a lot better and is easier to use. Basically, it is like a Japanese pull plane. I have had one for about 20 years and it is lovely that way.
I have a JP80 No.51 that I inherited from my late grandfather who died in '02.
I have no idea how old it is, but it is probably older than I am (and I'm 44).
The sole looks like some sort of hardwood plywood with the layers across the sole. the size of the mouth is adjustable and the blade and chip breaker are held in place by a locking plate of sorts with a big finger screw.
I have never used it, and it has been stored in an unheated garage for ages so the metal parts are quite rusty and the blade is dull, but maybe I should restore it when I get the time and see what it can do.
1:02 your map needs an urgent update...
...it seems to be from the 1930s...
martin seelig yes, indeed the map is outdated 🙄
@Ken Fullman In the 1990s that maps "Germany" would not include all of Austria and large parts of Poland and the French Alsace region.
That whole map is just a complete mess!
#mapgore
@@martinseelig585 Yeah there is also missing Czech Reblic(Czechia) , next to the Slovakia
@@marekbenda2163 that's especially bad 'cause the plane he's reviewing is from the Czech republic.
I bought an ECE plane with a screw adjuster off ebay and its BY FAR my favorite plane. Light, narrow adjustable mouth.
Also they don't need lubrication but it still helps.
I very much want to try one of those.
Rex Krueger here’s a link to the one i have (no affiliation at all with whoever is selling it) www.ebay.com/itm/2-ECE-Garantie-Planes-Primus-Smoothing-Plane-Scrub-plane-Nice/193131796997
Here in Germany we wax the sole
Hey Rex
I am a professionell wood worker from germany. I only learnd to use this type of plane. I aktualy was confused about all the planes you are normaly using, because i never see something like this here. Thanks for the little lesson on planetypes.
Loved video, I have a original Boka German jack , has no metal chip breaker as the wedge has a cut out for chip breaker, its sharp always as steel is thick , I use this on Aussie Hardwoods and edging sleepers , blade last 10 times longer than a metal plane , no fiction ,a great plane , tradesman forget these planes have there place too. happy 2020
I know I'm a little late... But to the problem of the mouth falling over the end of your board there are 2 simple ways. A) avoid it by planing oversized and cutting to length after planing or B) reduce pressure on the horn as you approach the end of the board.
I live in Germany where this kind of plane is the go to kind and that's just the technique I was shown by my grandfather and my uncle (my father showed me more metal work than wood work - and yes I'm more of a jack of all trades than a master of any... )
My first success with planning was taking a scrap of wood and a plane I restored and producing a whole lot of thin slices (about. 5 mill).
But those didn't go to waste, I pressed them flat and wove them to small boxes. Let's not talk about those😅, I learned planing 👍
Ok....I have a set of Infinity wooden bench planes. The only one with a mouth opening like the one you showed was the scrub plane with the radiused iron.,
. The rest were pretty tight and they all worked well. Not to mention, instead of being adjusted with a hammer, they all have Norris adjusters...even the long jointer plane.. awesome planes...if you like wooden modern planes...
There is one trick you can do with these planes when working with real hard wood: turn the iron to get a blade angle of about 75°. One caveat of these planes is that the sides are often not square to the bottom, which is bad when using them on shooting boards. I'm considering to buy one cast iron plane for this, after I am done restoring the wooden planes I "inherited" when I bought my house.
Fascinating! Thanks for the informative video Rex! I've seen a continental style plane in an antique store near me, and now I might have to consider buying it.
Rex, love your channel. I'm a beginner woodworker and your insight and information is very educational. Thank you for what you do.
That's really nice to hear!!
Comming from a small country in Balkan region - the look you gave to the wooden plane on the begining of the video was almost the same i gave when i first save the Stanley or Bailey :D Before your chanel, continental plane is all i knew. I own an Ulmia Ott Matador - on ebay its around 40 euros (thats about $50), but i bought it on a fleamarket for $3, and yes, the chipbreaker slides very much, so i need to tap it a bit to align it with the blade.
Yes. Awesome. More comfortable in the hands than Anglo-American planes and less expensive for the quality. I've practiced to the point that my ECE smoother is taking 0.001" to 0.002" shavings consistently; while the Primus mechanism is tricky to get a handle on, it took about as much fettling as a Lie-Nielsen -- i.e., none. For $99 off Highland Woodworking one can get a hammer-adjusted ECE smoother that will do the job with practice.
For a hand-tool noob, this is a great option in comparison to buying a Stanley off ebay for $40 + $20 shipping and then trying to fettle it to high performance.
Got a similar one without a chipbreaker. Looks fine. Still had no chance to try it out, but this video makes me rather optimistic about it, though its mouth is the same big.
I think what you have there is a Doppelhobel. its used to clean up after the scrub plane (Schrupphobel).Smoothing planes have narrower mouths. There is a simple smoothing plane and a more sophisticated version called Reformputzhobel. If you want to see high quality wooden planes Google Ulmia or ECE
I bought a similar planer in good condition (it still needed to be restored a little) at the local market a few years ago for 300 rubles (3-4 bucks). In Russia, this is indeed a very popular type of wooden planer.
Mine doesn't have such a big mouth and doesn't have that special rest for the working hand behind the knife, but I'm happy with it.
i've gotone of these nice planes, i think that it was given to me
they are sold here in the UK by ALDI as part of their Workzone range, there light and easy to handle and give good results
Rex, It would be interesting for you to make a horn style handle for one of your Bailey style planes. Jus to see if you can improve the performance. Keep up the great videos.
hello guys .. I'm a carpenter from the Czech Republic and in our country this planer is called a knocker ''klopkař'' (in czech) and it's used as a universal tool. it is not specialized in anything. we have three basic types. gigantic one for leveling , universal one (its in video ) and one for smoothing, ... then we have for exaple a planer that has iron teeth and the iron is almost at 90 degrees its for super rough jobs . I know dozens of types of European planers, from planers that are half a meter long to the planers that I carry on my handlebars. it measures about two centimeters and is used to make musical instruments. and that's not the smallest I've seen... the smallest measured one centimeter :) maybe less .. i have small collection with some, you wouldn't even know it was a planer :) I have to point out one thing... in Europe we never use only one planer, we always change several types for each job .. for example, for one of the jobs that were on the video, I would not use this planer .. I would use three completely different ones .. this planer used for everything and nothing if you understand me
To podle mě není klopkař, to je cidič, má strměji železo.
@@jirik8483 No on ve videu tvrdi ze ma uhel 55 stupnu coz nema podle vseho zadny hoblik od pinie . Ale jestli si to pamatuju dobre tak mas pravdu protoze na nem ma oznaceni 3A 45 a to je oznaceni cidice ... to stejne americanum nema smyl vysvetlovat nakonec tam nekde napelej hrebik do pohledovy plochy
In fact on amazon it is sold as smoothing plane, but found it on their native site in Czech, and by the mouth it is a scrub plane for roughing. Smoothers and levelers come with tight mouths also, and on the amazon the sole is also pictured as tight...
Did you ever finish this series? I have been looking for more on your "Budget plane shootout" but I can not find more. I am new to you channel but find it very interesting. Thank you for all the great content.
Hi Rex, been enjoying your channel for quite some time. I had found a "continental" plane (i live in greece, so it's just a plane here) at the flea market for like 5 euros. I was watching your video some days ago and i decided to dust it off, sharp the iron and glue it back together, since the handle was off. It now works great, thanks to your other videos about sharpening and i was amazed. Many thanks for your content. Only thing i did, was i turned the handle clockwise a little bit, so it's more comfortable to my hand.
It's a perfectly ordinary plane (-: Except maybe for the mouth which makes it look more like a scrub plane shipped with a smoothing iron by mistake. Measure the body, browse the Pinie website and you may be able to find which plane you have, because the sizes differ slightly from type to type.
As far as I can tell the bed angle isn't 55° (2:59) and the spec for the Pinie smoothing plane says 49°.
When he set it behind the angle guide, I had to watch it twice, And I decided there was a difference but only 3-4 degrees. So I'm going with your 49, even though Amazon US lists it as 45 degrees. Amazon also lists two versions, one is standard, and it shows a picture of the sole with a small mouth. The other is "scrub plane with standard blade." Since it is 15 bucks cheaper, I think the idea is you can curve the blade yourself. I bet most people who buy wood planes can handle that.
@@mildyproductive9726 Most Pinie planes (according to their website pinie.cz) have the bed at 45°. Their smoothing plane has the bed at 49°, but the large mouth IMHO really looks more like scrub plane. I am a bit confused.
On Pinie channel you can see that this is scrub plane. Other have tight mouth.
I think it is better to just buy a few used planes. I dont know how it is in US, but over here in Sweden you can find wodden planes for about 10-20 $ on auction sites. They will take an hour or so to fix up - but they are clearly worth it.
The USA is a big place so it varies region to region. Some places there's lots of tools and they're cheap. Some places there are not many tools and what you can find is expensive. Where I'm at there's not much but it is mostly cheap. I've never paid more than $20 for any plane I own. I don't have anything fantastic though. Some are in pretty bad shape really.
they make a very good scrub plane, most second hand ones i find in australia are set up that way
Did you ever actually do the shootout you mention in the video? There was the video about planes from India, and then this one, and in both you said you were going to do a roundup video summarizing everything you learned about budget planes; but I can't seem to find it. Thanks.
The reason the iron was close to flat isn't a matter of cost or effort, it's the choice of steels - something relatively low alloy but with stability additives. It probably costs about $1-$2 in materials and machine cost to make those irons (we've got an odd idea thanks to boutique irons now that irons need to be made out of some kind of more expensive alloy that's easier for the heat treater, or that has wear resistance - but takes proportionally longer to sharpen, or sometimes more). Strip steels (like the stuff razor blades are made from) are intentionally made to limit handling and heat treat complexity, and generally tolerate things like being punched out instead of cut (that's a big deal when $1 per iron counts).
10:30 That's because you're supposed to put more weight on the front, when you're in the back of the workpiece and put more weight on the back of the plane, when you're at the end. In Germany you learn all this as an apprentice in job school
Hmm. Infinity seems to have updated their lineup. All the bench planes have screw adjusters for the blades now. and their smoothing planes have normal sized mouths. All the benefits you described and few of the downsides. Tempting, very tempting.
i have the same brand, it’s a bit different, no chip breaker, all beach, slightly different body design, was about 25 euros and i didn’t do a damn thing to it, no sharpening or sanding, it works great
I have a #4 and a #6 bailey pattern, but I find myself grabbing my wooden Japanese plane more times than not.
I like the feel and weight of the wooden planes.
I think I’m going to get a couple more Kannas and leave them set for different cut depths.
In my local hardware store there are only the wooden handplanes, but the wooden planes they have got are really good.
Hi, I inherited one of these after my grandfather it has over 40 years of age and it works nicely. Czech made :-), great video BTW!
That plane is the one you can convert to a scrub plane.I have a ECE Emmerich smoother that is wonderful to use made in 1852
I had an ECE Primus, the fancy one with the adjuster. Didn't like the adjuster at all so I sold it and bought another ECE double iron plane with the wedge. Really nice planes and although not exactly a budget version they aren't hugely expensive either. I wish they would do a No.3 version (7 1/2") with a 1 3/4" double iron.
A properly prepared and installed chip breaker will prevent tearout. Thin shavings and a very small distance between the edge of the chip breaker and blade take care of cross grained stock. The size of the mouth doesn't matter at all when the chip breaker is engaged. Rex, if you still have the plane, would it be possible to give it another test?
Wooden washer, maybe with an angle to it, for the chip breaker? Same idea that you had adding a wooden shim for the cheap cast iron plane to stop the blade from moving around.
1:05 I wonder where he found a map like that.
Since I started using wood ones ... hard to go back to metal. Except onsite jobs.
2:46 The angle is just the difference between a (in German) Putzhobel and a Schlichthobel (literally cleaning plane and leveling plane), I guess it's smoothing plane and jack plane? A Putzhobel has about 50° and the blade mouth is normally very narrow and it is used for the final finish of a surface, a Schlichthobel has 45°, a single iron and is just used to make he surface even - and even enoigh for a Putzhobel.
HA! I would not have gotten that “let’s get down to business” “Mulan” reference if I didn’t have a 4 y/o daughter listening to Disney songs constantly.
🎶 “I’ll make a man out of y-“ DAMMIT REX!!!!
Thank you for the great content!
At my local flea market in SE Ukraine there are always a few of these. I have two to bring home and a couple moulding planes.
The trick to using these is using that front horn to push forwards and using your other hand to push down at the back, rather than the other way around as you would with many metal planes (hence why the horn doesn't have a rounded top). The iron being closer to the back of the sole & your weight being at the front of it has as much to do with that rolling you were getting at the end of the board as the giant mouth on that model I think.
I'd be interested in seeing your take on cheap router planes, if you can even manage to find any. I've been looking to get one for ages since they're so useful, but those with microadjusters all appear to be very expensive, & the lack of variety means even second hand models maintain their price quite well.
I got one of those Pinie planes when I started with woodworking and it´s terrible for smoothing because of the large moth. I have no idea what they were thinking when they made that thing. There are much better wooden planes for cheap money. There are lots of used ECE and Ulmia Planes on Ebay and they work really well.
The Pinie Plane makes a decent scrub plane, when you round the edges. The huge moth is an advantage for a scrub plane and the wooden body glides much easier than a cast iron plane. I still use it for rough work.
I have an old horn plane I picked up at a yard sale. I can't say I'm a fan of the design personally. When I cleaned out my tool cabinet it got relegated to an overflow toolbox because I never used it. I paid big for it too. $15 if memory serves me. It has a two cherries iron in it.
this kind of planes work very well, but you should definitely go for some quality product. Therefore i would recommend ULMIA. Alas it is not on the low budget side. Before I forget.....You are doing a very good Job. Thank you.
In Czech Republic where I live you can get these at around 18-20 USD, and are very common, If I wanted to get similar US style steel plane it would cost 60+ USD.
Rex this plane you tested is a scrub plane. It has a wide mouth for rough work. You should re test a smoothing plane by pinnie/ infinity I believe a lot of the issues you had with actually planning would be resolved.
Always interesting to watch your content. I always come out the other end having learned something. Big fan here.
Ok Rex, you've had your excursion into low angle, bevel-up planes, but we're ready for the promised "end-of-summer" inexpensive smoothing plane shootout. This was the last video in that series, so let's have it... Where should I spend my money on a cheap plane! We're counting on you to weigh in!
It's coming; I promise!
You should have inlaid a piece of end grain hardwood at the spot where the mouth is. Just make 2 cuts straight and square across, chisel out the waste, make a piece to fit and glue it in place.
you may have to open the mouth a little. ~0.5 mm is about right for a general handplane, it will take fine to medium cuts
About the chip breaker: you could posibly try to straighten it out a little to lessen the gap between the iron and chip breaker, this would also lessen the angle of the screw
Another tip: if you put the iron and chipbreaker in the vise together, it won't move!
Looking at their page this thing also comes in a adjustable blade variant which is interesting
I have a cheap version of this. No chip breaker and no such ergonomic wedge behind the blade. It was really cheap in a German hardware store.
Nice video, I have that same plane, got it at a knockdown price on ebay, To be honest I didn't like the wide mouth, But i do like wooden planes but prefer the metal Stanley type planes adjustment, So I found a pair of whats called in America, Transition Planes, They are a wooden bodied plane but with a normal metal plane iron adjustment system. I have both a smoothing plane and a jack plane, made by Marples in the early 1960's specially for schools and you really get the best of both worlds with them, and they only cost me £60 for the two.
I have a whole video on those!
Rex, the problem with the chip breaker, couldn't you throw on a thin gasket/o-ring and use that to fix the incorrect tap angle?
IE: Let a compressible ring destribute the force.
I'm from Poland and i found that this company "Pine" makes handplanes for other tool brands so you can buy them for even half of normal price but irons are porly manofactured in those versions .
the mouth of the plane is interesting. I own one just like yours, excpet the mouth (with the iron set for minimal cut) is only about 3 milimeters (1/8"), and the plane never gives me any tearout issues. also, mine has the 45 degree blade angle and nowadays they even make them adjustable, so looking forward to another one of your reviews!
One advantage of these planes is that you can get them very cheap second-hand because they are not collectable and most people assume that they are not worth anything. I got one for free when I went to pick up some stuff I bought on eBay. Another I got for about $25AUD ($15US). Most second hand No.4 or No.5 metal planes will sell for at least twice that.
Thanks for the review. I appreciate your honesty on all of your reviews.
Ulmia are generally very high quality finished , from what I remember
The first few seconds looked like the white bottle in the background was a small bottle on top of the handle.
You can make things so funny! LOL
Rex, had a look around and Narex makes planes also. You might want to test one out.
You know, that that plane is from Czech Republic and your map is missing that country? (i'm from one country over and own several of their planes). Also in europe that plane cost depend on model 11 - 23 Eur ( like 15 - 25 USD). So for 60 you can for sure get better in USA, but for under 20 can't find any better in Europe.
Yeah it is a decent $20 plane.
Question, did you ever make the shootout video or did I miss it?