Block Planes
Block planes! Are you a purist or pragmatist? I bet this will define how much you delve into the world of small bevel up planes. It's often the first plane purchase for many woodworkers. They are useful for house carpentry (I keep a basic Record #0120 in my site box) and small work at the bench. I find my old Stanley 91/2 very useful at the bench, small chamfers, removing arises, adjusting small work and shaping. The purists aren’t so keen on these tools as they are relatively modern and therefore don’t exist in old tool inventories. That’s great, I love exploring old methods, but I’m a pragmatist. I like the block plane and it has a place in my work.
The modern flavour of block plane is weighty, low angles and a good thick iron. This gives a very solid feel to the tool. I have tried these block planes, a colleague at work has a beautifully made Lie-Nielsen version and I was able to use it for a while. Problem was that I was so used to my 9 1/2. It felt too heavy, I missed the lateral adjustment too. Doesn't mean that the Lie-Nielsen is bad, it's a superb tool, I'm just stuck in my ways and in the groove with the tools that I use.
I didn't feel any advantage of the low angle. The bed on my 9 1/2 is 20 degrees (don’t quote me on that, I’m not in the habit of measuring bed angles), the Lie-Nielsen was 12. For me it was just about staying sharp. After all, the plane is small and taking small cuts, even on end grain the results were the same. You might find my experience helpful as second hand, low angle planes fetch a premium, whereas standard angle variants are much cheaper, relatively speaking.
Sharp's the trump card here. I like standard irons or simple replacements as they hone up quickly. They might loose their edge a little sooner but that's fine with me.
Block planes are comfortable to hold thanks to their bevel up design. This allows the iron to sit low at 20 or 12 degrees with the honed bevel providing the cutting pitch, not the face of the iron. I can be guilty of collecting a few tools that I don’t really need. Bench planes are my Achilles heel, I find them to be beautiful, interesting and functioning objects. Block planes are different, I look at them in terms of sheer utility. Who knows, one day my work might change and I might experiment a little more. Another option instead of the block plane is the No.3 bench plane. It’s lighter and easier to handle than other smoothing planes and has the added versatility of a cap iron.
Some people use the really small block planes as “apron planes”. I suppose with a view to storing in your work apron. That’s something that you’ll work out if you find helpful or not. I can’t bear having things in my pockets when working and I’m not in a habit of wearing an apron yet. I urge you to give a block plane a go, keep an open mind, it might be very helpful at the bench or the building site.