Still use my granddad's old hand plane instead of a power planer for small jobs

I grew up watching my granddad use a hand plane on every project, and I always thought it was old-fashioned and slow. About five years ago I was trimming down a door in my house and my power planer kept chattering and leaving gouges. Out of frustration I grabbed his old Stanley plane from the basement, sharpened the blade with a stone I found in a drawer, and took off maybe 1/16th of an inch in one smooth pass. The surface came out glass smooth and I didn't have to sand anything afterwards. I can get a cheap power planer for around $60 at the store I work at, but that hand plane does a better job on small trim work every time. Has anyone else gone back to an older tool and found it works better than the modern version?

3 comments

3 Comments

alicecraig16d ago

Yeah I gotta disagree with you here. Hand planes have a learning curve and most people never get the blade sharp enough to actually work like that. I've seen more ruined door edges from guys who grabbed granddad's rusty plane and took off way too much or chattered worse than a cheap power planer. The Stanley Bailey design is solid but it needs a flat sole and a properly honed blade at the right angle, which takes time to set up every time. A $60 planer from the big box store is dull out of the box too but at least you can swap blades and just push a button. I'll take the power tool for speed and consistency any day over fighting with a plane that might put a curl in the wood or might just gouge it.

shanef3416d ago

And you're right to bring up the sharpening thing. That's the real killer for most people. They think they can just run the blade across a stone a few times and it's good to go, but that's not how it works. You need a whole system of stones, a jig to hold the angle, and the patience to get that edge to where it'll slice a hair off your arm. Most folks don't have that time or want to spend the money on a good set of stones. A power planer just needs you to swap the blades and you're back to work in two minutes. No messing with flattening the sole or checking the frog position. For a quick trim on a door, I'm grabbing the power tool every time too.

emmam8916d ago

Hold up, @alicecraig - you're saying even after you've got the sole flat and the blade scary sharp, you'd still reach for the power planer? I've found that once I dial in my granddad's old plane it actually saves me time because I don't have to sand or mess with tearout on tricky grain. What kind of wood are you planing that makes you stick with the electric one?