Faithfull FAIPLANE5 No.5 Jack Plane in Wooden Box

Product Information

The Clifton Bench Planes are both highly attractive and functional tool that aim to give you an accurate and smooth finish. Ideal for the cabinet maker and discerning woodworker, both amateur and professional. These planes are ready to use from the box and do not need hours of flattening and fettling to make them fit for use (though we appreciate many woodworkers will prefer to hone the cutting iron themselves.) I’m not talking about the artificial situation created at trade shows etc (which I’ve done my fair share). How many of the most magnificent ornate buildings around the world had their woodworking done with so called “inferior steel” ? I haven't taken the time to sharpen the blade yet (had it two days only. Out of the box, this plane made whispy curls out of wavy hard (reversing grain and 1" knots) maple with no tearout. I was quite suprised and pleased. It'll be awesome once I properly sharpen the blade.

And that is why I think they are outdated. And also my long explanations about chatter reasons there are still applied. The iron is fixed way further from the cutting edge than in B/S planes, that allows him oscillating with a lower frequency, that could result in a chatter. The wooden wedge. It should be just perfect. It is fixing the iron all over the plane surface against another plane surface and if it is not really plane wedge (nice one 🙂 ) it will not homogeneously press on the iron. Or left side will be loose, or right one. Or nose of the iron, or tale.. If it is wedge with a rod/strange holder that wedge push against, you always have a big lever between real fixing point and cutting edge. Planed wood will “press and release on the iron”, it will bend (the big lever allows it) and jump, and if it is in resonance with the lever size and force applied, one will have a chatter. Chatter actually IS a resonance oscillation of the iron. The WoodRiver plane's engineering and construction are FAR better. Good paint job, well machined parts, great case (wooden box). It takes less time, effort and skill to slide a rip fence a set distance away from a blade than to learn how to saw a straight line. It takes less effort time and skill to run a piece of timber over a jointer than to learn how to plane a piece of timber correctly.The only thing that makes this product inferior to the high-end planes is the frog adjustment is a bit fidgity (three screws and still somewhat sloppy. Still, it's far better than the standard Record design. And I'm not going to adjust the frog more than a few times. It's perfectly acceptable. Is there any other physical difference that makes a No.4 more useful for smoothing, other than it's smaller size and weight making it easier to handle? Is the plane presented in such a way that it engages the grain with the ability for you to apply even pushing power?

In comparison to my Lie-Nielsen planes, they pale quite a bit to me. I feel the L/N tools are truely "heirloom quality" as they will far outlast me even with continuous hard use... Other things I don't like: Handle is loose, and screw won't tighten any more, so time to shim/add a washer somewhere or shorten screws to correct that. Cap iron tension lever does not "snap" into place as it has some uneven machining on the underside. The biggest issue I have with the planes in general is the machining tolerences in the hardware... There is 2-3 times the "slop" (side to side)in the screws and especially the blade adjuster that make me feel a little uneasy using the tool, and question it's lifespan before needing to replace parts. The brass parts seem a little soft, and not very nicely finished.

Subcategories

The Cap Iron is a one piece design giving rigid clamping and the Frog locating pins and screws are made from polished and ground stainless steel. The Lever Cap is made from grey polished Cast Iron with the Screws and Adjusting Wheel from polished brass. The Y Lever is a solid one-piece casting and the Adjusting Lever and most other components are made from polished stainless steel. My thinner, standard-fit cutting irons do not chatter and they never have chattered for any of the above reasons. Chatter is a very unique and isolated occurrence in planing with a plane on so rare an occasion, it might happen only once in five years. So, where is the confusion? Chatter is very difficult to produce, sometimes difficult to evaluate and is so fine it barely takes more than two rubs with fine abrasive paper to remove it. In my own life of woodworking daily for 56 years I have witnessed chatter only a half dozen times under my own plane and from beneath the planes of the 6,500 students I have trained over the past three decades. Doesn’t that tell you something? Look, you are having struggles planing. The questions you might not be asking of your bench plane are:

There are a bewildering number of different types of plane, but there seems to be a grouping of the general-purpose bench planes used in converting a roughly-hewn chunk of wood into a straight, flat, smooth, square piece of timber: Iron tools are cast from Ductile Iron, a very strong alloy that will take a lot of abuse. These castings are fully stress relieved, a process that removes inherent stresses and ensures that the tool will remain flat and true. I did my Cabinet Making trade in 1978, but left soon after and did a totally unrelated trade which I have now been teaching for over 20 years.

Materials and workmanship are guaranteed for the life of your tool. Call for repairs or replacement parts. We are available for advice if you ever have a problem using your tool. Proposition 65 Notice: Reading between the lines is critical thinking and if chatter was never ever mentioned for centuries, how come we suddenly have this exceptional and very specific phenomenon affecting everyone who uses a plane? What people say is “chatter”, most often if not always, is usually just skudding, skipping and jumping, nothing more! For more information on advanced sharpening we recommend David Charlesworth’s video Plane Sharpening, available in both DVD I think the rabbet plane would work better for smaller work, and possibly with wood that is not as hard (my bench is out of ash).