Original subtitles

so when you first start woodworking is

often confusing to work out what planes

you actually need what size do I get

what type do I get what the bloody hell

does this thing even do so in this video

I'm going to talk you through each lease

what they do what they excel at what

they're not very good at and hopefully

answer some questions for you so what is

on the menu today well as an overview we

are starting with bench planes so

they're going to be the most common

thing using all of your woodworking

secondly we're going to cover block

planes thirdly we are going to cover

joinery planes so shoulder planes and

router planes and finally we are going

to cover specialist planes so a scraper

plane and a scrub plane so let's get

started with bench planes so if I'm to

simplify this down to its bare bones

these will go down from the teeny tiny

number 1 all the way through to the

absolutely monstrous number 8

and in most cases all manufacturers

stick to these and they're actually the

old Stanley sizes so one two three four

five six seven eight but there are a few

curveballs in there for example a number

four you can also get a four and a half

which is pretty much exactly the same

length it's just got a wider body and a

wider blade on it you can also get the

same thing for the number five you can

get a five and a half which is again

exactly the same length just a wider

body on it so that would be a four and a

half five and a half however they're

confusing here's if you go to a number

seven and get a seven and a half that

makes it a low-angle don't ask me why I

have absolutely no idea why they do this

but if you're after a plane of this

length with a wider body go for the

number eight there is a little bit more

width on that so I mentioned low angles

this right here is a low angle Jack

plane so again this is a number five

probably the most versatile size you can

choose but as you can see about when

it's bed at 45 degrees this one is bed

at 12 degrees so if you watch my

reducing tear up video you'll see why

use these and you'll see the advance

just this has over a standard bed angle

of 45 degrees and you can also get

number fours as low angles as well again

sharing exactly the same benefits as

this low angle Jack just with a shorter

sole on it so we all know what bench

planes are used for flattening faces

squaring edges sort of general workshop

use no toolbox is complete without at

least one of these tools so now it begs

the question which once you actually

need well the number one you don't

really need that it's more of a gimmick

so get rid of that in terms of Jack

planes I tend to find that the low angle

Jack is a lot more versatile again if

you don't know why watch my reducing

tear up video and you'll find out so

I'll probably get rid of this one in

terms of jointers you've got the number

seven or the number eight and you've

also got the seven and a half don't

forget which is a low angle version of

this I've got a low angle plane here so

I don't need the seven and a half but

choosing between these two depends if

you want to be able to wrestle the extra

weight of the number eight you've got an

extra inch or two on the end and you've

also got a wider body on it and that

does add quite a bit of weight and it's

quite a lot of effort using this my work

doesn't usually go up to that scale but

it would be lovely to own it however I

would just go for the number seven so

let's get

number eight and finally smoothing

planes so same sort of thing as to the

number seven and number eight it depends

if you want the wider body or not

so again I don't really find it useful

wider body planes the only thing that I

do like about them is that they add a

little bit of extra weight

so if planes you want to be able to keep

them in the cup and if the plane is

doing that work for you then it makes

planing a lot easier with my number four

I've got this in bronze as opposed to

iron and that adds a lot of weight to it

anyway making it a similar way to this

four-and-a-half despite being a smaller

body if this one wasn't made of bronze

and was made of iron and it was

significantly lighter than the four and

a half I would probably go for the four

and a half just to have that extra

weight on it so for me I'm gonna get rid

of the four and a half but just bear in

mind that the weight can really help

with these when you start going up to

number Seven's and eights

that weight can be quite troublesome to

handle but something like this it really

helps having that extra weight so let's

get rid of that and there we go so that

is the three basic planes I would go for

and these are the ones that I own now

the only reason I've actually got the

number seven is because I was making a

guitar a few years ago and I'll put a

little thing to my portfolio up in the

top corner you can view that if you want

but that was to make the fretboard on it

I don't find a lot of use for it

nowadays I generally just stick to these

two so if you were to choose three

planes your basic kit go for these

but for furniture making on my sort of

scale generally these two do everything

for me if I'm flushing off through all

sides or something like that

number four is really nice if I'm doing

tapers on legs or just general workshop

stuff the low angle jack because it's so

versatile I find a lot of use of that so

there we go now let's go on to block

planes so onto block planes similar case

the bench planes a few different sizes

you can get and different blade angles

as well so to start with this is a nine

and a half and for example this has a

wider body and a low angle blade this

one here is a premium one from Veritas

narrower body than the nine and a half

with a low angle blade on it but you can

obviously still get ones with narrower

bodies and lower blades with a lesser

quality tool like this I just got this

one because it's shiny and it's got a

few gimmicks on it and I'm just a bit of

a flash bastard to be honest and finally

that is an apron plain just a small

handy version of one of these in reality

I wouldn't say

that size is much of a factor to choose

from between these just choose whichever

one fits your hands the best however one

thing I would say is make sure that it

is a low-angle

all of these here are low angles that

you can get them bed slightly higher

don't see a lot of use for it these are

really handy for trimming endgrain for

example where you just want to keep the

pressure on a localized area and get a

nice clean cut if you've got a higher

angle on that it's harder to slice

through end grain so far you just stick

with a low angle to these but for me I

just like the shiny one to be honest and

it also has Veritas is premium steel in

it which I wanted to try if you haven't

seen the video where I did a tall duel

between a1 a2 and P and b11 be sure to

watch that the card is up here so next

let's go on to joinery planes so joinery

planes again you can get them in

different sizes so this one here is a

router plane this one here is a small

router plane this one here is a medium

shoulder plane and that one here is

called a detail rabbet plane but it is a

former shoulder plane but for my work I

haven't actually found a use for the

smaller ones just yet I tend to get by

with just these two so-so

characteristics of a rail to plane well

this one here works exactly the same as

your old screaming electrical router

except you can't cut overloads with it

obviously so it really excels at

cleaning out the bottom of grooves to a

certain depth and you can do that by

adjusting these and that is moving the

blade up and down they also have depth

stops on them as well a shoulder plane

is really good for trimming shoulders

for example and also trimming the cheeks

of Tenon's characteristics of this is

that the blade is flush with the edges

of the tool it's not limited by the

sides of the mouth as you are on a bench

plane and block plane so you can

essentially cut these to an infinite

depth which like a router plane that

makes them very good at cutting grooves

to a certain depth and you can obviously

choose the size and shoulder plane you

want to suit the width of grooves that

you need now if you watch my workbench

video you'll know that I use these a lot

when I was trimming the Tenon's to go

into the legs and also the stub tenon

going into the end cap as well a router

plane if you watched my crane off

cabinet series you'll know that I use

these for clearing out the hinge

recesses

I had the cabinet all stood up and I

needed to clean out the hinge recesses

on it you don't want to be doing that

with an electrical router obviously

because holding that thing on its side

would have just been absolutely

catastrophic and doing it with a chisel

you can do it but you don't get the

precise depth control that you can get

with one of these so well I did stuck it

on its side and trimmed out the hinge

recesses like that so really handy tool

to have both of these it's hard to

choose between them if I was to get one

of them in my toolkit I would just say

buy them as you need them every tool kit

can benefit from one of these and your

joinery will thank you for it so finally

let's go on to the specialist planes so

specialist planes are exactly that

they're not massively versatile tools

and they are usually used for one

purpose only this one here is a cabinet

scraper and if you watch my video on

sharpening a card scraper basically all

this is is a holder for one of these

this has a slightly thicker blade on

them but what these really really excel

at is if you've got a big wide surface

to scrape this will allow you to keep it

perfectly flat while you're reducing

that tear on it like I said in the other

video if you're using one of these it's

very easy to start putting bumps and

stuff in one of these because you don't

have a flat reference surface on the

bottom this one will allow you to keep

that flat surface while also reducing

the terror the trade-off of one of these

is that they are a little bit of a pig

to set up I haven't really messed around

with these in the past and still haven't

found a method to sharpen them properly

and set them up properly so some of you

are asking if I was going to do a video

on setting up one of these unfortunately

I'm not like say don't use them enough

not to you can't always setting them up

and I don't want to just make a video

for the sake of it if I don't actually

know what I'm talking about this one

here is a scrub plane looks very similar

to the bench planes over there until I

turn it over and you look at the blade

on this thing and I say the reason this

is a specialist plane is because it is

for one use only and that is hogging off

a ton of material that Canberra on

the blade allows you to take off really

aggressive cuts and if you're working

with rough sawn timber and doing hands

or only work one of these basically does

the work of a thickness er if you need

to reduce the thickness of timber by a

considerable amount again if you're

doing it hand tool only one of these is

the tool for you it has a very thick

blade on it to cut down on vibration as

you'll slamming it through the material

the handle on it is bigger than a bench

plane so whereas a bench plane you meant

to grip it with three fingers and have

your index finger pointing down onto the

Frog like that this one is built for a

full hand grip it's also quite

lightweight as well which you probably

wouldn't

but you'd think for something that you

want to be hogging away material you're

gonna want momentum of a heavier body

but as you will also expect if this was

really heavy and you using this to slam

through material you are going to get

knackered from using it so it's actually

quite a light tool to use no I don't

actually own a scrub plane with these

characteristics and body shape but I

have converted my old Stanley number

five which was an absolutely awful tool

into a scrub plane for course work now

did that boy foiling open the mouth

putting a massive camber on the blade

and that was hogging away a lot of

material but like I say being heavy at

all it was extremely tiresome to use

that's where a proper scrum playing like

this would be very handy but like I said

it's not like Pokemon you haven't got to

catch em all you just need the Select

view that's going to suit your work the

best my advice is to start with a low

angle Jack plane because that's going to

be the most versatile tool you own and

also a block plane of some description

like to say go for a low angle if

possible smoothing plane nice to have

but your Jack plane can cover a lot of

the things that the smoothing plane can

do router plane shoulder plane if you

can't choose between them I would

personally say that a shoulder plane is

a little bit more versatile but other

people may have different opinions by

them as you need them if I were you

cabinet scraper yeah I've never needed

it to be honest if I'm wanting to reduce

tear out on a certain area but also

wanting to keep it flat I stick a high

angle blade in my low angle Jack plane

again more versatile and finally a scrub

plane maybe you need it maybe a tone its

bends if you're doing hand to only work

or not and you're working rough sawn

timber if your Timbers tends to be

really twisted and you just need to take

the high corners off that is the plane

for you but again buy it as you need it

I would just start with these two

low angle Jack block plane so there we

go any questions chuck them in the

comments below and hopefully if I'm not

useful

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