What is the hand plane shown in the last photo?

Jeff

I will drop the long grain shooting from consideration. My son and I are hoping to build a mitre plane, similar to the Number 9, as a fun project for us together, which will be helpful as you’ve noted for the different shooting tasks outlined in your discussions.

I am in a sense trying to pick your brain about which plane to choose. We have accumulated a few old Stanley’s (not Bedrocks), and we have had difficulty fettling them to get them to work properly. Could be technique, could be setup, could be a myriad of things. My son has a birthday coming up, and I know he has asked for a jointer plane. The #7 from Woodriver is possible, the LAJointer from Lee Valley would be a consideration as well, and the Lie Nielsen is a little out of reach but I’m sure he would be happy with a giftcard towards it’s purchase.

We work mostly with straight grained wood, not alot of interlocking grain, some reversing grain, and if there is tear out, a cabinet scraper does the job adequately. I appreciate the feedback on long grain shooting, and will drop it out of consideration for the decision of bevel up versus bevel down. Now to figure out which of the 3 to consider for his birthday.

Thanks,
BH

Great question. Bevel-up vs. bevel-down jointer. I suggest not factoring in long-grain shooting when selecting a jointer plane. Choose based on other considerations just as you would for a jack or smoother. Here’s why.

I do not use a jointer plane for long-grain shooting, even if the workpiece is 36″ long, the maximum capacity of my new long-grain shooting board, or about as long as I’m likely to shoot even if I didn’t have the new jig. The principal advantage of any jointer plane is, of course, its long length. Secondarily, its weight and consequent momentum are also helpful. That long length operates effectively only with a two-handed grip along with appropriate pressure on the front and rear handles at the correct stages of the planing stroke.

But with long-grain shooting, you necessarily are gripping the plane with only one hand, which makes it difficult to truly use the principal advantage of a jointer’s length. The weight and momentum of the jointer may offer some advantages for long-grain shooting but I find those are superceded by the awkwardness of moving such a big plane with one hand.

Therefore, I like the L-N #9 for long grain shooting, and if I were using a bench plane, I’d choose a jack over a jointer. Since I still want to produce a nice straight edge on the workpiece, I overcome the disadvantage of the shorter plane with technique. Specifically, I’ll usually start with two or three shavings, progressively longer, from the middle of the board, working outwards. Then, I go to full length shavings.

That’s my approach. You may find differently but hopefully the reasoning I presented will help you decide.

Rob

In your article on shooting board planes, and where the options ‘rank’ in your experience, I’m wondering what your thoughts are on having a low angle jointer versus a traditional bevel down plane. If you could have only one plane in that length when you were beginning to collect jointer planes ( assuming a jack and smoother were covered already). That way the low angle jointer could be used to joint boards with long grain shooting, shoot wide mitres, and face boards when dimensioning lumber. Thoughts?

Please see above the link to my post that explains long-grain shooting. The full set of nine posts on shooting (end grain, long grain, shooting boards and planes, etc.) is here: http://www.rpwoodwork.com/blog/tag/shooting/
As always, there are lots of good options.
Hope this helps.

Rob

I normally joint the edge of a board with the edge clamped upwards on the front of my bench, but admittedly after flattening the edge I always have to do a few passes at the end to square the edge to the face. (Which I should probably do with my rabbet plane but I usually just do it by eye and check with a small square.)