Planes, and Industrial Design Art

I have been sorta getting the urge to splurge a bit on something special as far as a wood plane goes.

Have been looking hard at the Veritas Nickel Resist Iron Block Plane, part number NX-60, as it has a lot of eye appeal to my pack-rat soul. The Bridge City CT-17 was another that came up that looks to be a pretty neat piece of industrial design art that would look good just sitting still too.

In my travels about the web, I have run across a great number of really high end, but so brutally fugly looking planes, and am really wondering at the prices I see. Especially the infill planes patterned after the old Norris units.

I understand that the Norris stuff was pretty exclusive even in it's own time, so naturally a collector market would exist, and, while they do not appeal to my eye, they must have been a decent working tool too.

But some of the modern hand made copies (or, 'inspired by') are to my eye, simply not attractive at all, lacking even the character of the originals.

In particular, I was pretty amazed at the Karl Holtey planes and the prices they were drawing, as to my eye they look a lot like women who need a few more sandwiches in their life, too many sharp corners, not enough curves, if you know what I mean.

Do they work so so much better than the rest of what's out there? Or is this like Jazz music, where a bunch of folks that really don't actually like the stuff hang around and pretend like they are a mutual admiration society, patting each other on their backs for being so erudite?

Cheers
Trev

As a fellow Canadian, and if you like design, suggest a look at Konrad Sauer's work. Mind you, I've never used one as too spendy for me. My go to block plane for what little woodwork I do is a fixed mouth el-cheapo Veritas. Dropped it in the mud on a outdoor project several times. Cleaned up, works fine...

Lucky7

Having never used a $300+ plane I have no idea if they are something more than a decorator piece. But a plane that doesn't preform well is little more than snob collector junk. Form, feel and color can certainly add to the pleasure of using a great piece of industrial design as long as it doesn't distract from the function.

Had to oogle an NX60 again. Unfortunately they aren't available now.

The one I use most is called the Apron Plane by Veritas. Cheap, but love it.

L7

Smoothing Plane - FineWoodworking
Built by our own forum moderator. Stephen M. Thomas. And a sweet plane it is!
Joe

Delete, dupe post.
Joe

lucky7 said:

Had to oogle an NX60 again. Unfortunately they aren't available now.

The one I use most is called the Apron Plane by Veritas. Cheap, but love it.

L7

Click to expand...

Yeah, showed a picture of it to my wife, her response was "That thing looks fast!"

Tried out the little wee pocket plane last time I was in Lee Valley Tools. Figure to add one to my Christmas list.

Oh yeah, you got me lost on the interwebs for a couple hours by giving me Konrad Sauer's name to look at! I like his stuff a whole lot more than the stuff I saw on the Hotley site. Sauer's esthetic seems to lean towards curves along the lines of some of the 30's cars. Mr. Hotley's work looks like it's amazing work, it's just that the lines are nowhere near as nice. My wife actually laughed when I showed her the pricing too.

Joe Rogers said:

Smoothing Plane - FineWoodworking
Built by our own forum moderator. Stephen M. Thomas. And a sweet plane it is!
Joe

Click to expand...

Yeah, seen more than a few pics of his work here on PM over the years, really cool stuff, as has been the work of several other Craftsmen that have shared their art with us all.

I've tried one of Stephen's planes, and they work superbly. But most impressive to me was how right it felt in my hands, just a pleasure to hold.

Interesting to note that at one point the Loopy plane(s) Stephen built weren’t his favorite. He also built an example of a kit from St James Bay that he preferred to use. That may not still be true but was at one time.
Joe

Sorta like tastes in preferred feminine company, tastes in hand tools vary, sometimes, a lot.

Reading through various websites I rather got the impression that the fellows writing were rather proud of that they could file a relatively straight line and use a hacksaw, skills which it seemed to me they only acquired along the way of learning to make their planes. When they meet dimensional tolerances that we were expected to in Grade 8 Shop classes, they are very happy!

All in, the majority of the work I see them doing amounts to unskilled or semi-skilled physical labor. Hours of peening over the joints, hours of filing, hours of lapping the soles flat and square on sandpaper and a flat surface.

I thoroughly expect that most of their output will never see a chip of wood. Does anyone actually buy a $7000 wood plane to use it? does it work any better or feel any better than any other more plebeian plane? I'd be interested to hear from those who have actually used such rarefied implements.

Those Konrad Sauer shoulder planes on his site, man, they look dead sexy sitting there. I can see the draw. "Nice Things".

I just ordered a couple more small planes from Lee Valley, their Anniversary Edition Pocket Plane, and the Apron Plane. Whether they will ever get seriously used, I won't guess, but they will see wood and when I want them, they will be here for me.

No idea if or when the NX-60 will be back in stock, but one just sold for a bit over $450 US, on ebay the other day. A bit rich for my blood, but may turn out to be the price a fella has to pay to play with one!

Probably should start a new thread but my thoughts are related to the OP's so left it here...

Spent a bunch more time the last few months doing wood projects than metal. Have read (several times) Hack's plane book and smt's articles in HSM mag from 1999. From that info am considering either making one of St James Bay's Norris #51 copies, or designing my own version of a #51 but slightly bigger. Thinking about a 10" long sole instead of 8 1/2" like St James. Before I re-invent the wheel, does anyone make a curved base infill casting like a #51 but slightly longer?

L7

I got a chance to try one of Konrad Sauer's planes at an antique tool show a fer years ago. It cut beautifully however the wood was not figured gnarly grain so I don't know if it was any better than my old Bailey.

My 2 go to planes are a Stanley low angle block plane that I bought new from Lee Valley about 30 years ago. And an old corrugated sole bailey jointer plane that I bought used early in my apprenticeship. Both have Hock replacement blades in them as I wore out the blades in both of them. Occasional screws or foundry sand on pattern repairs contributed to having to grind them more often than most might have to. The Stanley fits my hand really nicely and has nicely chamfered corners. The patterns for some of the early Vertias planes were made 2 benches down from me quite a few years ago in the last shop I worked at before starting my own. One of the guys in the shop bought one of their block planes and I felt it was too heavy and the corners were too crisp to be comfortable in a block plane. I bought a new Record smoother around the same time I got the jointer. I have hardly ever used it. Either the jointer or the block plane just seem to feel better in use.

Mine are all on their third or fourth owner by now- flea market finds, old, rusty etc, but they are still out there- clean them up, scrape them flat, refinish the metal and wood (most have Brazilian Rosewood handles) and you will have something to be proud of. It is especially cool to find one with the original owners name on it. Bailey is a good brand name to look for. Try to find one with some life remaining in the blade, the early ones were laminated and you can see where the weld is.

Greetings all,

I have used (briefly) one of Konrad Sauer's planes. Yeah, there's a difference.
He was across the aisle from us at one ?Woodworking in America? some years back.
At the time, the notion of a +$6K plane just boggled my mind, so I would drift over there periodically during the show when things got slow, to chat with him, and fondle his display plane. He was letting people test it on the most horrific piece of rock maple burl I've ever seen. Grain going every which way. And this plane just slid right across it. "Schniiiiiick". And a very thin piece of tissue paper rolled out across the blade. Didn't seem to notice or care which way the grain was going at any particular moment.
Clearly, he knows how to sharpen and set up a plane, but it was a revelation to handle a good plane that was set up right, rather than my grandad's old Bailey. Part of my goal in playing with it was to get a feel in my hands for what a "good" plane felt like.
I'll still never be able to pay $6K for a plane, but now I understand why there are some that do. Thank you Konrad.

FWIW,
Brian