5IN Jack Plane - 12-905  Product Reviews

"I'm not excited about it. It's kind of like buying a kit to build your own plane. Then finding it too light to treat it like you do your old one. Another reviewer said it makes a good second choice plane. I agree. I have a few #5 Stanleys and a Craftsman of the same size. My favorite is an old Stanley #5 with a broken tote (rear handle). It elegantly glides through the cut, while the 12-905 has to be forced. Lapping, sharpening, waxing, all of this does nothing to make up for lack of mass, slightly flexible plastic handles and lightweight engineering that leaves you with a plane that chatters across your work and is hard to control. It wants to follow the grain and run off on it's own direction. That makes me want to run it at a skew to the direction of travel. And that makes it less efficient to operate. It does look nice sitting on the shelf though. It would be the perfect plane to learn to tune one to death. Or for the person who doesn't really need a handplane, but would like to have one to do a little fitting or just have one to look cool."

"I like planes...have quite a few..including wooden planes, which I love. I use them all frequently...nice change from power tools. This jack plane is an ok plane. Nothing special though. It will take and hold an edge on the blade, it is a little tempermental to adjust, but will stay adjusted once you get it there. The plastic handles do detract from the overall look of the plane, but they are comfortable to hold and seem very rugged. The whole plane has a rugged look and feel, but also looks and feels unfinished. It is also much lighter than my other two jack planes of similiar design, but from another manufacturer. The sole or foot had to be flattened when I recieved it ..not much, couple minutes on the plate with some aggresive paper and then lapping compound. Had some rough edges on the iron and some flash left on the rear handle, easy to clean up with a flat file and some fine paper. A little more fine tuning here and there and it was ready for use. It does a fairly good job on soft woods, doesn't load up and has a long enough foot to give you good results on long pieces. Hard woods, especially the exotics give it some problems...unless you maintain a good amount of down pressure while making your stroke it will "chatter" and doesn't want to track well. I have tried taking shallower cuts...doesn't seem to help much and the whole idea is to take the board down to flat quickly. I think the overall weight of the plane has a lot to do with this problem. All things considered this isn't a bad plane..especially when you consider the price..less than half of one of the high end boys, and it will do the job...it just takes a little more time and effort. I keep it set up for "rough" smoothing and use one of the others for final finish. I wouldn't recommend this plane as a first one or a one and only. Buy one of the more refined one's first...get this as a second jack plane."

"This english made plane is no better than the $12 Indian made planes. Some of the Indian planes have hardwood handles, the Stanley has plastic handles (which are probably better)which are not estetic. Both planes can be tuned to do a good job on softwood."