Flea markets and yard sales can be your nearest and dearest friends when it comes to finding hand planes at affordable, and sometimes cheap pricing. I look them over whenever I see them looking mainly for planes that have some life in them. I pass on the ones that have been spit shined or made into lamps. I look for planes that I can do minor work to and begin using in my shop. I can moan and groan that i don't find them as regular as I used to, but I still find them. I bring my treasures home and put them away until I am ready to start work on them. Some need nothing more than sharpening and a quick tune-up. Those requiring more work, generally sit a long time before I get a wild hair and get back to them. Right now, I've only got a couple on the bench waiting for work. The rest have been pressed into service, bartered off, and some given as gifts. Planes that really FEEL right, I keep, I use, I enjoy. Buying them the way I do, I can afford to experiment with different models and figure out what works best for me. I don't break the bank in the process either. Used hand-planes can be bargains if you buy the right ones. I look for name brand the majority of the time unless I am looking at all wood varieties, then I look for fit anf finish. A well built plane is obvious, and feels 'right'. A shoddy plane, gives itself away pretty fast, it just feels wrong. When you pick a plane up in your hands, it should beg you to make a pass on a board, it fits your hands and feels like an extension of the hands. Poorly designed, poorly built planes, don't beg to work, they make you want to put them down and do something else. Like any tools, buying quality is hard to go wrong. Try out some used planes, you'll be glad you did!
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Last update : 03-11-2009 15:03
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