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In this video I give you a detailed tour of the best hand planes for the money that I've discovered so far. I've been woodworking professionally for 40 years, and used many hand planes. Most new planes produced today are cheap and poorly made, since price wars have driven quality lower and lower over the years. Not these ones. Quality is great and price is, too. Learn more here: https://www.busybeetools.com/pages/premium-high-quality-hand-planes.html
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0:00
In this video, I'll be giving you a detailed tour of a brand new line of affordable, high-quality
0:06
hand planes, but before I do, I have a quick story to share
0:10
When it comes to hand planes, I have a special appreciation for these great classic woodworking tools
0:17
This wooden hand plane, for instance, was the very one that my grandfather used to teach
0:21
me how planes work back when I was seven years old. This old No. 4 Bailey smoothing plane belonged to my great-grandfather, a cabinetmaker, and
0:30
I used it to plane hundreds of board feet of rough sawn lumber smooth while building
0:36
furniture for sale as a teenager in the late 1970s. I've since grown my collection of hand planes and I take their care and use seriously
0:45
But as useful as hand planes are, these tools are also one of the most underappreciated
0:51
in all of woodworking, and there are really two reasons why. First, it takes care and finesse to tune any hand plane so it works properly, especially
1:00
when the tool is brand new. You can't just pick up a plane, even a great one, and expect it to perform well without
1:07
at least a little tender loving care, both initially and then also when it comes to periodic
1:13
sharpening during use. And second, many modern hand planes are just built too poorly to perform to their full
1:20
potential no matter how skilled the owner and how well the tuning has happened
1:26
So this video is about a brand new line of high-quality hand planes that really are good
1:30
enough to serve you well. They're able to deliver the kind of high-end results planes are capable of, and they sell
1:37
at very reasonable prices. New hand planes don't hit the market very often
1:41
In fact, such a thing might only happen a few times during your entire life
1:46
Busy Bee is a familiar name in the tool world, and they've been bringing reasonably priced
1:51
high-quality woodworking and metalworking machinery to the world market for more than
1:56
40 years. They've now turned their attention to doing the same thing but with hand planes, and I
2:02
have to say I'm impressed. I've had the Busy Bee planes in my workshop for several months now, and there are six
2:08
main items in the current lineup. There are number four and number four and a half smoothing planes, number five and number
2:16
five and a half jack planes, a number seven jointer plane, and a cabinet scraper plane
2:23
all packaged in boxes that are suitable for attractive long-term storage. So sit back and let me show you some affordable high-end hand planes that fill a niche that
2:32
has been completely unserved in the marketplace until now. But first, let me tell you about a problem
2:39
The problem with cheap hand planes. Once upon a time, every new hand plane for sale had the potential to be tuned to work well
2:47
This was the case back before power tools became common when woodworkers earned their
2:52
living exclusively with hand tools. But as machines began to take over more and more of the work of hand planes, tool manufacturers
3:00
often got caught in price wars, making planes that didn't actually work all that well
3:05
although they looked okay superficially and had the one advantage of impossibly low prices
3:12
This race to the bottom in terms of quality and price is why typical hardware store hand
3:17
planes don't work well, except perhaps after a lot of skilled reworking of the metal parts
3:23
And even then, there'll be nothing to write home about. Thin blades, less than accurate machining, and flimsy overall construction are the big
3:31
reasons why many woodworkers have, mistakenly I might add, given up on hand planes altogether
3:38
without even realizing what they're giving up. Over the years, this widespread lack of quality led a small handful of manufacturers to buck
3:47
the trend and build some very high-end hand planes that work exceptionally well, but also
3:53
at very high-end prices. So the Busy Bee lineup I'm going to show you here aims at something different
3:59
It's the first attempt that I've seen to combine excellent hand plane performance with
4:04
very affordable prices. That's what caught my eye about these planes in the first place, and it's what I'll show
4:10
you here in this video. So what goes into a great hand plane
4:15
The five biggest quality parameters that all good planes should have include a thick, vibration-dampening
4:23
blade made of a metal that can take a keen edge and retain that edge after a lot of work
4:29
Next, you need full support of that blade by a crucial part of the plane called the frog
4:35
A truly flat bottom of the plane is important, and the bottom of any plane is called the
4:40
sole, like the sole of a shoe. So smoothly operating blade depth and angle controls are important as well, and you'll
4:47
want, of course, an inviting fit and finish and operation of all parts
4:53
So like I said before, an effective plane is all about subtle but important details
4:58
coming together, and now I'm going to show you what these details are by comparing a
5:03
brand new bargain-basement hardware store hand plane with the corresponding features on a comparable Busy Bee plane
5:12
Blade thickness and metallurgy. In the world of hand planes, the blade is often called a plain iron
5:19
All else being equal, as far as steel quality goes, the thicker the plain iron, the better
5:25
the plain iron. That's because a thicker blade resists chatter better. Chatter happens when the blade flexes and vibrates back and forth repeatedly during
5:33
use, creating less than perfectly smooth results. Support of the blade by the frog, and more on this later, is also essential for preventing
5:43
chatter, but a thick blade helps as well. Here you can see the plain iron from the Busy Bee No. 4 smoothing plane compared to the
5:51
brand new hardware store hand plane and its blade. The hardware store blade measures 89 one thousandths of an inch, while the Busy Bee iron measures
6:01
a whopping 101 and a half thou thick. It's quite a difference
6:07
As useful as a thick blade is on a hand plane, the quality of metal of that blade is absolutely
6:13
key because this determines how sharp an edge the blade will accept in the first place
6:19
and then how long it will retain that sharp edge during use
6:23
Busy Bee planes use something called O1 steel for the blades. O1 is an advanced oil hardening steel that does not shrink and can be hardened to an
6:33
impressive Rockwell 65 level, and it shows, as I'll let you see right now
6:40
The best way to assess the quality of blade metal in the field is to hone as keen an edge
6:45
as possible on that blade, then see how it performs with actual cutting
6:51
Here you can see me honing the Busy Bee plane iron using a hard felt buffing wheel
6:55
This is a very fast and effective way to hone an edge to its full potential
7:00
I use buffing like this all the time for honing and haven't used my sharpening stones in decades
7:06
Honing is so much faster and easier. You really need to try it
7:10
Here you can see the same edge I was honing just now shaving hair cleanly off my hand
7:16
Another test I like to apply is slicing the end grain of a board
7:20
A truly sharp blade will slice wood cleanly and leave no tear out, just like you see here
7:26
Top hand plane performance ultimately comes down to the sharpness of the cutting edge
7:30
so this is the kind of thing you need to see in any good plane iron
7:35
Working hand in hand with the blade is something called the chip breaker. This is an angled or curved component that's bolted to the blade
7:43
directing shavings up and out of the plane. In the case of the Busy Bee planes, the chip breaker is made of a specific kind of steel called
7:51
cold rolled, close annealed steel, or CRCA for short. This is essentially a cold finished steel that takes a polish beautifully well, as you can see
8:02
allowing shavings to pass through the plane with minimal friction. So take a close look at the polished surface I applied to this chip breaker
8:10
as part of my initial one-time setup of this plane. Only the best steel polishes this nicely
8:18
A polished surface in this area reduces friction and allows the shavings to leave the plane
8:23
most easily and effortlessly. Full blade support by the Frog. As I mentioned before, a thick blade resists flexing and chatter better than a thin one
8:35
all else being equal, but the Frog affects things here too. The Frog is that part of the plane that you see here
8:42
and it's held in place in most planes with two screws like this
8:47
The best way to ensure that the Frog is truly flat and able to support the blade fully
8:52
is by taking it out just once and rubbing the working surface of the Frog
8:57
against something abrasive, like you can see here. A well-made plane comes from the factory with a fully flat Frog that properly supports the blade
9:07
But here you can see the Frog on the cheapo plane, and it's not completely flat and needs work
9:13
You can see those areas here where I've rubbed it on the abrasive
9:17
and it's shined up these areas, whereas the other areas remain untouched
9:22
That's not what you want to see and requires a fair amount of work to rectify
9:27
By contrast, this is the working face of the Busy Bee Frog
9:31
It takes just a few strokes to show that this Frog is flat and able to do its work properly
9:37
This Frog on the Busy Bee plane needs no remedial attention, not now nor later
9:42
A flat, accurate sole is also important, and checking this detail is similar to checking the Frog
9:49
Rubbing the Busy Bee plane on a flat abrasive surface shows that the sole really is truly flat
9:56
with no high areas and no refinement needed. In fact, these planes are rated to be flat within 3 one-thousandths of an inch along their entire length
10:06
with sides that are within also 3 one-thousandths of an inch of being perfectly square
10:12
Compare this to the hardware store plane you can see here, and how the areas of the sole are higher than the rest, requiring a lot of time and elbow grease
10:20
to get where it should be, and that's truly flat. The metal that a plane body is made of is another thing that separates cheap planes from great ones
10:31
As with some other high-end planes, the body of the Busy Bee offering is made of ductile iron
10:37
long recognized as the world's best, fairest metal, and stable for plane production
10:42
Ductile iron will not break even if you drop your plane from a height onto a concrete floor
10:47
You certainly can't say that about the cast iron used to make cheap planes
10:52
High-end planes like the Busy Bee line also have perfectly square edges
10:56
that are essential for certain planing operations. This metal machinist's square shows that cheap planes often lack truly square corners
11:04
where the sole meets the sides, whereas properly made planes have completely square edges, just like you can see here
11:13
Control Operation There are two main controls on any hand plane, and their smooth operation is something you'll appreciate regularly
11:22
The depth control wheel moves the blade in or out from the sole, affecting the depth of wood removed in each pass
11:28
The other control is this lever. It angles the blade one way or the other, depending on what you want
11:34
Most planing is done with the working edge of the blade parallel with the opening it extends through
11:39
just like you see here. The controls on the Busy Bee planes work very well and smoothly
11:45
and you can certainly tell the difference compared with the cheapo plane, even with your eyes closed
11:50
Fit and Finish Besides proper function, beauty and refinement are reasons to own a high-quality hand plane, too
11:58
It's simply nice to have and to hold, because the best planes are both attractive objects as well as useful tools
12:06
Many people buy hand planes for this reason, and that's perfectly legitimate
12:10
A beautiful object that makes curls of wood and rough boards smooth
12:14
is certainly something that's easy for any woodworker to like. The current line of Busy Bee planes I tested include
12:21
handles made of an African hardwood called sapele. It's about the same hardness as hard maple
12:27
but I'm told that the sapele was chosen because it has an interlocking grain pattern
12:31
that makes it much more resistant to splitting. It's one of the nicest handle woods around
12:38
Knurled brass adjusters are also easy to use and easy to like
12:43
So what can a truly great hand plane do with a piece of wood
12:47
Well, it can produce nice, predictable curls of wood, and even curls that are so thin you can see light through them
12:54
Once you get a great hand plane working like this, you'll have discovered the best-kept secret in the world of woodworking
13:01
Can you see why I like hand planes so much
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