Smoothing Planes, Which is Better? The Stanley No.3 or the Stanley No.4, Revisited
In 2012, a follower of my blog sent me a question, which size smoothing plane do I like best, the No. 3 or No.4? My answer was the No.3, and if you want to read what else I had to say about those planes, click here to read the post, which has had a good number of hits over this past month. If I were to get asked that question today, I would answer with one word, “Neither!” I really enjoyed using those old planes, but as I worked with more visually stunning tonewood, I discovered that I couldn’t really get those planes to step up and create a smoother surface. No matter how I sharpened and tweaked the irons, or flattened the bottoms of those planes, I was always a little disappointed with the results. By the beginning of 2020, I decided to make a change. I purchased a Lie-Nielsen (L-N) No. 62 low angle plane. Once I sharpened up the iron on that plane and used it on some righteous East Indian rosewood, I knew my time using bevel down hand planes was done. I sold every bevel d...
