Tom Caspar

Why Use a Hand Plane?

Tom Caspar
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Duration:   4  mins

If all of your woodworking has been done with nothing but power tools, and done successfully, you may wonder why you should bother learning to master the use of woodworking hand tools. In this video, Tom Caspar provides a dose of reality on why hand planes are beneficial to use and even performs some tasks better than power tools. He provides some compelling reasons to try hand planing on portions of your next woodworking project.

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5 Responses to “Why Use a Hand Plane?”

  1. Meryl Logue

    To @hap: YouTube has a few excellent tutorials on sharpening and restoring an old find. Paul Sellers and Rex Krueger come to mind as the ones I’ve seen most cited.

  2. John Verreault

    George, I was always taught to hold a hand plane with my index finger extended along the side similar to how you hold a hand saw. This pistol grip should give a better sense of when the plane is tipped or skewed just like the handsaw. Essentially, you get better results when you have a better feel for the tool. Why is Tom not doing this? - John

  3. Barry

    Why don't you set up videos for platinum members so we do NOT have to watch ads?

  4. Hap

    Would be nice to see how to hone a hand planer the proper way

  5. Laurence Lance

    With a really sharp high quality blade, like the IBC shown here and sharpened to 16,000 Japanese grit, no sanding is needed. It's very possible to take a shaving measuring 0.0005 of an inch.

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