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Found out my grandfather's 40 year old hand plane beats my $300 new one
I was over at my dad's house last weekend and he pulled out my grandfather's old Stanley No. 5 from the 1970s. I've been using a brand new plane I bought from Home Depot for like $300 and struggling with tear out on oak. I spent an hour flattening the old sole and sharpening the iron, and it cuts cleaner than anything I've ever used. Has anyone else had an old tool that just works better than the expensive new stuff?
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the_diana5d agoMost Upvoted
Have you heard about the whole "skookum" thing from the old AvE channel on YouTube? He talks about how tools from back then had way better steel and fitment because they weren't trying to cut every corner to make a profit. I read somewhere that old Stanley planes used a type of iron that's actually harder and takes a finer edge than most modern import stuff. Plus your grandpa's plane was probably tuned up by decades of use, so the sole is already flat and the mating surfaces have worn in perfect. Your new one likely came with a rough casting and a blade that wasn't properly heat treated. It's not just you that's the story for a lot of old tools... they were built to last and made with more hand work, not just churned out by the thousands.
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