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Showerthought: a $9 no 4 smoother beat my $120 block plane on end grain and I'm still mad about it
I had a batch of maple cutting board ends to clean up last Tuesday, about 30 of them, and grabbed my block plane out of habit because that's what I always reach for. It kept chattering and tearing out no matter how light I set the cut, and I ended up with maybe 6 rejects that went in the scrap bin. Out of frustration I dug out this old no 4 smoother I bought at a flea market in Lansing for $9, spent 20 minutes on the water stones and put a slight camber on the iron. It cut the end grain clean on the first pass, no tearout, and I finished the rest in under an hour. I think the weight and the wider sole just kept it steady where the little block plane wanted to tip. Now I feel dumb for chasing the fancy tool when the cheap one sitting in a drawer did the job. Anyone else find their bargain bin plane outworking the one they paid real money for, or is it just the camber that made the difference?
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emma_young11h ago
Swapped the blade from my old stanley into my nicer vintage jack plane last winter and it was like a whole different tool. The cheap steel took a way better edge off my 1000 grit stone and held it longer than the fancy A2 iron that came with it. I've stopped buying planes based on the brand and just look for a flat sole and a thick iron now. Your camber point is real too, a slight curve on the edge handles end grain way better than a dead flat cut. That little block plane was probably fighting you the whole time.
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