Replies

1. 
   Piccioni | Dec 20, 2006 05:48pm | #1

   Never heard of them, but there are lots of planes coming into North America from China and Eastern Europe.

   The best of those are probably good enough to plane the side of a door, as long as you plan on painting the door.

   A rule of thumb is price. If they are cheap, they are probably junk.

   
   

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   Edited 12/20/2006 9:49 am ET by Piccioni

2. 
   Omah | Dec 20, 2006 06:59pm | #2

   I bought an "Anant" from india,'bench rabbit' plane, It's pretty darn good for the price.

1. 
   douglas2cats | Dec 21, 2006 04:54am | #5

   Though most everyone else insists they must be junk (without first hand experience I suspect), I feel the same way about the Anant Jointer I bought. For $90, I just dont see how you could beat it. I've got many LN's and a few LV planes so it's not like I dont know what a good plane is supposed to be. The Anant certainly isn't in that league  but they're actually pretty decent planes, especially considering the low cost.

    If you build it he will come.

1. 
   Lataxe | Dec 21, 2006 02:56pm | #6

   Douglas,

   I have experience of an Anant blockplane and a spokeshave, both of which were truly dreadful. However, these were fairly old Anants. Judging by recent adverts and the proliferation of models, perhaps the Anant toolworks has had a revamp and quality is improving?

   Once, Japanes cars were horrible copies of Fiats and such; but look at those Hondas and Mitsubishis now!

   Lataxe

1. 
   douglas2cats | Dec 22, 2006 04:13am | #9

   I dont know about their older ones. I just got the jointer about 13 months ago. I thought maybe I was taking a chance on something that might end up being a POS, but I was pleasantly surprised. Like I said, they sure aint up to par with LN or LV planes, but the Anant is at least as good as both a Millers Falls and Stanley smoother hand-me-down from relatives that took a lot of work to get usable. I've since gotten the LV Bevel Up Jointer (which wasn't out when I bought the Anant) which is a much better plane, but the Anant had good (not fantastic) sole flatness, no roughness to the casting, and while not chatter-free isn't too bad. If money isn't an issue at the time of purchase, I'd go with LN's or LV every time, but the Anant I got is certainly usable. Not trying to push their product or anything, but I think for someone trying to save some money they're worth looking at.

   I have noticed though that they've come out with a premium version of some of their planes recently. I've never tried one of these. Here's a lift from Highland Hardware's website:

   The Kamal series of handplanes from India represents Anant's premium line of bench planes, spokeshaves and specialty planes. Like Anant's standard line, the Kamal tools afford exceptional value and quality but offer additional enhancements. Aesthetically the machining on all Kamal tools rivals that of the best manufacturers. These planes feature brass adjusting hardware, accurately ground surfaces and an improved baked enamel finish. A cut above the standard fair of entry-level planes, we think you'll be quite pleased with the Kamal planes.

   The Bailey pattern bench planes have irons that are a full 1/8" thick and 3/16" thick chip breakers, so you can adjust the frog as tight as you wish without the risk of blade chatter. As with all our Anant bench planes, Kamal bench planes come with hardwood handles. 9-1/4" long. 1-3/4" wide iron.If you build it he will come.

1. 
   SARGEgrinder47 | Dec 22, 2006 06:05pm | #10

   Morning DC..

   I was actually going down to Highland this morning to check out the new Kamal Anant's for a few that have e-mailed me that can't see them personally. I am in Highland at least every other week, if not sooner living in the Atlanta area.

   I just spoke with Jim at Highland a few minutes ago and the new Kamal's are suspected to be sitting in a Conex container in NY as they have not cleared customs yet. So... at this point they are "not" on the shelf for a visual. He did say that the guys that make the decisions there were excited about the step up in  quality over the older standard Anant's. But.. not to confuse this with the quality of L-N or LV out of the box as the price should suggest that they are not L-N or LV. Somewhere on the scale of the better Record's before their demise to be more reasonable.

   So...... when I do see them, I will post my personal thoughts of my take on them compared to the older Anant's as I have fluid access to them and have had for quite a while.

    Interestingly I purchased an Anant #4 and #5 for my BIL a while back as he wanted to get his feet wet with hand-planes without a larger financial commitment. The #4 after being worked cuts almost as well as my LV 4 or a L-N I have used! The #5 was problems for the "git-go". I gave up on trying to flatten the sole (even though the hollow remainging was center sole and wouln't be a major problem with the outer soles flat) Even with a hock iron it just wouldn't give me the results that the #4 did. Go figure..... ?

   Regards...

   SARGE.. jt

   Edited 12/22/2006 10:15 am ET by SARGEgrinder47

2. 
   douglas2cats | Dec 22, 2006 06:45pm | #11

   Not that I plan on buying many of them, but I'm looking forward to seeing your review. Sounds like maybe I got lucky? My #8 experience sounds like your #4 one. If it sounds like I'm sticking up for them it's just that I've gotten annoyed on some other forums with folks who have dissed them, then admitted they hadn't tried them. I have no problem with folks recommending planes with a "Buy American" bias as long as they say that's why they're dissing the Asian imports and remembering that they're then no longer entitled to recommend LV either. Last I looked, Canada was a foreign country too.If you build it he will come.

3. 
   dherzig | Dec 20, 2006 11:50pm | #3

   I am in the market for a radius plane. I could not find a reference to Award planes on Google. Any chance you could get more information from your dealer. Perhaps how to contact him and I will call.

   Thank you for your time and trouble.

   Happy holidays and a comfortable New Year.

1. 
   Rehabhog | Dec 21, 2006 03:18am | #4

   I'll get back to you tomorrow. On closer inspection of the catalogue photographe it's looks like the radius and plow could be Anant. The discription doesn't specify the brand eventhought their not grouped with the other Anant but the  Awards.

   I'll find out tomorrow and let you know. By the way, the store is called Langevin & Forest in Montreal. http://www.langevinforest.com Not all their products are on the website though.

    

   Rehab.

1. 
   Piccioni | Dec 21, 2006 09:16pm | #7

   FYI My friend and I each bought a workbench (about $3,500 each) from Langevin & Foret and, while it was a bit of work coordinating shipment to Toronto, it was a very positive experience.

2. 
   Rehabhog | Dec 22, 2006 03:11am | #8

   Sorry dherzig,

                         my mistake, they are Anant Handplanes. I think I'll still go down and take a look at the plow plane dought. The service people told me however that the Awards ( mostly smoothing planes) were a notch over stanley.

   Good day.

   Rehab.

   Edited 12/21/2006 7:13 pm ET by Rehabhog

4. 
   PADDYDAHAT | Dec 27, 2006 07:40am | #12

   REHAB, I acquired my Anant #4 as a no name giveaway (you buy $100 of tools in July, we send you a free plane) when they were testing the market about 5 or 6 years ago. The fit and finish was better than our current Stanley product and the iron was poor. It works as good as a modern Stanley or Record after installing a quality iron. These were obviously carefuly made to impress those who sell to us.

   Several months later I bought a #78 rabbet plane and a combination plane (a copy of a Record #405 -aka Stanley #45) and they are nightmares. All of the irons are poor, the fit and finish looks to be a result of the press of more production at the price of functionality. To be precise the castings were not properly machined out (perhaps a skill problem in India) but to preserve productivity they heavily over plated everything to attempt to cover up the gross finishes and at the same time plated over all of the small screw heads thus preventing the use of a screwdriver to adjust/move a nicker that was also plated in place or other wise use the tool.

   The fine screws used for the nickers (when I finally got one out) looked to have only 1 1/2 to 2 1/2 threads engaged-ground off on the non-head side (providing a beveled end that was great fun  to try to put back) in the grinding process, I guess to save time and process. The fence rod support on the #78 was never square as the metal was too soft. To add insult to injury the totes on these planes were beautiful Indian rosewood but covered with at least 1/ 16 thick lacquer- maybe more in the drips- what a crime, and they spoke to a very nice portable front knob in rosewood for the #78 but it was of slick poly plastic-what a bummer. Not to fear , I turned a nice cocobola copy for my Record #778 -probably the best plane of that style ever made due to it's twin -thru-fence rods and positive blade setting.

   Least you think me a malcontent bozo, I assure you that I was an Industrial Engineer ,a First class Machinist and the happy owner and user of a rack of 1--8 of ln-lv -stanley-clifton panes and a gagle of 45's and 55's. You couldn't get me to touch an Anant with a vaccinated crowbar. Best of luch, Paddy-e mail for more ugly details.

    

    

1. 
   Rehabhog | Dec 27, 2006 07:45pm | #13

   Thank you for the warning Paddy,

                                    "Anants" and "Awards" will definetly fall in the " see and touch before I buy" category. Some people have had positive experiences with these planes but maybe they were lucky enough to get the crowed pleasers you mentioned. These reports tempt me to go see but with so many red flags, I will be cautious.

   Thanks to all who have shared they buying experience, I look forward to being able to do the same.

    

   Rehab.