Replies

1. 
   Alan | May 04, 2004 11:54pm | #1

   JR,

   I assume that by "bench planes" you mean bevel-down planes the same or similar to the Stanley sequence of #1 through #8.  If this is what you mean, it eliminates any low-angle planes, block planes, molding planes...etc.

   If you mean the above, I own less than five bench planes.  I have a jointer (#7) a jack (#5) and two smoothers (#3 and #4).  I do all my work with those four planes--really just three because I almost never use the #3 these days.  By "all my work" I mean all my dimensioning, flattening, smoothing and jointing.  I do not have or use a power jointer, thickness planer, big drum sander or any other of the powered devices that supposedly take the place of bench planes.

   But if you meant to include block planes, panel-raising planes, molding planes, scrub planes, etc., I have many more than five.

   Alan

2. 
   BG | May 05, 2004 12:42am | #2

   jr,

   Ditto Alan's combination...except, I've modified the #3 to work as a scrub plane..ie. open mouth, round plane edge slightly.
3. 
   jvs | May 05, 2004 07:23am | #3

   Easy to narrow it to five--that is all I ever use anymore.

   #8 - jointing, large flattening/leveling, killing spiders, set fairly coarse at <30 thou.

   #6 - jointing smaller stuff, flattening smaller stuff to nearly finished, set less than half that.

   Gordon try plane - after the two above and for trickier grain. Never measured the mouth, but a hair under a business card. Amazing tool.

   #5 1/2 - heavy jack, faster and less work despite the extra weight over a 5. Set very coarse at ~50 thou.

   Gordon smoother - smoothing (big suprise, eh?) and scraping.

   I edge and face joint by hand, and do the early really rough stuff with an LN scrub (spending as much time with it as any of the above sometimes), but it is not really a bench plane, so I guess I get six. There are a bunch of others on the shelf, but have made friends with the above to the point that the rest are slowly disappearing under the dust.

   /jvs