Worth a try?

[rhull]

95% carbon?? Is there any iron in them? :)

Did you/they mean .95% carbon?

[schmed]

Although I am new to using hand planes, I bought a Groz #4 at a local shop for $30CDN. The sole is pretty much flat( can just barely see light in the middle of my straight edge). Now I am just assuming that the nick I got in the blade was from the knot in the pine I hit...suppose one of you lads can tell me if a knot is hard enough to put a nick in the blade or if it is just cheap steel. But the plane is very nice for the money and around where I live I had the choice between the Groz for $30 or a Veritas for $245. I know that eventually I will buy the better Veritas line but for now the cheaper stores will supply me with certain tools.

[Limey]

Yes ..a knot especially if it's a "dead" knot ...black and ugly... will be hard enough to put a knick in the blade,,,, but if you find it happens reguarly on knot free timbers it's an indication that the blade is hard and brittle... I'm sure all of us would be interested to learn of any further experiences you have to give us some first hand anecdotary notes of these inexpensive Indian manufactured planes.


Limey

[tpuzio]

using a straight edge is ok, but if you really want to see how flat your plane is, take it to a piece of 300grit wet/dry sand paper on a square of glass. I'm willing to bet it's pretty much NOT flat at all.

[dcarter636]

Let me add, if you REALLY want to know just how flat your plane sole is. Eyeball the straight edge, as schmed did, and use a simple feeler gage to measure the "daylight" gaps between the straight edge and plane sole. It is amazing, such miniscule gaps are visible with the neked eyeball.

[schmed]

Update..I resharpened the blade to get rid of the nick in it. And set it up again. I planed some pine and got see through shavings and then went to work on some oak same thing and back to the pine and got the same see through shavings and left a very smooth surface behind. I also used a pencil for marking the sole and went to my 300 grit paper on my marble, and they came off fairly evenly. Still need to try feeler gauges and the straight edge. But IMHO this plane was well worth the money. Where else are you gonna get a decent brand new plane for 30 bucks?

And in case anyone is wondering I am not in any way affiliated with the manufacturer or the store that sold me this plane.

[Sawduster]

The proof is in the puddin. I wouldn't worry a whole bunch about how many thousandths of an inch of unflat I had so long as I was getting the plane to do what I wanted it to do.

I don't think the oldtimers out there were much concerned about their planes being a bit out of flat and I don't think they were near as anal retentive about a mirror finish on the bevel of their chisels and plane irons as many seem to think is necessary now-days. We get our hands on some of these that are 50 or 100 years old and immediately want to start sanding the sole down. Now, did all these things go out of flat over the years, or did the old timers who bought them originally use them with all that unflatness? Beats the heck out of me.

[dcarter636]

I largely agree with Jerry here; most of us have a little "If it's worth doing, it's worth over doing" in us. You can usually see daylight through a gap of about .0003"; that's far too small to be concerned with. If you can't get a .002" feeler gage in, then an isolated gap doesn't merit attention as long as it isn't on the front edge of the mouth. I also firmly believe that lapping a plane sole finer than 150 grit is purely cosmetic.

[Limey]

Hear Hear !! Couldn't agree more with you Dave.

Indeed I 've heard it on good authority that some very worthy craftsmen like to have a hollow behind the mouth to reduce drag.
Just make sure that the area in front of the mouth and the heel are flat and in contact with the wood.

Limey

[BigDaddy]

I just bought me one of these to try from hartville tool:

http://www.hartvilletool.com/shared/...dium/37018.jpg

.. actually i bought the smoother too,

http://www.hartvilletool.com/shared/...dium/47693.JPG

these look pretty much identical to the record designs .. they're another plane like the groz made in india ..

i'm feeling confident about them, I've got no need for them, but wanted to try something "new" for once .. lol (damn, get $7500 back in taxes, i've spent over $600 on planes since sunday - plus the Veritas MKII which is on a truck right now)

lol ...

i'm expecting the record counterpart that i posted on earlier in the mail in a few days too .. i'm gonna put the #7's side by side, and post a review ...

fyi, the #7 above from hartville tool was $59, the #4 was $35