I've always bought second hand planes and restored them myself and I've got decent Stanley and Record planes for a low price. I’ve just bought a Faithful No. 7 because even second hand decent ones aren’t cheap. I was surprised in a very good way how flat mine was and the usual Sharpie criss cross came off with the first lap. What I struggled with was smoothing it out from the 80 grit I started with with finer grits. Because I don’t work with large pieces of timber I've use a Record No. 5 Jack plane for jointing before getting the Faithful. The Record is a beautiful plane which I strongly recommend, mine was £8 and a lot of work stripping down, cleaning, re-flattening, painting etc. But it is definitely worth the effort. I have a Faithful round bottom spokeshave which I'm very happy with, but that too required a lot of work to get right. So the Faithful had a lot to live up to and I have to say overall I'm very pleased. I don’t have massive hands, I take a M/L in gloves, but I too find the grip cramped. However, I have a lot of upper body difficulties causing a lot of pain and I find the balance of the No7 spot on which makes it do a lot of the work for you. I'd be happy to recommend the plane, especially at its price as long as people don’t expect a Lie Nielsen. Your video was a good and fair review.
I have the Faithfull no. 4, no. 7 and the LA block plane ... all bought recently (2022). The block plane had a concave sole and required a little bit of work to flatten (but it's a small plane and there was not a lot of metal to remove, so no big deal). After that, with routine sharpening, which ALL new planes require, it has worked pretty well for me. The no. 7 jointer was a revelation ... out of the box, the sole was dead flat along the entire length and absolutely square to the sides. I lightly rounded the edges, put a micro bevel on the iron and honed according to my normal practice (400 through to 1200 diamond stone ... then stropping). I also adjusted the frog to narrow the mouth ... just my personal preference and took only a couple of minutes. After that, the plane worked really well taking big clean continuous smooth shavings off dense and highly figured wood. Maybe it can't compare with L_N as a not-so-very-small object of desire but, on its own terms, it is a highly functional and effective wood-working tool. The no. 4 was in between the no. 7 and the block plane. It required a little bit of work but probably less than an hour in total. After that, it works just fine. The iron does seem a little thin (it's nothing like the thickness of the no. 7 blade) and, although it seems to work very well, I'm considering replacing it with a Stanley or Veritas blade. That still leaves the Faithfull a whole lot cheaper than the alternatives. It's interesting that my experience has been so much better than John's ... who I think gave an honest objective review. Maybe Faithfull (or Sobah, if they are the actual manufacturer) have upped their game on QC in recent years.
I just received the Faithfull Nr7 (46 euro), it is flat, square . I only sharpened the blade with the technique of Rob Cosman (1000 diamond stone and 16000 glas wetstone) in just 5 minutes. Today i ordered a Nr4 (32 euro) hope this will give the same result (my "Nooitgedacht nr4 is old and i can not get any new blade, at least not for 32 euro)
Purchased the N0.5 in Jan - took a chance on the price and it is serving me well. Also purchased Spears & Jackson block plane (currently €26!) at the time, which I absolutely love.
I have the faithful jointer plane and I can't retract the blade all the way in even when the adjuster is all the way. Anybody else have one have the same issue?
I also have the Number 4 and number 7 i spend like 40 -50€ for it and i can agree with the handle and mine was finde i dindnt even flatten the sole of my number 7 just scharpened it and it works like a charm
I have faithful planes and you are spot on they was out on the sole and the blades need to be sharpened, i also have a 601/2 block plane and it is absolutely fine apart from needing to be sharpened. I thibk you got unlucky with your one.
I totally undersign this video. When I was in training, we bought Faithfull planes, more than 20 of them for the whole class. So this was a good sample. Some block plains were just out of square no matter what. Devil's rejects! Some of their blades were also very very weak, they would get full of nicks very easily and I couldn't get them gone no matter what, it seemed that the more I tried to sharp them, new nicks were appearing. I wonder if I've ruined the tempering the blade's steel. Some other blades were ok enough, sharpable and usable, and I liked working with these block planes. You just have to be lucky... The larger planes had to be wet sanded to get them flat, but apart of that I enjoyed working with them. So, bottom line, forget the block planes and, if you want to put some effort in, go for the other ones. You don't pay much money but you'll pay with some time and sweat in order to achieve a good set-up.
This is what I'm looking for, decent honest answers before j buy a no7, I only need it to joint a 2 piece tight grain hardwood electric guitar body like alder or basswood, maple usually 46mm thickness, can I ask for a reply on a query? I'm getting into making my own guitars from scratch, hobbies but I'm a tradesmen I take buying tools seriously, in your opinion would you say for one purpose only a no7 would be fine enough just to joint 46mm thick bookmatched hardwoods- the usual candidates for electric guitars? Thanks. Mike
I have a wood River #4 right now and saw the Jack plane by chance and was really hoping to find some reviews because it seemed too good to be true. I bought a cheapo #4 a while ago that I put a lot of work trying to tune and it was never working right despite being suggested as a decent entry point. I don’t mind the work of trying to flatten it and the idea of such a cheap #7 for larger projects like a workbench to at least get things flat enough would be awesome.
Just purchased a Faithfull No. 3 off of Amazon. Item came fairly fast with 8 days to the US. Overall it's a good priced buy for a No. 3 plane, as I was curious about it's size and didn't want to spend a lot of money for one, as I'm good with an old No. 4 Stanley I restored. I haven't used this yet and will most likely sand the sole and sharpen the iron blade. I'm giving this 3 stars because I did not like the way it was packaged and shipped to me in the US. It was shipped in it's packaged box (wrapped in a plastic bag in the box), and placed inside a brow paper bag envelope with no other cushion. There were also dings on the tops of the wings of the sole and the paint was chipped in some places. Time will tell if this is a good hand plane and will influence me on if I want to buy a No. 6 or No. 7 plane from Faithfull in the future. I wished it was better packaged especially as it has to travel overseas to here in the US. Disappointed in this shipment.
I just bought the No4 and The no5 and am so impressed by what I've got I ordered the Jointer (I do have a Stanley block plane though, well 2 actually because theyre good) - these Faithfuls are all based on old Stanley Bailey designs and as far as I can see they are made better than the current Stanleys on the Market - any Stanley you buy now will require the same setting up if not more and I've seen modern Stanleys with faults that cannot be ironed out. - For the money, the quality of these planes is exceptional - every bit on par with Stanley - and as you say theyre not Veritas or Lie Nielsen but they're not trying to be either - I think they are trying to be better than Stanley and to be fair they are doing a very good job of it for half the cash.
Glad you liked the video. I have learned a lot since making it. I would recommend you get second hand older Stanley if you are looking for a budget option. These are not great to be honest.
@@JohnMcGrathManInShed Thank you John, as you say put the work in and they are good to go. makes it worth while when you think you have saved a £ or 2. thank you for the Advice. will look on ebay Buddy.
Thank you for the proof. I have lie nilsen 4 and veritas low angle 5. Very good planes but very expensive. I want to buy lie nilsen 7 but its iut of stock and its too expensive too. After your video i have bought faithfull 7. I think Its a good idea útil i can buy the lie nilsen.
Great review! I've been trying to get hold of a Stanley or Record Jointer plane but even the ones which need a lot of restoration go for double the price so I think I will take a chance on the Faithfull plane-I love fiddling with things to optimise their performance so 3 hours of sanding to get the foot perfect is not necessarily the end of the world. Great Channel, i look forward to watching more of your stuff!
Hi John, thanks fir taking the time to do your review its been very helpful. I'm wondering about if where i buy a no7 from if that would make the difference in regards to the flatness of the sole, square sides and overall quality fir example if i bought one off Amazon or direct from Faithful themselves you get whats sent, its a gamble some of the time maybe. But, if i bought locally, it'd be a bit more of a price on it but still im sure it .ight be more worth it as i can take a good look at the plane before, problem is locally there are only a few places with limited stock, toolstation, screwfix and some if the smaller rool shoos around about my area do have a more customer friendly attitude and woukd maje sure at least as far as i know, to order in decent stock especially because a smalker shop relies on reputation mire than anything else word of mouth. So this video has given me food for thought, i was very close to buying off of amazon just now but decided to look up a demo/review on this plane the no7 faithful in your vid and on the search results your video came up 1st at the top of the list, usually the 1st videos on reviews are the best so you're definitely doing something right. Thanks again 👍
Thanks - this is a very helpful review. I found the No 7 on eBay for £45 (new) and have been sorely tempted, but really wanted an expert opinion/test before spunking my cash on one. As a beginner-hobbyist, I can't justify spending £200+ on a jointer, so to know that with a bit of effort, a £45 one will do me is very helpful. Cheers dude
@Richard Keel Cheap second hand Stanley planes can be restored with only a little effort and can produce great results and build your plane skills. You can find a number 7 for about £50 on Ebay and with some effort get it to brand new condition. But if you want to go cheaper pick up a no 3 or 4 and work with that which can do the same job as a no 7 only with a little bit more effort and development of hand and eye skills. I have bought faithful planes and found them to do a good job but my preference is stanley. I have picked up so many old planers and restored them and have a massive collection and have given them to my children and friends.
Hi John, I bought a Stanley low angled block plane and just like the Faithful it was appalling, you could strike matches on the sole and I have seen straighter boomerangs. It became a quest to try and flatten the bloody thing, but I'm ashamed to say after over 7 hours the bastard beat me. The Stanley cost nearly £40 and was still shite.
Unless there is a massive cup on your plane base it should be easy enough to sort out. You may need to grind the iron down if there is a massive cup and then flatten with sandpaper on a solid flat surface. You can get away if there is a small amount of a wear on the surface as long as you can reference the blade against the outer edges of the plane.
Hi, would you recommend the no7 for jointing a 2 piece tight grain hardwood guitar body? Alder or maple or basswood whatever wood i can get my hands on its usually 46mm thickness bookmatched for stratocaster or telecaster bodies. So the no 7 looks ideal to use with a block on a stop but the handle is a bit small, havd you tried out jointing a 2 pice guitar with the faithful no7? And was it up to standard using it on its side for a square straight joint? Thanks again good videos, just what i was looking for.
They could be budget plane in the wrong hands, could be a rools royce in a carpenters hands once all the sole and blade has been dealt with, i just brought a Record T5 plane, second hand, lovely lovely tool, the design too is amazing i paid £50 ex school plane so you know its going to be in good nick
Thank You very much for the review. I was wondering what plane to buy.Faithul seems to be really cheap option. Just bought finishing plane by Faithful and I have similar conclusions.
If you willing to put the work into restoring a plane then a second hand standly can be had for reasonable money and with a little tlc it can work like new and actually be better than out of the box. With a little work on a new faithful it can be brought up to a good standard. None of this complex and will actually give you experience with the planes and develop your skills with hand planes. I was brought up with handplanes and find that learning to stip clean and rebuild will massively increase confidence so even when you find a bad one they are not as bad as people make out.
If you buy cheap you will need to work on them. Is your time worth it? Pretty much always you will need to upgrade the iron (blade). And if you know someone with a milling machine and belt sander make friends with him. The blade is the most important part and must be able to be sharpened. You can flatten the sole easily with an edge belt sander. I would buy a low angle Jack plane first if I was beginning again. It covers 90% of what you work. Axminster sell the Rider make for £125 and the blade is thick and high quality. If you are planning a lifelong interest in woodwork don’t buy several cheap, buy one good one just a bit more than you want to pay. Same with wood. Forget cheap softwood and go to a timber yard for some walnut or ash or sycamore.
I understand your point, but you have to admit that you are a well trained carpenter and that you know how to improve your tools while needed. My point is that usually when you are on a budget it's because you are starting to work wood so your knowledge about how to improve your tools is somehow limited if not null. But that's the case for almost every low budget tools I guess.
This is true, but you will also have to tune up Stanley planes. Its not hard at all I'll make video on it soon. Thanks for watching man and for your feed back.
@@MaraisStephane You still have to tune up Stanley planes. They are not as good as they used to be. Unless you are buying a high end plane you will be expected to play around with them.
Does the number 4 have a frog adjusting screw, or do you have to loosen the two screws that hold the frog to the sole and then bump the frog forward or backwards? I realize that even with an adjusting screw, you have to loosen the two screws holding the frog to the sole, but I'd like to be able to adjust the mouth for figured wood if I need to and the adjusting screw seems like a handy thing to have. Thanks.
Yes they have an adjusting screw, I've ended up with 4 of them !!! I bought my first one new and went through the routine, flatten sole, sharpen and none the iron, etc and it worked like a Trojan. Later I saw 2 on eBay going for silly money, so I bought them both, they were so cheap, I thought they were just for spares, when I got them, they just needed the irons sharpening and honing !!! Lastly, one little trick I found helpful was to leave any new plane I buy, in the workshop for a couple of weeks, just to allow the metalwork to acclimatise to my shop. Apparently Stanley used to let their plane's rest a full year after casting before they were assembled ready for sale, these days, I don't think any manufacturer can afford to have a year's supply of stock, sitting on its shelves before going to market.
I have the Nos 60 1/2 and 9 1/2 Block plane set and found that the blades sit square in the plane. So you probably got a monday product (Do you say so in English when you have a bad piece from an otherwise good series? We in Germany say "monday or friday product"). I got a No 3 and No 6 also. The problem I always had, with the blades that came with the planes and also spare blades I ordered, was that the back sides were convex. If you are into it then you know that it's nearly impossible to fix a blade, be it chisel or plane, that has a 0.5 mm belly on the back (or do you also say mirror) side. Only my No 3 plane came with a blade that had a slightly concave back so this one was fine. I had to get blades from other manufacturers (e.G. Anant), and these luckily fit into the blades so I can use them.
Great review but one note - I could barely hear you. Your intro music nearly blew away my speakers since I had the volume all the way up. Perhaps work on your sound mixing, but again - great info. Thanks.
Hi I live in Tassie I payed $1400 Aud, for Axminster rider planes full set 4 1/2, 5, 6, 7, 60 1/2 block, 778, and a 62, bloody good value. Square and flat some honing of blade. They work really well, and yes I have veritas and Lie nielson planes. I have Luban planes and stanly, luban are great sold as woodriver in America if I am not mistaken.
Thai Vuu , hi could I suggest a 4/12 is better for your hand comfort.axminster is far better than my Stanley, Luban and Axminster rider are on par, I think for me it's just ascetic how it looks. Both are square and well finished, blades need a good hone from box. My lie Neilson come honed and again well finished but cost I can't justify, full set of what I got would be a tad over $5000. I brought my Axminster rider planes and Luban planes/ tools from ( fine tools.com.au) online. The business is is in Melbourne. I hope this is helpful, Axminster riders come with spare blade but not the block planes. Luban planes are woodriver in America and most American who use them rate them as good as Lie Neilson. Rob Cosman on you tube did a thing on woodriver planes eg Luban. Cheers from Tassie
Thai Vuu A 4 1/2 smoothing plane, a no.62 low angle jack plane and a 60 1/2 block plane would get you on your way, mine are Axminster. Same in Luban can't go wrong. Enjoy your work🔨
I think you'll find they are made by Sobah industries in India, Sobah makes a huge amount of hand plane's that get "re badged / branded for sale on both sides of the pond.
Can you please explain to me why the soles of these planes have to be so precise? I've watched Japanese woodworkers (which many tout as so wonderful) using wooden planes which I can almost guarantee are not perfectly flat. Same with woodworkers for hundreds of years (before diamond grinding stones, etc). Many today, however, seem to be almost anal retentive about the soles of their planes. I don't get it.
Wood hand planes are lapped the same as metal…. The precision is to help leave a good finish that is smooth and shiny , and to help with repeatability on the thickness of shavings and quality. If the bottom is flat and you take the blade out to sharpen or clean putting it back together when done
I had a useless Stanley jointer from new. One day years later I checked the sole. It was concave. I stuck it on my belt sander with 80 grit. Sparks everywhere. Touched up the blade, I’ve been using it ever since. The sole needs to be flat, but not as perfect as many make out. However it is not much effort to get it perfect when you have nothing better to do and a slab of marble or plate glass.
not sure where you are in the world you might have to google it, I don't really recommend these planes anymore better to get yourself some second hand Stanleys if you want to save money
What really frustrats me is when people using a plane then proceed to put it down on the bench on it's sole, ARGH you've just spent hours setting up and sharpening the iron to just put it straight on the bench, LAY IT ON ITS SIDE
I bought Silverline number 4, set up properly, mine seems to work fine, however, when I buy a new plane, and I've bought almost a full set of Faithfull 's which I'm very happy with, I tend to leave them in my workshop for a couple of weeks for the metalwork to acclimatise to the conditions, seems to save me a lot of work in the setup.
What distresses me is the apparent total disregard for the quality fundamentals: properly level finished soles, decently sharpened blades 2mm thick with no nicks, handle of adequate size for at least 66% of male hands ................... all of this should not add more than a few dollars to cost but would offer a much much better product.
I totally agree about the block plane it's atrocious offset and out of Square no matter how i tried... worst production craftsmanship I have ever seen.. Shite.
I've always bought second hand planes and restored them myself and I've got decent Stanley and Record planes for a low price. I’ve just bought a Faithful No. 7 because even second hand decent ones aren’t cheap. I was surprised in a very good way how flat mine was and the usual Sharpie criss cross came off with the first lap. What I struggled with was smoothing it out from the 80 grit I started with with finer grits.
Because I don’t work with large pieces of timber I've use a Record No. 5 Jack plane for jointing before getting the Faithful. The Record is a beautiful plane which I strongly recommend, mine was £8 and a lot of work stripping down, cleaning, re-flattening, painting etc. But it is definitely worth the effort. I have a Faithful round bottom spokeshave which I'm very happy with, but that too required a lot of work to get right. So the Faithful had a lot to live up to and I have to say overall I'm very pleased. I don’t have massive hands, I take a M/L in gloves, but I too find the grip cramped. However, I have a lot of upper body difficulties causing a lot of pain and I find the balance of the No7 spot on which makes it do a lot of the work for you.
I'd be happy to recommend the plane, especially at its price as long as people don’t expect a Lie Nielsen.
Your video was a good and fair review.
I have the Faithfull no. 4, no. 7 and the LA block plane ... all bought recently (2022). The block plane had a concave sole and required a little bit of work to flatten (but it's a small plane and there was not a lot of metal to remove, so no big deal). After that, with routine sharpening, which ALL new planes require, it has worked pretty well for me.
The no. 7 jointer was a revelation ... out of the box, the sole was dead flat along the entire length and absolutely square to the sides. I lightly rounded the edges, put a micro bevel on the iron and honed according to my normal practice (400 through to 1200 diamond stone ... then stropping). I also adjusted the frog to narrow the mouth ... just my personal preference and took only a couple of minutes. After that, the plane worked really well taking big clean continuous smooth shavings off dense and highly figured wood. Maybe it can't compare with L_N as a not-so-very-small object of desire but, on its own terms, it is a highly functional and effective wood-working tool.
The no. 4 was in between the no. 7 and the block plane. It required a little bit of work but probably less than an hour in total. After that, it works just fine. The iron does seem a little thin (it's nothing like the thickness of the no. 7 blade) and, although it seems to work very well, I'm considering replacing it with a Stanley or Veritas blade. That still leaves the Faithfull a whole lot cheaper than the alternatives.
It's interesting that my experience has been so much better than John's ... who I think gave an honest objective review. Maybe Faithfull (or Sobah, if they are the actual manufacturer) have upped their game on QC in recent years.
I just received the Faithfull Nr7 (46 euro), it is flat, square . I only sharpened the blade with the technique of Rob Cosman (1000 diamond stone and 16000 glas wetstone) in just 5 minutes. Today i ordered a Nr4 (32 euro) hope this will give the same result (my "Nooitgedacht nr4 is old and i can not get any new blade, at least not for 32 euro)
Purchased the N0.5 in Jan - took a chance on the price and it is serving me well.
Also purchased Spears & Jackson block plane (currently €26!) at the time, which I absolutely love.
I have the faithful jointer plane and I can't retract the blade all the way in even when the adjuster is all the way. Anybody else have one have the same issue?
I also have the Number 4 and number 7 i spend like 40 -50€ for it and i can agree with the handle and mine was finde i dindnt even flatten the sole of my number 7 just scharpened it and it works like a charm
Cheers for the honest review.
Interesting video shows what is needed. This should help people decide what they should buy.
I have faithful planes and you are spot on they was out on the sole and the blades need to be sharpened, i also have a 601/2 block plane and it is absolutely fine apart from needing to be sharpened. I thibk you got unlucky with your one.
Every plane out of the box should be sharpened and done regularly. I will sharpen mine several times a day.
Spot on review! I’ve seen some of these in the window of my local hardware store for a good price. Will get me started learning woodwork 👍🏻
You can always count on someone on youtube for a product review. Might give the no.7 a chance. Cheers!
I totally undersign this video.
When I was in training, we bought Faithfull planes, more than 20 of them for the whole class. So this was a good sample.
Some block plains were just out of square no matter what. Devil's rejects! Some of their blades were also very very weak, they would get full of nicks very easily and I couldn't get them gone no matter what, it seemed that the more I tried to sharp them, new nicks were appearing. I wonder if I've ruined the tempering the blade's steel. Some other blades were ok enough, sharpable and usable, and I liked working with these block planes. You just have to be lucky...
The larger planes had to be wet sanded to get them flat, but apart of that I enjoyed working with them.
So, bottom line, forget the block planes and, if you want to put some effort in, go for the other ones. You don't pay much money but you'll pay with some time and sweat in order to achieve a good set-up.
This is what I'm looking for, decent honest answers before j buy a no7, I only need it to joint a 2 piece tight grain hardwood electric guitar body like alder or basswood, maple usually 46mm thickness, can I ask for a reply on a query? I'm getting into making my own guitars from scratch, hobbies but I'm a tradesmen I take buying tools seriously, in your opinion would you say for one purpose only a no7 would be fine enough just to joint 46mm thick bookmatched hardwoods- the usual candidates for electric guitars?
Thanks. Mike
I have a wood River #4 right now and saw the Jack plane by chance and was really hoping to find some reviews because it seemed too good to be true. I bought a cheapo #4 a while ago that I put a lot of work trying to tune and it was never working right despite being suggested as a decent entry point. I don’t mind the work of trying to flatten it and the idea of such a cheap #7 for larger projects like a workbench to at least get things flat enough would be awesome.
Just purchased a Faithfull No. 3 off of Amazon. Item came fairly fast with 8 days to the US. Overall it's a good priced buy for a No. 3 plane, as I was curious about it's size and didn't want to spend a lot of money for one, as I'm good with an old No. 4 Stanley I restored. I haven't used this yet and will most likely sand the sole and sharpen the iron blade. I'm giving this 3 stars because I did not like the way it was packaged and shipped to me in the US. It was shipped in it's packaged box (wrapped in a plastic bag in the box), and placed inside a brow paper bag envelope with no other cushion. There were also dings on the tops of the wings of the sole and the paint was chipped in some places. Time will tell if this is a good hand plane and will influence me on if I want to buy a No. 6 or No. 7 plane from Faithfull in the future. I wished it was better packaged especially as it has to travel overseas to here in the US. Disappointed in this shipment.
I just bought the No4 and The no5 and am so impressed by what I've got I ordered the Jointer (I do have a Stanley block plane though, well 2 actually because theyre good) - these Faithfuls are all based on old Stanley Bailey designs and as far as I can see they are made better than the current Stanleys on the Market - any Stanley you buy now will require the same setting up if not more and I've seen modern Stanleys with faults that cannot be ironed out. - For the money, the quality of these planes is exceptional - every bit on par with Stanley - and as you say theyre not Veritas or Lie Nielsen but they're not trying to be either - I think they are trying to be better than Stanley and to be fair they are doing a very good job of it for half the cash.
Brilliant Video John! Thanks Buddy , going for the No5 . Thumbs Up!
Glad you liked the video. I have learned a lot since making it. I would recommend you get second hand older Stanley if you are looking for a budget option. These are not great to be honest.
@@JohnMcGrathManInShed Thank you John, as you say put the work in and they are good to go. makes it worth while when you think you have saved a £ or 2. thank you for the Advice. will look on ebay Buddy.
Thank you for the proof. I have lie nilsen 4 and veritas low angle 5. Very good planes but very expensive. I want to buy lie nilsen 7 but its iut of stock and its too expensive too. After your video i have bought faithfull 7. I think Its a good idea útil i can buy the lie nilsen.
Great review! I've been trying to get hold of a Stanley or Record Jointer plane but even the ones which need a lot of restoration go for double the price so I think I will take a chance on the Faithfull plane-I love fiddling with things to optimise their performance so 3 hours of sanding to get the foot perfect is not necessarily the end of the world.
Great Channel, i look forward to watching more of your stuff!
How did you find the Faithfull plane?
Hi John, thanks fir taking the time to do your review its been very helpful.
I'm wondering about if where i buy a no7 from if that would make the difference in regards to the flatness of the sole, square sides and overall quality fir example if i bought one off Amazon or direct from Faithful themselves you get whats sent, its a gamble some of the time maybe. But, if i bought locally, it'd be a bit more of a price on it but still im sure it .ight be more worth it as i can take a good look at the plane before, problem is locally there are only a few places with limited stock, toolstation, screwfix and some if the smaller rool shoos around about my area do have a more customer friendly attitude and woukd maje sure at least as far as i know, to order in decent stock especially because a smalker shop relies on reputation mire than anything else word of mouth.
So this video has given me food for thought, i was very close to buying off of amazon just now but decided to look up a demo/review on this plane the no7 faithful in your vid and on the search results your video came up 1st at the top of the list, usually the 1st videos on reviews are the best so you're definitely doing something right.
Thanks again 👍
Thanks - this is a very helpful review. I found the No 7 on eBay for £45 (new) and have been sorely tempted, but really wanted an expert opinion/test before spunking my cash on one.
As a beginner-hobbyist, I can't justify spending £200+ on a jointer, so to know that with a bit of effort, a £45 one will do me is very helpful.
Cheers dude
No hassle glad it helped
@Richard Keel
Cheap second hand Stanley planes can be restored with only a little effort and can produce great results and build your plane skills.
You can find a number 7 for about £50 on Ebay and with some effort get it to brand new condition. But if you want to go cheaper pick up a no 3 or 4 and work with that which can do the same job as a no 7 only with a little bit more effort and development of hand and eye skills.
I have bought faithful planes and found them to do a good job but my preference is stanley. I have picked up so many old planers and restored them and have a massive collection and have given them to my children and friends.
Hi John, I bought a Stanley low angled block plane and just like the Faithful it was appalling, you could strike matches on the sole and I have seen straighter boomerangs. It became a quest to try and flatten the bloody thing, but I'm ashamed to say after over 7 hours the bastard beat me. The Stanley cost nearly £40 and was still shite.
Some times it's just not worth the hassle
Unless there is a massive cup on your plane base it should be easy enough to sort out. You may need to grind the iron down if there is a massive cup and then flatten with sandpaper on a solid flat surface.
You can get away if there is a small amount of a wear on the surface as long as you can reference the blade against the outer edges of the plane.
Hi, would you recommend the no7 for jointing a 2 piece tight grain hardwood guitar body? Alder or maple or basswood whatever wood i can get my hands on its usually 46mm thickness bookmatched for stratocaster or telecaster bodies.
So the no 7 looks ideal to use with a block on a stop but the handle is a bit small, havd you tried out jointing a 2 pice guitar with the faithful no7? And was it up to standard using it on its side for a square straight joint?
Thanks again good videos, just what i was looking for.
I paused like 7 times; heard a bird, then realized you have birds in your background. Hahaha.
thank you. helpful summary.
You're welcome!
Thanks
They could be budget plane in the wrong hands, could be a rools royce in a carpenters hands once all the sole and blade has been dealt with, i just brought a Record T5 plane, second hand, lovely lovely tool, the design too is amazing i paid £50 ex school plane so you know its going to be in good nick
no they are terrible
Thank You very much for the review. I was wondering what plane to buy.Faithul seems to be really cheap option. Just bought finishing plane by Faithful and I have similar conclusions.
If you willing to put the work into restoring a plane then a second hand standly can be had for reasonable money and with a little tlc it can work like new and actually be better than out of the box.
With a little work on a new faithful it can be brought up to a good standard. None of this complex and will actually give you experience with the planes and develop your skills with hand planes.
I was brought up with handplanes and find that learning to stip clean and rebuild will massively increase confidence so even when you find a bad one they are not as bad as people make out.
If you buy cheap you will need to work on them. Is your time worth it? Pretty much always you will need to upgrade the iron (blade). And if you know someone with a milling machine and belt sander make friends with him. The blade is the most important part and must be able to be sharpened. You can flatten the sole easily with an edge belt sander. I would buy a low angle Jack plane first if I was beginning again. It covers 90% of what you work. Axminster sell the Rider make for £125 and the blade is thick and high quality. If you are planning a lifelong interest in woodwork don’t buy several cheap, buy one good one just a bit more than you want to pay. Same with wood. Forget cheap softwood and go to a timber yard for some walnut or ash or sycamore.
so faithfull 4, 5, 7 even with a fair amount of work won't make it as far as a Stanley or else. I hoped for better tho, thanks for the review :)
Stéphane Marais they are not bad if you are on a budget, with a bit of tunning up they will work
I understand your point, but you have to admit that you are a well trained carpenter and that you know how to improve your tools while needed. My point is that usually when you are on a budget it's because you are starting to work wood so your knowledge about how to improve your tools is somehow limited if not null. But that's the case for almost every low budget tools I guess.
This is true, but you will also have to tune up Stanley planes. Its not hard at all I'll make video on it soon. Thanks for watching man and for your feed back.
@@MaraisStephane
You still have to tune up Stanley planes. They are not as good as they used to be. Unless you are buying a high end plane you will be expected to play around with them.
The production value has increased lol.
Does the number 4 have a frog adjusting screw, or do you have to loosen the two screws that hold the frog to the sole and then bump the frog forward or backwards? I realize that even with an adjusting screw, you have to loosen the two screws holding the frog to the sole, but I'd like to be able to adjust the mouth for figured wood if I need to and the adjusting screw seems like a handy thing to have. Thanks.
Yes they have an adjusting screw, I've ended up with 4 of them !!! I bought my first one new and went through the routine, flatten sole, sharpen and none the iron, etc and it worked like a Trojan. Later I saw 2 on eBay going for silly money, so I bought them both, they were so cheap, I thought they were just for spares, when I got them, they just needed the irons sharpening and honing !!!
Lastly, one little trick I found helpful was to leave any new plane I buy, in the workshop for a couple of weeks, just to allow the metalwork to acclimatise to my shop. Apparently Stanley used to let their plane's rest a full year after casting before they were assembled ready for sale, these days, I don't think any manufacturer can afford to have a year's supply of stock, sitting on its shelves before going to market.
I have the Nos 60 1/2 and 9 1/2 Block plane set and found that the blades sit square in the plane. So you probably got a monday product (Do you say so in English when you have a bad piece from an otherwise good series? We in Germany say "monday or friday product").
I got a No 3 and No 6 also.
The problem I always had, with the blades that came with the planes and also spare blades I ordered, was that the back sides were convex. If you are into it then you know that it's nearly impossible to fix a blade, be it chisel or plane, that has a 0.5 mm belly on the back (or do you also say mirror) side. Only my No 3 plane came with a blade that had a slightly concave back so this one was fine.
I had to get blades from other manufacturers (e.G. Anant), and these luckily fit into the blades so I can use them.
Great review but one note - I could barely hear you. Your intro music nearly blew away my speakers since I had the volume all the way up. Perhaps work on your sound mixing, but again - great info. Thanks.
This is a really old video filmed on my phone
@@JohnMcGrathManInShed I figured it was something like that. Your other videos are much better. Again, thanks for the info.
Hi I live in Tassie I payed $1400 Aud, for Axminster rider planes full set 4 1/2, 5, 6, 7, 60 1/2 block, 778, and a 62, bloody good value. Square and flat some honing of blade. They work really well, and yes I have veritas and Lie nielson planes. I have Luban planes and stanly, luban are great sold as woodriver in America if I am not mistaken.
I m in vic how is luban #4 compare to Axminster I got new Stanley and luban block plane want to get a 4 thanks
Thai Vuu , hi could I suggest a 4/12 is better for your hand comfort.axminster is far better than my Stanley, Luban and Axminster rider are on par, I think for me it's just ascetic how it looks. Both are square and well finished, blades need a good hone from box. My lie Neilson come honed and again well finished but cost I can't justify, full set of what I got would be a tad over $5000. I brought my Axminster rider planes and Luban planes/ tools from ( fine tools.com.au) online. The business is is in Melbourne. I hope this is helpful, Axminster riders come with spare blade but not the block planes. Luban planes are woodriver in America and most American who use them rate them as good as Lie Neilson. Rob Cosman on you tube did a thing on woodriver planes eg Luban. Cheers from Tassie
rob
robin alexander thanks mate I m new to hand plane any advice is greatly appreciated
Thai Vuu A 4 1/2 smoothing plane, a no.62 low angle jack plane and a 60 1/2 block plane would get you on your way, mine are Axminster. Same in Luban can't go wrong. Enjoy your work🔨
hi, where was the handplane made, was it really made in England?
I think you'll find they are made by Sobah industries in India, Sobah makes a huge amount of hand plane's that get "re badged / branded for sale on both sides of the pond.
Did you make that Jackson clone?
I did
Can you please explain to me why the soles of these planes have to be so precise? I've watched Japanese woodworkers (which many tout as so wonderful) using wooden planes which I can almost guarantee are not perfectly flat. Same with woodworkers for hundreds of years (before diamond grinding stones, etc). Many today, however, seem to be almost anal retentive about the soles of their planes. I don't get it.
Wood hand planes are lapped the same as metal…. The precision is to help leave a good finish that is smooth and shiny , and to help with repeatability on the thickness of shavings and quality. If the bottom is flat and you take the blade out to sharpen or clean putting it back together when done
I had a useless Stanley jointer from new. One day years later I checked the sole. It was concave. I stuck it on my belt sander with 80 grit. Sparks everywhere. Touched up the blade, I’ve been using it ever since. The sole needs to be flat, but not as perfect as many make out. However it is not much effort to get it perfect when you have nothing better to do and a slab of marble or plate glass.
Where I can buy this plane? Bro
not sure where you are in the world you might have to google it, I don't really recommend these planes anymore better to get yourself some second hand Stanleys if you want to save money
What really frustrats me is when people using a plane then proceed to put it down on the bench on it's sole, ARGH you've just spent hours setting up and sharpening the iron to just put it straight on the bench, LAY IT ON ITS SIDE
I was cringing too 😅 honestly don’t know how much truth there is to it but it’s what my dad told me growing up and it’s kinda ingrained now lol
Silverline by far the worst. I bought three during lockdown because I fancied a challenge .
I bought Silverline number 4, set up properly, mine seems to work fine, however, when I buy a new plane, and I've bought almost a full set of Faithfull 's which I'm very happy with, I tend to leave them in my workshop for a couple of weeks for the metalwork to acclimatise to the conditions, seems to save me a lot of work in the setup.
What distresses me is the apparent total disregard for the quality fundamentals: properly level finished soles, decently sharpened blades 2mm thick with no nicks, handle of adequate size for at least 66% of male hands ................... all of this should not add more than a few dollars to cost but would offer a much much better product.
They are pretty bad I've made a more recent vid where I advise people to pick up some old Stanley planes instead if they are on a budget
I totally agree about the block plane it's atrocious offset and out of Square no matter how i tried...
worst production craftsmanship I have ever seen.. Shite.
wish I had seen this video and comments earlier.....just bought this block plane and it is indeed....a bag of shite.
WHAT! CAN'T HEAR YA!
This is an old video on a camera phone check out some of more recent ones lol