One of the things that has frustrated me so much in my shop has been my inability to get good results with my planes. I have a block, #3, #4, #5 and #7. Everything but the #7 is a Groz, but these aren’t awful quality. Still, I had prepared myself to spend a grand or more replacing them with better quality options, among other purchases.
Well, I decided to really hunker down today and see if I could figure out where I was going wrong. That meant videos. I watched a handful from respected sources, and noticed everyone was setting their cap iron (chipbreaker) a scant mm or so back from the blade edge. I was much further back. Once I was able to go adjust my #5 and duplicate this, and dial it in just so, my results were completely different. I was again hooked on hand planing. My #7 got the similar treatment and I was getting much better results. The rest of the planes will follow shortly, but I haven’t sharpened the blades yet either.
I know at some point those Groz and even the #7 Record will probably be replaced at some point. The deal now is that I can fill other needs before I feel compelled to upgrade.
