Bench Plane No. 5 - Iron Jack Plane - Fully Adjustable Wood Hand Planer, 14-Inches Long with 2-Inch Cutter, Includes 2 blades - Caliastro

First thing I did was check flatness with a half-dozen steel rules; I could not see light - on the bottom or on the sides. Great, I thought; this is worth investing some time. I spent a day with the diamond stones ... flattening and polishing. I did the slide where the frog offers the blade, the cap iron edge, where it leans on the blade and the lever-cap lip where it leans on the cap-iron hump. I did the frog face and toes that sit on the base. Both blades were properly concave; the spare was even better than the installed blade; thank you VERY much. For blade polishing I went as far as chrome oxide on the leather strop, leaving a mirror finish across a nice flat blade. Would one HAVE to do that? Certainly not, this looks very nicely made and machined, right out of the box. Nice looking wood grips, too. Before buying, I became enthralled with the idea of restoring a used Stanley per YouTube videos. Most eBay offerings for less than $40 were missing parts and looking pretty sad and neglected. When I saw this for just a few bucks more, I thought, why not give it a try, instead? NO regrets on that choice. Now, after some relaxing work (and education), I have a REALLY nice No. 5 that can hog wood like a John Deere tractor OR skim see-through shavings and produce a finish finer than sand paper. Now, if whoever is making these for Caliastro would make a similarly nice rabbit plane, I'd try that, too.

First off, I'm a beginner and by no means a professional on planes. I do realize that even high quality planes do usually need a bit of tuning and work when brand new before use. That being said, I'm familiar enough to spot a well made one. This...is not it. While the price is quite affordable, and because of that, I did expect to have a hefty amount of work to do on it and boy I sure wasn't let down. First thing on opening the package, I pulled out the spare blade. While sharp, it was rusted over quite a bit, even though it's in rust preventive oil and packing. Then I looked at the plane it self. In the email they sent me they said it doesn't need any work, just a few minutes to set it to my specifications...no. screws over tightened that they were damaged, chips and cut marks. Wood handles chipped. HEAVY mill marks on body. Blade in plane has to be ground down and a new bevel and edge put on it because the edge is so damaged. Blade seems light. But the worst, and by far most aggravating part, was that the bottom (sole?) Was in HORRIBLE condition. Aside from being terribly uneven, the mill marks were so deep, I could sink my finger nail into them. 5 and a half hours. Yup, that's right, 5 and a half hours, no breaks, just sanding. And sanding. And sanding. (And more sanding). But I finally got it completely flat, and to a near mirror finish. I only touched one blade so much as to make so it would work so I could test it and stop for the day. Still have more to do. But wouldn't you know it, once I got it all set up and tested it, the thing actually worked pretty good! Surprisingly well, in fact. Hence why I'm giving it 3 stars. I'm still unhappy with a few things, but this is a hobby, not a profession, and if I was doing this as a job, I'd spend 360 dollars on a top quality one, not 60 on a low quality one That being said, if you're strapped for cash and want to get one with some work needed, get this. It'll cost you a bit in sand paper, but it's cheap and WILL work good after you tune it. But I do wish I had spent 3 times the money on a mid-range plane. I have no idea on the longevity, but I expect to have to replace the blades very shortly and will be getting quality a2 steel blades. Update 12/24/19 While the product might need a bit of work, their customer service is quite good. They contacted me over the troubles I had and offered a replacement, sent me pictures of the new plane being fine tuned, etc. They were very very good about staying in contact and making me happy.

I just received this plane. Like others have commented that everything is not perfect about the plane and you will have to do some tuning to get it to perform to your expectations. Each blade was not completely flat. The thin blade that was installed in plane was the worst. It probably took me 45 minutes to flatten the cutting edge with 400 grit diamond stone. The thicker blade only took a few minutes to flatten. I then sharpened the bevel with 400 and 1200 grit and polished with white diamond rouge which is hard bar material that I rub on to a piece of plywood to polish the edge (extra fine). Each blade is now uniform and extremely sharp. The adjustment knob that moves blade in and out has a small issue like stated in other reviews. You screw in to bring blade up. When that screw bottoms there is still blade proud in sole. To fix this the frog needs to be flush with sole, there are two screws to loosen and move frog forward to position correctly. The side to side lever works very well. I was able to make small adjustment with the lever to even blade side to side. The sole was dead flat, I used 180 grit on flat surface and did not get any high sides on sole. Overall I am happy with this jack plane. With a few adjustments it should perform very well. I was trying to find a jack plane on craiglist or Ebay. I was looking for a older stanely ect that in theory would be and probably is a better plane than this. However those kind of jack planes are hard to find in good condition for what I wanted to spend. I would have been spending as much or more tuning a plane off ebay than this plane not too mention its a number 5, most plane you find on craiglist/ebay are number 4. Just finished using on some hardwood bar stool seats. Worked very well but not out of the box without some adjusting and sharpening.

It did the job , well balanced easy to adjust and seems well made

Photos taken straight out of the box. Rust galore, every part has rusted badly, and the screw is corroded. However the base and sides are flat, so if you get a rust free plane.......you might have a decent low cost option to use provided you're willing to spend the time sharpening the extremely blunt blades.

I have put a secondary bevel on the blade and it works well on pine. Nice thin shavings. Performed well at the price point.