#62 Low Angle Jack Plane

I am a hand plane addict and miss the OLD Stanley tools. This plane is an excellent compromise between the New Stanley planes (yuck) and the high end Veritas / Lie-Nelson. The plane I received came perfectly straight, square, and true. A single pass of the plane over some 600grit sandpaper attatched to my table saw for flatness resulted in 100% flat sole check. I did not have to do any setup......other than sharpening the blade iron. As for the blade iron, it was reasonably flat backed (required a little attention on a Course dmt diamond stone) but other than that is fine. Blade so far has held edge well, but does not hold as well as good irons from veritable or Lie-Nelson. Overall a definate win for a Wood River!

Very happy with price and quality.....

As many know, Wood River is touted as the best plane by a couple popular youtubers *cough*Cosman*cough* for example. So I thought it would be a good value. Well, when it arrived, first think I notice "Made in China" .. Figures... Fit and finish were pretty decent. Had to tighten up the tote a bit, take out the mouth and clean (there was a lot of packing oil all over) and then a bit of touch-up (some corners were quite sharp) and gave it a pass. Wow. DULL Blade couldn't cut in a piece of PINE. So, remove blade and sharpen up, and Made a few passes. Tested on a piece of oak and the blade held its edge OK. HOWEVER... In order to adjust the depth of cut, the lever cap knob had to be slightly loose (adjust knob really hard to adjust even then, it just felt awkward) Problem with that: As I planed through that piece of oak, the blade wanted to shift sideways (laterally) as the grain changed so across a long pass, I ended up with a slightly wobbly shaving (thicker on one side than the other, then the thick side switched to the other side) Adjustment has to be made to get the thickness of shaving you want and then tighten down the lever cap knob to keep blade from wobbling side to side, since there is no lateral adjuster on these. I have set up several restored Stanley Bailey planes that all worked far better, I only got this as my first Low Angle Jack. In my comparison to others, I almost decided on Veritas, but having been a follower of Rob Cosman for a while, I figured Wood River would be just as good, and it was 20 bucks less. Well I'll tell you what, after this experience, if I ever buy a new plane (and my next buy will likely be a Veritas low angle jack to replace this) I will only ever buy a Veritas (Or possibly splurge a little and get a Bridge City, if I'm feeling particularly rich at the time, and they have one that suits what I am looking for)

Good tool to work with. Performance was good with minimal honing required out of box.

The blade quality is awful. After bringing it to razor sharp - a few wispy passes and the blade develops nicks that leave a scratched surface. I will be spending extra money to upgrade to high quality blade.

Bought this for my grandson’s birthday present, he loves it.

I have no idea how they sell these planes at all, but this one in particular is even harder to imagine. I’m a professional furniture maker so I love hand planes, and own dozens of the finest. This tool isn’t terrible, but it’s nearly the same price as the Lie Nielsen. The difference in blade quality alone should prevent anyone from buying this. The blade is cut square, but not sharp. It doesn’t hold an edge HALF as well. It’s made from inferior steel, and not tempered as well. If you just want it to sit on a shelf, great. Otherwise, buy used on the bay for $20 more, or brand new for an extra $40. The rest of the wood river line has the same disappointing flaw, although they are at least priced much lower compared to quality planes. Don’t buy what you don’t want because it costs less, you’ll end up buying twice

Excellent