Spear & Jackson CSP3 No. 3 Carpenters Smoothing Plane

For the price its fantastic I paid $21.76 including tax and shipping! I have been experimenting with these modern hand planes from India under various names Grizzly, Draper and Spear & Jackson.I think there is a larger degree of variability with many of these planes from India, some are better machined and made and require a little less work. This plane by S & J was one such plane? It required the least amount of work out the 3 recent planes I have gotten. They all require flattening the sole and this was no exception just that it was closer to flat to start with. The blade and chipbreaker weren't bad either and was able to flatten and sharpen them in short order. I did not check the side squareness to sole since I had not planned on using it on a shooting board. The handles were nicely finished a bit more like the handles from Grizzly they were nicely shaped and finished with only like light oil or wax finish which is the way I prefer them, you can actually feel the wood this way. I had to fuss with the plane a little to get the blade and mouth adjusted properly but then it would take nice shavings, I may convert the plane into a scrub plane with a convex sharpening of blade? Overall very worthwhile plane! and I might look and see about ordering other sizes of S&J?

Overall, this might be good to learn to fettle a plane or if you already know how. A true beginner might be very frustrated with this tool. For the price, it is a good value as long as you know what you are getting into. I have to commend S&J for making a number 3 at this price, and compared to any other source of number 3 planes, this is a tremendous deal. After many months, still there it is at a great price, it is a great thing that S&J even offer it. But there were some quality control issues that could trip up a beginner.The casting was dead flat on the sole and perfectly square on both sides. This was excellent. It is a thick casting that feels very solid.The chip breaker is on the cheap side, just a slab of metal, but not too bad and doesn't need to be fancy to work. The blade and chipbreaker were ground well enough and didn't require much to make perfectly flat. The chipbreaker did have a rounded edge I didn't like, so I spent 30 min turning that into a bevel-type edge and ensuring it was flat against the blade. After using, I think the iron quality is basically fine, no obvious issues there.The wheel mechanism is OK, better than some other cheapo models. It is smooth, but it does have some slop. The pressed metal piece that links with the blade itself to advance it was too loose against its mounting pin. So I hammered a nail to remove that cross pin from the frog, and then hammered the eyelet openings the pin runs through to smush them a bit and make the fit tighter. No more slop there.The frog is the big problem. Mine had a casting that wasn't properly milled, as the factory left a wad of iron next to the screw hole that interfered with the screw height. It raised the screw head against the blade until it made the blade ride above the frog bed! (My photo shows the location...like a blob of iron that was not milled out.) I used a drill and a thin HSS chisel to gouge that blob of iron out so that the blade would seat properly. A normal person would send it back rather than do this.There were also some small chips on the edges of the frog bed casting, but nothing that affects performance.The mouth had some extra iron near a corner that needed very careful filing out for the blade to seat properly on the mouth. The mouth is pretty open for a smoother, so I bought a thicker iron that's in the mail now.I used a hand file to go over the frog bed and other parts that needed to be flat. Overall except for the big stupid errors, the castings of the frog and body are quite good, if that makes sense...and especially compared to other planes in its class. It's as if nobody checked this one, quite strange.The handle will need some TLC to get it more comfortable. It's a nice wood and not sloppy at all but truly needs reshaping with files because some edges bit into the palm too much.After spending an afternoon getting everything as tuned as I could, I got decent 2-2.5 thou shavings and pretty good performance. I still think there's more fine tuning possible based on the results I'm getting so far. It doesn't feel as smooth as an old stanley 4, but I hope I can improve that.Overall, I'm happy to have a no 3 size for the price, and I'm treating it like a thrift store find, so I'm happy to put in work as its own project. In truth, nobody needs a number 3, so most people will regard this as a side project. For that, it is rewarding.I do wish the S&J markings were more than a light little etch on the side. But that's just me. A stamp on the iron would be a nice touch, for instance. A proper chipbreaker would also be fitting.Edit: Months later it is working flawless, the blade has held up well, I get full width shavings and it is really nice to use. The number 3 size is thinner and lighter than most similar smoothers, so I like to have it nearby. Also I see I am listed as Vine Voice. I just joined this week and bought this plane months ago with my own money. Just FYI.

Spear & Jackson make a great copy of the Stanley/Record planes with slightly heavier castings at a ridiculous low price. Fit and finish fair, plenty good enough to get the job done. Find the irons can be hit or miss, but it won't kill you to pick up few spare blades to add to your arsenal.

I must have gotten a good one. Mine didn't take much work to set up. This is my first hand plane. I have used them from time to time but never owned one. I got this to use as a scrub plane. Once I got it I took it apart to check and clean up the casting and milling and such. Everything is fine. Some very minor touch ups. The sole came fairly flat and it took no time to straiten that out. Lapped it on 80-150-220 grit sand paper. The handle was a little crudely carved but again that was easily fixed with some sandpaper.I have an old really thick cutting broad made from an bowling alley lane. Over the years the center dished. I used this plane as a scrub plane, what would have take hours with sander only took a few minutes. I probably removed about an 1/8 to level everything out. I've decided to get another iron to set up normally for smoothing. So that this can do double duty as a finishing and scrub plane. I'm very happy. I do wish the rear handle was a bit chunkier to fit my hand a little better. But all in all that is not a big deal.

Like many others, I spent a lot of time and effort into flattening and adjusting all aspects of this plane, so that's expected. My main issues are things that you can't easily fix or requires more work than the plane is worth.The Y-adjuster, or yoke, is just to pieces of stamped sheet metal pieces riveted together. Half of the yoke on mine was very poorly stamped, as if the worker didn't align it correctly on the die. It still kind of works but there's so much slop to go from forward to reverse. I ended up replacing it with a solid adjuster. That alone can be worth almost a third of the cost of this plane.Every single thread on this plane is loose. There's so much backlash and slop. Some threads needed to be chased because they're damaged.After a lot of effort, I can take very fine shavings now. Compared to other cheap planes in the same price range, this plane is still better than most. Overall I knew what I was getting and I think it's worth the price.

Produto bem acabado, com quase nenhum ajuste a ser feito antes do primeiro uso

Today I received this Spear & Jackson No 4 Hand Plane from Amazon. I have zero experience with Hand Planes and wanted something that would force me to learn the mechanics of setting up a plane so I can later appreciate a Veritas.After watching several You tube videos, I spent 2 1/2 hours setting this thing up. I flattened the sole with 80g & 120g sand paper. I used a black marker to draw lines on the sole a few different times and the flattening probably took 1 1/2 hours. Sharpened the blade with my Veritas sharpening jig and somewhat got the Plane set up enough to work. I did not wax the sole, that will happen tomorrow. This was a lot of fun. Unfortunately with my inexperience I cannot comment on the quality or function.The build quality is "rough", but it is more than fine with me for the time being.I set the chip breaker roughly 1/16th from the blade tip.The Iron needs to be adjusted based on my shavings. The Depth adjustment Wheel has a spot where it will turn almost a full turn before it will adjust the blade. there is no play in the wheel, but just a spot with little tension - I'm not sure if this is because of my poor set up or because the Plane was $43.I think I had the blade depth a touch to deep and the blade needs to be sharpened properly as I quickly sharped it with 400g sand paper and a 1000g wet stone. The shavings have ripples and I am assuming this has to do with the sole not being waxed and the blade not being sharp enough......I am very happy considering it works this well for $43!Overall the Plane is solid. The parts seem to fit properly (machined well enough to work well)There were no defects from what I can see

Es perfecta para el cepillo #4 que es lo que dice la descripción Es perfecto

Buena herramienta y economica

Product was exactly what i wanted . Had 4 doors to alter . This plane did the job perfectly. The plane looks good, has a solid feel to it and is easy to use