Spear & Jackson CJP5 Carpenters No.5 Jack Plane

Very good plane for the price. The blade does need sharpening just like what was given in the instructions. After going thru 1000 to 5000 wet sone the blade was sharp enough to slice paper. Pleased with the plane and its performance.

This S&J #5 jack plane would have earned 5 stars but for one simple flaw. On the version I purchased, the adjuster yoke (which advances/retracts the iron when you spin the adjustment wheel) is made of stamped steel rather than cast iron or bronze. It's very thin so there's a lot of movement (slop) before it actually advances or retracts the iron. I have to advance the wheel almost 4 turns before the iron moves. This plane is a beautiful one in all other aspects: the sole was almost dead flat, taking about 3-4 minutes to flatten. The chip breaker likewise took about 5 minutes to get the bevel flat against the iron. The iron itself really needed only a bit of honing to make it serviceable, but I went ahead and polished the back and the primary bevel as well before honing a secondary bevel. Another slight drawback was that all machines surfaces were coated with a film which required acetone to remove. I would have preferred a simple coating of oil instead. But otherwise, about 45-60 minutes of work to get this $35 plane performing like a $150-200 mid-level model. Impressive!

Not only did I read reviews prior to purchasing, I did general research on hand planers as I have never used one. The instructions said that this unit wasn’t “ready to go” and needed sharpening prior to use. I used it regardless and had absolutely no issues at all. Very simple and easy to use. I planed both sides of the table top I am currently working on and it came out great. I had very low expectations considering “top brand” hand planers are often over $200. It may be because of how new I am to woodworking, or my ignorance of how much better a $200 hand planer performs, but I am impressed with how great this experience has been so far with this product. I definitely recommend it.

I can’t believe how flat the sole was right out of the box. I’m just starting wood working and have bought 4 planes recently. This one tuned up quicker and any of the others. The iron took sometime to sharpen so it is hard and should hold an edge.

Old school. Super well built. Sharp. Adjustments are perfect. Wood handles are beautiful. Metal is heavy duty cast. Like all planes it takes a few seconds to dial the adjustments in. Some folks don’t know how that works, so look it up! Not hard, not long! Super happy.

These are not out of the box ready. Do not buy unless you are ready to put in the work. I had to return the first one in ordered because the sole was too far twisted it was never going to be able to get flat. You will definitely need to hone the blade, tighten some bolts, and flatten the sole and sides. This is a time consuming process, but its part of why other companies charge 10 times as much. The handles are a nice touch.

The plane is built solidly, but the sole on all of the Spear & Jackson planes I have bought have been nowhere near flat. When viewed from upside down, the heel and toe of the plane is significantly higher than the rest of the sole. The sides of the sole have also been higher than the center of the sole near the mouth. The machining on the frogs on the planes I bought was really rough and required some filing and sanding. The blade edges have not been square to the sides on any of the three Spear & Jacson planes I have. The primary bevel edges on the plane are very concave and not a true 25 degrees and were not cut straight on any of my planes, both of the edges protrude from the mouth farther than the center of the blade and the blade was not flat on any of the planes I bought. I had to sand the chip breaker on my number 4 and number 5 planes so they would rest flat on the blade and reduce clogging. The blades need sharpening quite often as well. The depth adjustment on my number 4 and 5 planes is terrible, the yoke is too small for the depth adjustment knob so I have to make three to four full turns to engage the blade. I've actually had to buy a yoke for my number four since the one I got was junk, my number 5 is a little better. To make matters worse it can slip out of adjustment on all three of my Spear & Jackson planes once in a while, which starts the headache all over again. On the more positive side, once I did all of that work, I have been able to take consistent shavings as thin as 0.005 inch, but that is only with a very sharp blade. If you don't mind putting in the work, and figuring out how to troubleshoot problems, it can be a great plane. I really wish they would spend a little more time machining the parts smoother and fitting the parts to each other more carefully. They really need to work on their blades and/or use higher quality steel and find a better way to cut the primary bevel.

Primo prodotto penso di compomprare anche la n4

Las caras fresadas hacen que como garlopa la base sea buena, si bien el material es algo blando y se raya con facilidad, la cuchilla si es de calidad. No he podido perder todo el tiempo que me gustaria ajustandolo, pero en un ratito de pruebas: - El mecanismo de ajuste lateral se mueve solo, no aprieta lo suficiente. Hay que poner la palanca muy ajustada para que se quede quieto. - La boca es muy ancha, inmensa. Hay que adelantar la cama (frog) para intentar cerrarla un poco. - El hierrecito que se mete en el contrahierro para ajustar la profundidad es demasiado corto y en la posicion de mas arriba se sale de su agujero y deja de sujetar. - con una lima, he tenido que "afilar" el contrahierro, para que las cintas puedan salir libremente. Despues de estos ajustes, funciona perfecto. TARDO 3 MESES EN LLEGAR

Excellent build quality, as one would expect from S & J.

Good

The tool has to be put to the test on my next woodworking project. Very pleased with the look of the tool.