Which hand plane do I actually need?

Bench planes are numbered by length, and length is what a plane is for. A long plane bridges the hollows in a board and takes the high spots off, so it makes things straight. A short plane follows the surface it is on, so it takes shavings off but does not flatten. Nothing about that changes with brand or price.

Step by step

1. Start with the block plane if you own nothing.Around 150mm long, held in one hand, blade bevel up at a low angle with no cap iron. It excels at end grain, at trimming small work, at easing an edge or a door, and at chamfering. It is the plane most likely to be used and the one most people should buy first.
2. Understand the No. 4 smoothing plane.Around 250mm, the classic bench plane. Its job is the final surface — taking fine shavings off a board that is already flat to leave a surface better than sandpaper produces. It is not a flattening tool; it follows whatever it is on.
3. Understand the No. 5 jack plane.Around 350mm, the general-purpose plane. Long enough to start straightening an edge, short enough to be handled easily. If you want one bench plane rather than one plane of any kind, this is it — set coarse it hogs material off, set fine it smooths.
4. Understand the No. 7 jointer.Around 550mm. Its length spans hollows so it removes only the high spots, which is how a genuinely straight edge is produced for a glued joint. A specialist tool, and worth it only if you joint boards.
5. Know the low-angle variants.Bevel-up planes hold the blade bevel upwards on a low bed. Changing the blade's sharpening angle changes the plane's effective cutting angle, so one plane can be set up for end grain or for difficult grain. Simpler to set up than a bevel-down plane and increasingly the modern choice.
6. Consider what the job actually is.Easing a sticking door: block plane. Cleaning up a sawn edge before gluing: jack or jointer. Fitting a drawer: block plane. Taking the fuzz off a machine-planed board: smoothing plane. Reducing the thickness of a board by hand: a scrub or a jack set coarse, and a lot of time.
7. Judge a plane by three things, not by price.Is the sole flat? Is the blade thick enough not to chatter, and can it take an edge? Are the adjusters usable and free of slop? A cheap plane fails on all three; a good second-hand plane fails on none of them and costs less than a poor new one.
8. Budget for sharpening, not just for the plane.A plane is a blade in a holder. An expensive plane with a blunt blade is worse than a cheap one that is sharp. If you buy a plane, buy a way to sharpen it in the same purchase.

Tips

• The blade matters more than the body. A good aftermarket blade in an average plane outperforms an average blade in an expensive one.
• A plane that has never been sharpened since it left the factory is not a plane that does not work — factory grinding is a starting point, not an edge.
• Wooden-bodied planes are lovely and slide beautifully but need more knowledge to set up. Start with metal.
• For occasional home use, the honest ranking is: a sharp block plane, then a way to sharpen it, then everything else.

Alternatives

• Second-hand Stanley or Record bench plane: Pre-1970s British and American bench planes are common, cheap and generally better made than budget new ones. Expect to flatten the sole, clean the frog and fit a new blade — an afternoon that produces a plane for life.
• Surform or rasp plane: Not a plane in any real sense — it grates rather than cuts. Useful for fast rough shaping of softwood and for jobs where finish does not matter, and it needs no sharpening. It will not produce a finished surface.
• Electric planer: Fast for removing a lot of material from a door edge or a joist, and much harder to control than it looks. It leaves scalloped ridges that then need sanding, and it snipes at the ends of a cut.
• Belt sander: For taking material off in bulk where the surface will be painted. Faster than a plane, far messier, and prone to leaving hollows.

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