Spear & Jackson CJP5 Carpenters No.5 Jack Plane

Nice solid plane. Blade comes sharp and ready to work. Setup isn’t difficult although I did take some time to double check the alignment. Overall the alignment is easy to adjust for nice accurate use. The fit and finish is what put it over the top to 5 stars. Don’t let the price scare you! They don’t skimp.

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.

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.

Can’t beat the price and the quality is higher than expected, anyone complaining doesn’t know how to use/set/take care of a plane. Expect necessary sharpening, but was still pretty sharp out of the box

According to Rex Krueger, the No. 5 Jack Plane is the most common bench plane ever made. He says not to buy these cheap new modern planes. Instead, just get a vintage plane from a flea market (or similar) and restore it. It will be about the same amount of work as setting up a new plane, but you'll spend around $5 (instead of $30 - $50) and you'll get a plane that is the same (or better!) quality as one of those fancy new luxury planes that cost literally 20 times as much. Well, Rex is right about one thing. It will take as much (or more!) time and effort to set up one of these Spear & Jackson planes as it does to restore a vintage plane that's been sitting out in someone's barn for 120 years. I've done both! After prowling flea markets for 5+ years on the lookout for a jack plane without any luck, I finally got tired of waiting and just ordered one of these Spear & Jackson ones. This is a budget plane that's meant, from a distance, to look like a luxury plane (think Lie-Nielson or Woodriver). It has shiny brass knurled nobs, polished wood furniture, and a fancy little logo on the side. Alas, up close, it's just a not-very-good budget plane. The knurled brass isn't very detailed compared to the real thing. The tote on mine has a big gash in it where someone slipped up. These are just cosmetic blemishes, though. More importantly, if you sight down the length of the tool from toe to heel, it looks like this: /_/ Alas, you will not be doing any shooting with this plane. The frog needed quite a bit of work to true it up and to remove the japanning that had bled around to the mating surfaces (see photos). The sole was very out of flat. I flattened it on a big surface plate with some rock-tumbling grit (see photos). This is something you have to do to restore vintage planes, too. The cap iron (also known as the "chipbreaker") is very odd with a heavy curve. (See photos for a comparison with a normal Stanley one.) I just replaced it with an old Stanley one from my No. 4 1/2. (That plane has a Hock cutter and cap iron in it, so it doesn't mind!) The cutting iron itself is both the best and worst part of this plane. Mine was ground skew by at least 3mm and had a terrible off-center camber. I had to regrind it more or less from scratch. This is labor intensive, and hard to do if you don't have some powered equipment like a Tormek, or a least a bench sander. That said, though, the iron itself is great! It's a little bit thicker than a Stanley iron, although not quite as thick as a Hock iron, and it appears to be made of some kind of ultra tough modern steel. It took forever to turn a burr on my oilstones. Once I finally got it sharp it whirrs through the wood like nothing and leaves a surface so glassy it's almost reflective! I took a shaving *against the grain* that's as good as anything I've ever gotten. So, at the end of the day, this turns out to be a serviceable but not great tool. You really are better off just buying a vintage plane if you can find one. The surprisingly happy ending is that you might want to think about buying Spear & Jackson replacement irons to go in your vintage planes, at least, if you're able to regrind them. They only cost like 15 bucks (compared to 60 or so for a Hock iron!

Although not top of the line product I found this planer very good. Like all planes it required an initial tuning. After the tune up I have had no problems. I get very thin straps out of this. Measuring .004 inch. This is a good plane for the money.

Buen producto, trabaja bien y se ve de buena calidad, con el uso y el tiempo sabre mas extactamente como fue el producto

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.

Ce beau de très bonne qualité, il fait son poids les robuste, vous avez un vrai outil dans les mains efficace

Good