Woodriver Plane Number 6

[Don Wallace]

I recently bought a Woodriver number 6 plane from the US and would like to share my experience. I paid US$140 plus postage at about US$60 and delivery was about 3 weeks.

Woodriver planes seem to have generated some controversy on the woodworking scene, particularly in the US as the plane is made in China but is based on the Stanley bedrock design and lots of US woodworkers compare it to Lie Neilson planes. There seems to be a bit of an argument about it being a shameless copy of the Lie Nielson!. Seems like a minor case of amnesia to me as the Lie Neilson is based on the Stanley Bed Rock design and nobody seems to be complaining about that. Personally I don't believe the Woodriver plane is a any less valid than a Lie Neilson because of that. I just wonder why anyone would compare the two considering the difference in price.

Of course I could have bought a real Stanley Bedrock on E-Bay for about the same money but it does not stack up well when you consider that the design is equivalent and there is a certain amount of risk in buying a 50 to 100 year old plane (assuming you are not a collector).

Anyway the plane arrived in a massive cardboard box with lots and lots of bubble wrap inside enclosing a very pretty wooden box which turned out to be a bit flimsy and fell apart fairly quickly. I was not very upset because I have a very small workshop and no room for fancy boxes. I did wonder though - what is the point of making a fancy box that falls apart? At this price point the key issue is the quality of the tool, not the packaging.

The plane itself was sealed in a plastic bag inside the box and when I opened it, it was covered in a light protective oil that I wiped off with a rag without any issues.

1st impressions were that the castings were of good quality and heft and the handle and tote were very nicely done. The machining of the main casting was very good. The blade was a good thickness and had a rough primary bevel which was slightly out of character with the quality of the body, handle and tote.

I gave the the body a quick check with a square and could not detect any problems and it appeared to be flat across its length when checked with a straight edge. The frog seemed to be square so the gap at the mouth was fairly even across the width.

I had a quick go at flattening the back of the blade but decided it was already flat so I re-ground the primary bevel on a diamond stone then added a secondary bevel working through various grades of water stone.

To get from opening the box to putting the plane to work took 20 minutes. Mind you, I will probably go back to checking the castings an frog alignment at a later date for fine tuning.

I tried the plane on a pine panel as that was on the bench at the time. After a bit of adjustement I got full width see-through shavings but detected some scratching from the front of the body. I dressed it with a stone in about 20 seconds and that cured the problem.

Snce then I've tried it on Tassy Oak and got great results.

My only complaint about the plane is the size of the handle. It seems to be too small which is odd because I don't have large hands. I confirmed this at the weekend when chatting to a big chap in Carba tec who had bought one of the planes and changed the handle for this reason but seemed to be happy otherwise.

Conclusion - Brilliant, now amateur woodworkers can buy a decent quality plane without buying an antique or breaking the bank!

My advice to Woodriver - Great product but forget the fancy boxes put the money into a decent sized handle.

I just ordered the 5, 4 and the block plane from Woodriver and look forward to thier arrival.

[Wongdai]

Great review. Thanks for taking the time to write that up.

[kevjed]

Thanks for the feed back on the #6. Any pics?
I've got the #4 and #5 and i think they are great. Will get the #6 and #3 in due course.
All the best
Kevin