# Plow vs. Combination planes



## amckenzie4 (Apr 29, 2010)

OK. So it turns out I overpaid my taxes a bit this year, and I'm looking at plow planes.

I'll be honest... I love the look of the old wood ones, and I'd love to have one to work with. My concern is basically that almost none of them come with full sets of irons, and the few that do are running (that I've seen) above $200.

At those prices, I could get a Stanley 45 (or near equivalent) with a respectable set of blades. The Veritas Small Plow Plane with all the blades is only a little more.

So my question is: how should I be thinking about this? I've read a few articles talking about how much nicer a single-purpose wooden plow plane is than the combo planes. I've also read a few articles about how much nicer the combo planes are. I'll admit I prefer the mechanical adjustment systems on my metal-bodied planes to the lack-of-adjustment systems on my one wooden plane, but I suspect that's mostly a problem of lack of experience.

Any advice or opinions are welcome. I've just started looking at all this, so I'm barely even sure what I ought to be thinking about...


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## joesbucketorust (Dec 13, 2011)

Short version: Personal preference, whatever feels good in your hand and your wallet.

Long version:
What are you going to use it for? Look at all the profiles available for the combo plane and ask yourself how many of them have you made (by plane, hand, beader, router, shaper, whatever) before. And how many times? Do you need to invest in something complete with all the cutters because you are going to be using all the cutters, or because "that's the way it came back in the day and it just can't cut a 1/4 groove if the triple beading cutter isn't sitting over there in the box as well." (Hint - one answer makes you a user, the other a [email protected]!!ector.) 

What do you prefer the feel of - wood or metal? If you like the heft of metal, then a combo with a full set of irons can let you make grooves/dadoes, rabbets, and hollows/rounds and even some basic molding profiles. Tradeoff is you have to change the blade and set it up for each new cut. It's not hard to learn but it can be finicky. 

Or you've got the woodies - you can go with a plow and a set of irons that will make all your standard grooves, or pick up the individual ones in the sizes you normally use. You can go with standard cutter, or hold out for the skewed if you do a lot of cross-grain planing. And then you can pick up a set of hollows/rounds for concave/convex curves or pick them out a pair at a time as you get the $ and the need for a particular size. And if you make a particular type of molding repeatedly then you can find a molding plane or two with the correct profile and you're there. Setup is basic - set the depth and tighten the wedge.

You can spend just as much money on the wood as you can on the metal if you go chasing every shape/size out there. Heck, a set of hollows/rounds can put you back as much as a complete 55.


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## amckenzie4 (Apr 29, 2010)

Ok, more details:

1) At the moment, I mostly want it for cutting grooves and dados. I can see wanting some of the molding profiles in the future, but the primary use is grooves and dados. (I'm aware that cutting dados will require either a nicker or pre-cutting with a knife, but that's still less effort than cleaning up after using a power router inside!)

2) I prefer the feel and look of wood, but my favorite planes are metal. As I mentioned above, I suspect that that's largely a lack of practice adjusting the blade in the wooden planes.

3) I don't have any particular need to have ALL the cutters, but I'd like to have more than one, and not have to hunt around for them.

#3 is really what's causing me problems at the moment. There are a few nice-looking wooden plow planes that seem to be pretty reasonably priced, but they're selling with a single cutter, and usually the seller doesn't mention what size, though they've been good about answering when I ask. Since I know I'm going to want to do grooves/dados of varying sizes, I know I'll need more cutters. A 45 or 50 with a decent set of cutters seems like it'll do everything I want for quite a while: a wooden plane with a single cutter may not even do what I want when I take it out of the box!


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## joesbucketorust (Dec 13, 2011)

Ref #3 - plough/plow cutters seem to come up as often, if not more than the stanley/record cutters. There's a complete set up on flea-bay right now for $99 and should fit most all but the oldest of the plows you're going to come across. There's a similar set for cheaper but it's auction style so will probably end up as much. You may have to tweak the wedge or work just a skosh on the sides of the channel to get them to fit just right but that's about it.
PS: Search the flea-bay for "plough irons" and "plough cutters" and "plow irons" and "plow cutters" (without the quotes) - there's a good selection right now.


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## amckenzie4 (Apr 29, 2010)

Good to know... I saw the sets, but I wasn't sure they'd actually FIT any of the planes I was looking at. Knowing they can probably be made to fit easily makes that look like a much better option.


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## JQMack (Sep 24, 2011)

I'm in the same situation, but I'm a couple of weeks further along. I don't have a lot of experience yet, but I can tell you what I did.

After looking at combo's vs. plows and all the information I could find. I bid on a Stanley 45 on ebay. Ended up getting it for under $20, and it came with one cutter. Actually it came with the one cutter that I wanted first, just a simple flat cutter that will give me a tool to learn to make rabbets and dados.

I looked at wooden planes, but just thought that the versatility of the 45 was appealing, and there are plenty of blades for sale on ebay. I figure that the 45 I have will give me something to learn with while I'm looking for other blades that interest me, and when I do get a new blade, I'm already comfortable with the use and feel of the plane. Hoping that will make using different blades easier, but we'll see.


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## Wrangler02 (Apr 15, 2011)

For what it's worth; I have a 45 and a wooden plow. I never use the plow. It is much easier to set up the 45 to use as a plow.


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## joesbucketorust (Dec 13, 2011)

Wrangler said:


> For what it's worth; I have a 45 and a wooden plow. I never use the plow. It is much easier to set up the 45 to use as a plow.


It's definitely a matter of personal choice - I've got 45/55 and a couple wooden ploughs and I find the wood ones easiest to setup. I also find it easier to adjust the fence (on the screw arm, the wedge-arm is just a PIA.) But OTOH, I like the heft of the metal ones, and yes I'll admit it - I like the bling.


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## firemedic (Dec 26, 2010)

While there's no debating that a dedicated plow will run circles around a combo set up to plow I do think you would be better served by a 55. I say 55 as opposed to a 45 as it has a broader range of iron profiles and handles the wider irons better. Granted this is hearsay as I don't own a 55 but that's been the consistent story I've seen. I do love my 45 even though it's an old more ornery version that the newer one, dead give away is older ones don't have the rosewood fence.

What ever you decide, it's not a marriage you could always sell and buy something else! 

Also, if you decide to go the plow route, I have a couple nice ones. Though it would pain me, I might be willing to part with one for a song and dance if it works for ya.

~tom "Ignorance is not a lack of intelligence - it's a lack of know-how"


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## amckenzie4 (Apr 29, 2010)

There's a plow up on ebay now that was made in my town -- I may have to pick it up, and hope I can find more blades for it later.

On the other hand, I just blew basically all of my available cash buying new camera gear (Canon 60d + photo printer), so I may have to wait and see how high the bidding goes....


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## joesbucketorust (Dec 13, 2011)

firemedic said:


> ... I do think you would be better served by a 55. I say 55 as opposed to a 45 as it has a broader range of iron profiles and handles the wider irons better...


The 55 has two fences - one on each side so if you're working an edge you can snug them both up and get very stable. It's also got more adjusting screws on the center part so it is easier to adjust and to support the wider cutters. But that center part also has some funkiness in that the front part of the skate is adjustable so you can really fine tune it (theoretically), or if you're like me you can really get it so far out of whack as to make it near impossible to use. I love it for its gizmosity - the Stanley engineers threw in every little trick they could think of - but the 45 is easier to set up. I can take a couple pics and photoshop some arrows and circles and such for comparison, if anyone is interested, but it would be a few days til I get to it.


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