Appreciation post: finally picked the hand plane over the power planer for that old door.

I had to shave down a solid mahogany door that was sticking at the bottom in my buddy's 1920s house in St. Paul. Spent like 20 minutes staring at my tools trying to decide between the noisy power planer and my old Stanley hand plane. Went with the hand plane and honestly it was way easier to control the cut, took off maybe 1/16th of an inch in like 3 passes. Has anyone else had a job where the old tool just worked better than the new one?

3 comments

3 Comments

olivia_white9310d ago

Probably would've taken me 20 minutes just to find the extension cord for the power one.

max_cooper2110d ago

My old Stanley No. 4 did the same thing on a heavy oak desk I was fitting into an alcove last winter. Power planer would have been way too aggressive and probably torn up the edge, but three passes with the hand plane gave me a perfect fit no tearout. It's wild how often the quiet, simple tool ends up being the right call for finish work like that.

gavin_kim9d ago

Man, that old mahogany sounds like a dream to work with. Nothing beats the control you get with a hand plane on a job like that, especially on an old house where nothing is square anyway. Had a similar situation with a friend's cedar door last fall, the power planer just wanted to eat the soft grain, but the hand plane gave me a glass-smooth result in no time. It's a real good feeling when you trust the quiet tool and it pays off like that.