Spear & Jackson CJP5 Carpenters No.5 Jack Plane

well crafted and very solid constructionI had limited budget and need a versatile plain that I could do small to large planing and this fit the bill. I use it to ensure I have a straight edge on the guitar fret boards before I glue them board to the neck.You feel the weight and solid construction when using the tool which is important for me and I can sharpen the blade with the sharpener I got the my chisel set.

These are not out of the box ready. Do not buy unless you are ready to put in the work. I had to return the first one in ordered because the sole was too far twisted it was never going to be able to get flat. You will definitely need to hone the blade, tighten some bolts, and flatten the sole and sides. This is a time consuming process, but its part of why other companies charge 10 times as much. The handles are a nice touch.

This is tough to review because the quality gap is quite massive between this and even a Stanley plane and I’m sure S&J acknowledges as much. BUT…. If you know what you’re doing with a hand plane and know how to set them up, most of this plane’s shortcomings can be fixed with an hour or so of fine tuning. I had to flatten the sole and work out a couple of knicks on the toe that were gouging my stock on every pass. I also had to properly sharpen the blade which is not the greatest quality, but I’ve done that and now have a more than functional smoothing plane that is tuned and sharp enough to handle cocobolo end grain smoothing! And it’s not even a bevel up plane! Very happy with my purchase. Wish Spear and Jackson would attempt a shooting plane!

The plane is built solidly, but the sole on all of the Spear & Jackson planes I have bought have been nowhere near flat. When viewed from upside down, the heel and toe of the plane is significantly higher than the rest of the sole. The sides of the sole have also been higher than the center of the sole near the mouth. The machining on the frogs on the planes I bought was really rough and required some filing and sanding. The blade edges have not been square to the sides on any of the three Spear & Jacson planes I have. The primary bevel edges on the plane are very concave and not a true 25 degrees and were not cut straight on any of my planes, both of the edges protrude from the mouth farther than the center of the blade and the blade was not flat on any of the planes I bought. I had to sand the chip breaker on my number 4 and number 5 planes so they would rest flat on the blade and reduce clogging. The blades need sharpening quite often as well. The depth adjustment on my number 4 and 5 planes is terrible, the yoke is too small for the depth adjustment knob so I have to make three to four full turns to engage the blade. I've actually had to buy a yoke for my number four since the one I got was junk, my number 5 is a little better. To make matters worse it can slip out of adjustment on all three of my Spear & Jackson planes once in a while, which starts the headache all over again. On the more positive side, once I did all of that work, I have been able to take consistent shavings as thin as 0.005 inch, but that is only with a very sharp blade. If you don't mind putting in the work, and figuring out how to troubleshoot problems, it can be a great plane. I really wish they would spend a little more time machining the parts smoother and fitting the parts to each other more carefully. They really need to work on their blades and/or use higher quality steel and find a better way to cut the primary bevel.

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!

This plane is good value for the money. Real wood handles. Most important to know is that the plane won’t work as expected until it is correctly set up and the cutting iron sharpened. But once done you will have a plane with a big flat base and enough heft that it will swoosh through wood stock and produce curly ribbons of wood shavings. Very satisfying.

Not quite ready to use right out of the box , will need knife sharpened and a full adjusting / tune up & thorough cleaning / degreasing