Hand Planes Reviews

I started with this plane, and was so impressed, I ordered two others. I use them for my boatbuilding hobby, and couldn't be happier. I find myself returning to this plane more and more, while my metal Stanley is collecting dust. Its a beauty, and works like nothing I've ever had. I appreciate the fact that these are made in the USA, by an American. Steve is a class act, easy to reach, and clearly knows his craft. Spring for the money. You won't be dissapointed.

I have a Knight 45 degree coffin smoother, and it not only makes wonderfully thin, fluffy curls of wood, it is a beautiful piece of work! I recommend it highly.

I am truly amazed every time I pick up this tool. It has produced nothing but feathery shavings since I first used it. It is easier to adjust than my Bailey style iron planes and I get better results. What more can I ask for?

Well, it feels like an extension of my hands. It is that comfortable to use. Did I mention that it looks great? That's not really important in my shop but there it is nonetheless. I am slowly changing all of my planes to Knight Toolworks.

They are less expensive than any other top-end plane on the market. You will get better results. Take a few minutes to learn to adjust the iron (I DO mean a few minutes) and you will be hooked.

Don't let it's small size (and price) fool ya. This is a serious little tool. Perfect size for those small trim pieces I sometimes use on my boxes. It does a superior job of trimming end grain on lids to get that perfect fit, and is more accurate than sanding sponges for breaking those sharp edges on the box. It works equally well on softwoods and hardwoods, even those super hard exotics. It takes a very good edge and keeps it quite awhile. I have made a small "shooting" jig for it, so I can shave off that silly little mm on mitered trim for a perfect fit, it really excells at this job. Though quite small it is easy to hold and control. I haven't had any problems with the lock down mech. or movement of the blade once adjusted.
All things considered I am very pleased with this little guy and would recommend it to everyone.

I am in the remodeling business and have recently been using this little plane on a cedar siding job. I am often up on a ladder and needed something small that would fit in my tool belt or pocket and this one does the trick.

Size - While you obviously wouldn't use this for all your planeing needs, for the small detailed work, this is perfect.

Blade - I have been using this extensively on this job and the blade has managed to stay nice and sharp. The blade was coming loose a little so I now just tighten it down with a pair of pliers and so far the looseness has ended.

If you need a small planer, I would recommend this one. The Stanley name tends to be a quality hand tool.

This little plane is not just a toy! It is a great tool for anybody doing trim work. Having this tool in your belt beats running back to the chop saw to take off a sliver of material. It cuts square and clean, unlike sandpaper, and can even plane end grain smooth. You can also back-cut crown molding and hand-cut angles to fit.

This is a well-designed and well-made block plane. It fits my hand nicely and all the adjustment screws and levers operate smoothly. Like with any new plane, you should find hone the plane iron before you use it.

This is a fabulous little handplane. The adjustment for depth of cut is very fine, making small adjustments very easy. The adjustable mouth eliminates the need for a chip breaker and allows for fine, light shavings, or heavier duty ones if required. The plane is a snap to set up and use. If you know how to sharpen the iron well, this plane will do just about anything with ease.

This is a great plane for wicked grain, grain reversals and knots. Its high angle reduces tear out and the small size allows it to turn on a dime. In this application, following rapidly reversing grain, it does what no larger plane can do so easily.

Another review on scrapers...These are indispensable if you do a lot of work with hard, wild grained woods as I do. Nothing will put a final finish on wildly figured maple or walnut like a good scraper. These scrapers are very solid and inexpensive...I got a couple of them....keep one with an aggressive hook and one with a fine hook for those final passes. Makes the wood shine like nothing else will. Learning to use scrapers is easy and sharpening them is a snap. Lots of good books out there covering both aspects. If you are tired of sanding till your hand falls off, trying to achieve that perfect finish on your expensive wood, give these scrapers a try. Not a lot of money and you will be thrilled with the results. Highly recommend.

One of four Knight Toolworks planes I own. I had just received the plane and tried it out on a particularly gnarly piece of cherry that I had previously gotten pretty nasty tearout with. No tearout, smooth as silk finish. And, this with the plane straight out of the box, without any adjustments to the plane or sharpening of the blade. Highly recommended.

(Home improvement enthusiast? Maybe. Amazon's words, not mine.)

First- my razee jointer is made from padouk (sp?) instead of ipe- but the plane is the same as it seems Steve can make it from just about any wood.

I own a couple of old Stanley smoothers, a Union jack and a modern (Veritas) block plane. I've got them all into wonderful working condition, but nothing is more of a joy to use than my Knight jointer. Soon I will have at least a smoother and rabbet plane from Knight toolworks as well.

At first, the woodie took awhile to get used to adjusting- now I favor the simple and intuitive adjustment process. Great close mouth (adjustable), awesome plane iron (1/4" thick), beautiful finsh. Just finished planing out an old workbench top that I acquired- went from a total beater to absolutely beatiful in an hour's work with the Knight jointer.

Great plane, nice maker, excellent investment! Can't go wrong with this or any other of his planes- I won't ever buy another brand. Thanks Steve Knight.

There's not much more I could ask of a plane: the thinnest shavings with the least effort. comfortable in the hand, beautiful to look at, handles difficult grain with ease.

I was a bit concerned about adjusting a wooden plane, having only used mechanically adjustable planes in the past. Tapping the iron with a little hammer didn't seem like a very precise way to do an adjustment but it works. And after a little practice it turns out to be easy and quite fast. I had the advantage of meeting Mr. Knight and having him demonstrate the process in person, but it's not as hard as I thought.

I wound up liking this Knight smoother so much that I now have two of his other planes. I have a couple of high-end planes from other makers that are great too, but the others were way more expensive.

It took a while to build each plane, but it was worth the wait.

Steve Knight's planes are among the best values going, both for experienced users and galoots-in-training. I have several of his planes, including smoothers, jack, scrub and jointer. The 1/4" thick iron makes for no chatter and an easier sharpening experience. Plus he stands behind the product, and provides technical advice if you need it to get going or understand any nuances of working with wooden planes. The planes show up well-tuned, with fluffy shavings to show they've been tested.

Although I do this as a hobby, I used to work in a cabinet shop where we had an industrial, wide belt sander - kind of the rich man's version of this tool. I became a believer in the concept after seeing it handle cabinet doors. For that very purpose I purchased one of these a short time ago. The amount of time this saved sanding the 30+ doors I did on my first job was nothing short of amazing. Not to mention the quality was significantly better than sanding by hand. It did require some hand sanding on the rails that were sanded cross-grain - but that could have possibly been eliminated with a more gradual change in sanding grits.

Setting the machine up was pretty straight forward and the manual was well written.

If you're not doing a ton of sanding you could easily get by with the single drum model as changing the sandpaper is quick and simple.

Speaking of sandpaper, that is probably my biggest complaint - it ain't cheap. Especially when you need several different grits.