Alternative to expensive planes; English mortice chisel versus sash mortise chisel.

Getting a decent Stanley no 5 or a well made contemporary iron jack plane can be an complex or expensive process (sometimes both). If you get a chance, try out an old wood plane though. They work well also. The biggest difference is that you can bend and change the shape of a wooden plane as you use it. You can do that with an iron plane also, but predictably it's much more pronounced with a wooden plane. You can change the depth of shaving by putting a little more weight near the front with your left hand.

This here J Pearce plane has got a Chapin Stephens two piece iron, admittedly not high tech by the 1920s or so when this was made but still works as well as any plane iron ever made. They made a ton of these. Stanley had to buy them out just to stop making them. I got this one for seven dollars on ebay, about two or three times what it originally sold for. It had a broken tote as many of these do, but titebond is stronger than wood.

Wood plane is easy to use if you got these three accessories. A 2 oz mallet for the wedge, little steel hammer for the iron, and a big mallet in case it gets jammed. This takes care of the depth and lateral adjustment.

Jointing is where a wood plane can really save you some dough, as a no seven in good fettle is pricey these days. Wood plane is lighter too, but takes an even hand to joint with as it does flex. I made the one on the left out of scrap and use it to joint glue ups. Got one of them thick hock irons in it works p good.

If you ever wondered what the difference is between a sash mortise chisel(left) and a proper English mortise chisel (right), here are two chisels that are about the same width.

One of them does an easier job chopping mortises.