Buck Hand Planes?

PC-Urban-Sawyer · February 28, 2010, 01:42:34 AM

Thinking about buying a hand plane or two. Wish I could spend lots of money and get one of the more expensive brands such as Lie Nielson or even just one of the "new" Stanley Sweethearts. But right now the budget is tite so I'm looking at the planes they carry at Home Depot. The brand name is Buck and they have several that are inexpensive.

Have any of you owned or used these planes and if so, what do you think of them?

Thanks in advance

Herb

Phorester · February 28, 2010, 07:59:02 AM

I don't know what they're selling at Home Depot, but over 100 years ago there was a company called Buck Brothers that made chisels and planes, maybe other hand tools. I don't know if it's the same company that makes the ones you're seeing or not. I have a chisel made by them. Very good quality steel and wooden handle. Of course about everything was made better back then.

Their logo was Buck Brothers Cast Steel, and included a full profile deer head down to its shoulders complete with eye, ear, and antlers.

PC-Urban-Sawyer · February 28, 2010, 10:13:01 AM

Sounds like the same brand name. But that don't mean nearly as much now days the way companies are bought and sold by large holding companies...

I've found several posts on various forums that were written by customers who bought them and were not happy because the plane took a good deal of work to "tune" it so it was decently useable...

HOOF-ER · February 28, 2010, 11:17:16 AM

Ditto , From what I have heard they can be a good plane if you tweak them. You missed your chance there was one on E-bay a couple of days ago. The gentleman selling it claimed that it was reworked to precision. It went for $15. I was thinking about biding...didn't.

LeeB · February 28, 2010, 03:52:43 PM

I bought a Buck years ago and wasn't real happy with it. There are worse ones out there though. For the same money you can buy an old Stanley and it won't take any more fetting to get it right than the the Buck will. When you have it right you will have a good plane as compared to a mediocre plane. There are several online outlets for these older planes. Auctions and yard sales are also a good place to look, along with pawn shops and the like.

Don_Papenburg · February 28, 2010, 10:30:59 PM

In Finewoodworking there was an about the new SW plane . Bottom line The machine work leaves a lot to be desired . You will have to flatten the bottom . It was bad . Stanley gave them the two planes to do a story on them . Imagine what the one you buy at the store would be like??????????????

I say if you do not want to look for older planes at auctions ,garage sales ,etc buy the buck and do the work it needs.I got a Great Neck plane on an auction by mistake one time . I set it aside to never be used . well one day I needed a plane and all of my good ones were at anouther place . So I did a little work Mostly just sharpening the blade . The sole was fairly flat . Now I keep that Great Neck handy all the time .

Dodgy Loner · March 03, 2010, 11:44:39 AM

They will make you never want to use a handplane again. Get a used Stanley off eBay instead. Or you can buy one from our own Jim Rogers - he is contantly selling hand tools. I bought an old Stanley #6 from him last year and it was reasonably priced, in good working order right out of the box. You can find a list of his tools here: https://forestryforum.com/board/index.php/topic,42552.0.html

OneWithWood · March 03, 2010, 02:37:23 PM

I just finished milling some nice hard maple for a workbench I will be building for myself (me and I are really jealous). It goes in the kiln tonight.
So while I happened to be in Indianapolis last Friday I dropped in at the Woodcraft store to check out a vise and a smoother plane. I looked at the Woodcraft brand of both and just was not impressed.

Woodcraft has recently parted ways with Veritas and Lie-Nielson.

Just as I was about to leave empty handed I spied a Veritas vice new in-the-box-still-sealed. It is a 12-5g or a 5-12g or something like that- it has twin handles joined by a chain drive. I latched on to it and so feeling better went back over to talk myself into something other than a Woodcraft plane. I looked at some 6 and 7s but nothing was calling out to me.

Then I saw it. Sitting at the bottom of the case. All by itself. Lonely.
I could feel the tugging as I tried to avert my eyes and think logically.

I was weak. So very weak. How could I ever explain this to my wife? :-\

Then it hit me. I was about to achieve a major milestone for the men in my family. Yep, in two days I was going to have outlived my grandpa and my uncle in years. It was settled.

So singing 'Happy Birthday to Me' I gently retrieved the Lie-Nielson 8, paid my respects to the cashier and floated out of the store. smiley_balloon_01