I've been wanting a plough plane for a while. Drooled over the Veritas at Charlotte, even thought about building my own. Highland Woodworking is running the Anant A52 or $99.99, what the heck, I ordered it.
Got it yesterday and played with it last night. It came with a set of 9 irons from 1/8" to 5/8" graduated in 1/16's in a neat little nylon case. Added a piece of hard wood to the fence, honed the 1/4" iron (all the irons will need to be sharpened before using), grabbed a scrap piece of oak and gave it a try.
After a little adjusting I was making shavings. A little bit of tear out, but this ain't bad. Had a little bit of trouble keeping it tracking straight and noticed I had not installed the the knicker blade, didn't think I needed it. The knicker blade had been ground on both sides at the factory. This causes it to not line up with the right edge of the iron. Reground the knicker blade with the bevel on one side, like a marking knife. Installed it so the flat edge of knicker was flush with the edge of the iron and the point about 1/64" lower than the iron.
This solved my tracking problem and even produced a clean cut in cross grain while cutting a rabbet.
All in all, for a penny shy of $100 for a special purpose plane, I'm happy.
Rick Doby
Got it yesterday and played with it last night. It came with a set of 9 irons from 1/8" to 5/8" graduated in 1/16's in a neat little nylon case. Added a piece of hard wood to the fence, honed the 1/4" iron (all the irons will need to be sharpened before using), grabbed a scrap piece of oak and gave it a try.
After a little adjusting I was making shavings. A little bit of tear out, but this ain't bad. Had a little bit of trouble keeping it tracking straight and noticed I had not installed the the knicker blade, didn't think I needed it. The knicker blade had been ground on both sides at the factory. This causes it to not line up with the right edge of the iron. Reground the knicker blade with the bevel on one side, like a marking knife. Installed it so the flat edge of knicker was flush with the edge of the iron and the point about 1/64" lower than the iron.
This solved my tracking problem and even produced a clean cut in cross grain while cutting a rabbet.
All in all, for a penny shy of $100 for a special purpose plane, I'm happy.
Rick Doby
