Recently I pulled the trigger on the No. 4 Groz Bench Plane for my 7 year old son. I wanted to see what $15.99 buys in a foreign made hand plane these days!

The plane was on sale and still is, it was originally $29.99 and when Woodcraft dropped the price to 16 bucks, I was just way too tempted to try my fate in the world of cheaply crafted hand tools. I figured for this price, if it turned into a paper weight, it would at least look nice in my office weighing down the reams of papers I get on a daily basis chock full of useless information.

But, if the plane turned out to be something useful, well then, it's something useful!

On the Woodcraft side of things, service as always was stellar, easy access and easy to purchase on the Woodcraft site. Shipping was fast, it arrived in about 6 working days even thought they tell you 10 working days, I was pleasantly surprised.

When I got the plane, I told my son, are you ready to step up your woodworking? You see, he earns a new tool when he gains proficient skills in the use of another. A new tool does not necessarily mean a brand new tool, just new in his hands. In this case, he has gained proficiency in the use of a Gents Saw, and a Rip Saw. And he proudly asked me, "Daddy is it time to earn another tool?" That question was posed weeks ago, and I got to thinking, let's do this plane.

The plane arrived packed nicely in a heavy cardboard box, within a shipping box. I let my son open it, it was like the boy on "A Christmas Story" opening his Red Ryder BB Gun on Christmas morning, my son was excited.

Once he got the plane out of the box he quickly realized there was some gooey stuff all over it, I explained it was cousmoline to protect the metal from rust, did I spell Cosmuline right? Doubt it.

So off to the shop we went to get this sucker cleaned up and tuned. Once in the shop we took to taking the plane apart for cleaning. While taking the plane apart I quickly saw that you get what you pay for when purchasing these 16 dollar Indian planes. The castings were really rough, the action is sloppy, the sole is not flat, the lever cap does not seat well on the plane iron cap, and the plane iron cap does not seat well with the plane iron, and the leg bone does not connect well to the ankle bone and on and on. In other words, this plane is rough. I knew we had a ton of work to bring it to workable condition. The blade was completely dull, un-sharpened, and the rear handle was not seated or tightened into place, it was very hard to remove the rear handle as well.

We soaked the plane parts in a shallow pan of mineral spirits, and it cleaned off within minutes, but leaving behind a darkened stained area where the greasy protective film was the thickest.

After a thorough cleaning, we took to business. I didn't want my son to loose interest so in order to retain his 4 minute attention span, we started in immediately on sharpening and flattening the plane iron. I used the scary sharp method to bring the blade withing close enough tolerance and then finished it up on my 4000/8000 combo stone. This process took about 20 minutes, not bad.

Once the blade was sharpened we installed it back into the plane. The frog is really rough, hard to dial in correctly the first time, it took about 5 minutes to get the frog to cooperate, moving up and back until we found the sweat spot where the blade could live within the plane happily.

Now here is the big clincher. Once it was all adjusted, I took a piece of 8/4 maple and clamped it up on our workbench, and started planing it's surface. After several passes and playing with the adjustment screw, we got some really nice fine shavings! We had not even tuned up the sole yet, and this plane was making some really thin, transparent even shavings about 1.5 inches wide and as long as the board. It really surprised me. Once I got her all dialed in, I handed it over to my son, and he started planing with it after I showed him proper body positioning and hand positioning. He was making some decent shavings too, not as long as mine, his little arms could only last a few short strokes, but he managed to peel off some pretty decent thin shavings. I was quite surprised! Also, the plane had zero backlash in it, another pleasant surprise, but I get the feeling this was luck, your Groz might not.

After he planed on this maple for a spell, it was time for me to get back to some work about the shop, I sent him outside on his own bench, and told him to just go at it. And with a big smile, he did.

Note his little choppy shavings, that's because his stroke is just a little short right now, eventually he'll grow into his woodworking and take longer strokes with more strength as he gets older. But for now, he is doing a stellar job at planing!

He has to work on his front tote grip a bit, but I took this picture after leaving him alone for about 20 minutes and he was doing fine with his own style of planing.

So here is the analysis.

You get what you pay for in this plane,

Rough castings

Cheap components

Rough action

With a bit of work, it can be made to plane nicely.

Pros

Great price,

Cons

Many if you expect it to plane out of the box, but with some patience, it can be made into a good user.

Options

You can purchase a No.4 Stanley for around 20 bucks at the flea market, tune it up, and you'll own a great Made in America user. But this was fun!

Thanks for reading!

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John Morris
The Patriot Woodworker
Proud Supporter of Wounded Warrior Project and Homes For Our Troops

I think its awesome that you are introducing your son to woodworking. I wish I would've started so young. A friend of mine and fellow woodworker got his son an old Stanley #2. He says its perfect for the kids small hands.

Great suggestion Adam! A No.2 indeed! Hmmmm, time to visit some flee markets!

Adam Welker said:

I think its awesome that you are introducing your son to woodworking. I wish I would've started so young. A friend of mine and fellow woodworker got his son an old Stanley #2. He says its perfect for the kids small hands.

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John Morris
The Patriot Woodworker
Proud Supporter of Wounded Warrior Project and Homes For Our Troops

What an awesome way to put your little guy on the right track toward success. 

thanks for sharing the story and product review.

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No greater Loves than God, Family, Friends, country, the sight of flying chips and the smell of saw dust.

Thank you Russell!

Russell Brechlin said:

What an awesome way to put your little guy on the right track toward success. 

thanks for sharing the story and product review.

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No greater Loves than God, Family, Friends, country, the sight of flying chips and the smell of saw dust.

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John Morris
The Patriot Woodworker
Proud Supporter of Wounded Warrior Project and Homes For Our Troops