I received my E.C. Emmerich Jack Plane a few days ago and I finally got a chance to get familiar with it.

Firstly, I have only "played" with wood body planes, I never really got serious about learning much about them, how to adjust etc. And, the few wood body planes I do have are pretty tore up and require some restoration and I haven't done it, I am capable of it, but just haven't done it as I've always been happy with my metal body planes, LN, Lee Valley and a few Stanley's.

So to have a brand new wood body plane ready to go out of the box, gave me a head start to understand how they are supposed to perform. And I love mine!

So here is my very first E.C. Emmerich Jack, the iron is wrapped in plastic still, straight out of the box.

Literature that came with the plane. Basic care and adjustment instructions.

The iron that came with this plane is pretty robust, thick, solid, and sharp out of the box, I did not have to grind it, hone it, polish it or anything. The instructions say this iron should be good to use immediately, and I found that to be the case. Speaking of the bevel, the iron has its primary bevel and that's it, that's the way I actually like my plane irons, and my chisels. I know there is much attraction to having a micro bevel or secondary bevel for quick honing, but frankly, any planes I have gotten I remove the micro bevel. Just not a big fan of that philosophy. I like to sharpen one bevel, and not deal with an additional angle for a micro bevel. After all, primary bevels worked for centuries, and they still work today.

It took me a few minutes to get used to the process of setting the iron depth, but it didn't take too long to get it. I have the rhythm already, tap the rear button to loosen, tap the top of the iron to set lower, if it's too low, wrap the rear button to bring the iron up, take a test cut, then set the wedge with a tap at the top of the wedge. This is what I love about woodworking, learning new techniques. It keeps me motivated and feeling special. Now I can set a wood body plane iron successfully! After a few thick shavings from my pine board, I got it set to take a nice thin clean shaving, almost lace like, but I am not there yet in adjusting, it'll take a few more uses before I can get it set for lacey shavings, but the shaving at the bottom of the image was the best I could do after 10 minutes of use, it's still pretty thin. The iron is very sharp, leaving a glassy smooth surface.

The front tote and the rear of the plane configuration where my right had wraps around the body, is very comfortable, it didn't take long for me to get accustomed to that grip, it actually felt very natural.

One thing I noticed, again out of the box, the shavings are coming straight up and out of the body, they aren't curling right at the mouth exit, and that is a sign of a well tuned hand plane, the shavings curled after they exited the body entirely and is what you see on the bench.

Needless to say, based on my excitement right now, I'm ready to sell my metal body planes and replace them all with wood body planes. Now, I know that thought is very premature, I'm in the honey moon period, but hey, ya never know! Keep your eyes on the classifieds section of our forum!

I purchased my plane from Peck Tool, shipping was quick, no nonsense anything, I bought the plane, and it arrived as expected, and with a little hand written thank you note. I chose Peck Tool because I have to use my Paypal account to purchase, it allows me to make a few payments interest free, it just works for me. The other retailers that carry ECE Planes, don't allow Paypal, Lee Valley, Highland Woodworking etc. But Peck tool does. In addition, they are based here in the US, and I truly like supporting our US retailers.

So a little shout out to Chris from Peck tool, thanks! And I'll give a follow up review after I've used it for more material processing beside the edge of a pine board.

Peck Tool

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Boy 'o boy are you in for a real treat with that plane! It should come with a WARNING! Once you touch it you can't put it down! Have fun!

I'm with you about single bevel blades and it's interesting for example thatJapanese planes (kanna) do not use micro-bevels. The blade (or iron) is designed to be sharpened with one single, continuous, and flat bevel. While common in Western woodworking for quick maintenance, micro-bevels are generally discouraged on traditional laminated Japanese plane blades. All those thin shaving contests you see them doing are done with a single beveled blade.

1 hour ago, MrRick said:

Boy 'o boy are you in for a real treat with that plane! It should come with a WARNING! Once you touch it you can't put it down! Have fun!

I think I'm there Rick, it was a very pleasant experience I could get used too. 😊

The plane cut great out of the box, but I figured what the hay, I'll take it from scratch on my water stones.

I flattened and trued the iron with a 220/800 stone, then honed it on my 4000/8000 stone and stropped it with a charged leather strop.

My iron is incredibly sharp and has a nice mirror finish, and boy does the plane perform. I'm very happy I took the extra step to sharpen from the start.

Sweet looking curls you got there John...the ones on the bench

Just beautiful John! I'll give you my address and you can gift it to me! 😉

3 hours ago, Grandpadave52 said:

Sweet looking curls you got there John...the ones on the bench

I knew you weren't talking about the ones on the top o me head!

1 hour ago, MrRick said:

Just beautiful John! I'll give you my address and you can gift it to me! 😉

I love this plane so much, just for kicks I walk out to the garage and take a swipe at the practice board and come back inside, I am so excited about this tool.

Just awesome John! Love the joy and enthusiasm!!

John... next you'll have to get their smoother. Heck! Get them all. Check this out!