Reviewing a "Continental" hand plane (budget plane shootout)

Apologies for the outdated map of Europe. I grabbed the first thing that was bright and had bold lines. Okay, now no one else needs to tell me about it. I'm good. Promise.

Yesterday I bought a cheap continental plane for $15 at a flee market. It would only get thick shavings on the edges, but nothing on the face of a board. After flattening the sole on 240grit sandpaper it worked like a charm! Mine is set as a smoother (smaller mouth) and it really does give nice thin shavings. Yet I couldn't figure out the angle of the blade. It wasn't 25° and 30°, but I did make a nice sharp edge by feel. I love the ergonmics of the handplane and my hand really fits well. Didn't expect it to be that good! Great vid man!

Yeah, this style is "the" plane style over here in Germany. I just got a quite old Doppelhobel (jack plane) gifted from my neighbor when he heard I picked up woodworking, shortly before he passed away. Was a master cabinet maker back in the 50s and 60s. I definitely have to learn to use it decently now...

Hi Rex. Even though I use full metal planes, I love to pick up high end wooden planes on fleemarkets for just a few €s and bring them back to life. These were developed through the centuries and used by generations of carpenters. They really do have their place today. Greetings from Germany to all of our wood loving friends.

in germany they are all over the fleemarkets. the metallic ones are actually way more rare here

Another thing about wooden planes. They go back in time for thousands of years with very little change. And really, other than being made of metal the modern ones are pretty much the same. I like the fact that the way we use it is about the same as the way the egyptians used it. And after seeing the egyptian exhibit at the Metropolitan Museum in NYC last April, I am super impressed with what our ancestors did with basically the same tools we have. So, way to go!

Rex:"... so big that I can look through it and see you. you need to clean your house..." me: remove the bottle of vodka from the table, kick the bear out into the street

I live in Denmark, and must admit that I haven't seen an iron plan until a few years back. All wooden planes here... and I actually had a wooden vice (with the wooden screw) on my bench in the 70-ties and 80-ies.

I really appreciate your enthusiasm about hand tools. You showed the advantages of continental handplanes. There are aspects that I never see before your video. greetings from a continental fan

wow, that map is so insane, i don't even know where to start. It's not even old, it's an alternate history map :)) My country it's not even there.

Reminds me of my Grandfather's Ulmia Bench Plane. Been using it for over a decade and I love it.

I have been using one for decades and love it. One note is that they are also very easy to use on the pull.

Did I miss something? I never saw or found the shootout result video for budget planes. Love the videos and tips by the way. Thanks!!

Hi Rex, I am happy you promote products from Czech Republic, especialy when we talk about company based only 2 miles from village where I live! Thank you!

Like others already mentioned, I don't believe the plane is supposed to have a mouth like this. I have the scrub plane from this company which has exactly this kind of wide mouth (albeit with a cambered iron) and a jointer plane with a mouth which is much narrower, as jack planes should be. Checking their website, the high bed angle suggests that what you have is "hoblík cídič" which is intended for final fine smoothing of hard lumber. Closer to your typical wooden plane would be the "hoblík klopkař" model with a more typical 45° bed angle and a narrow mouth shown on Amazon.

Fascinating! Thanks for the informative video Rex! I've seen a continental style plane in an antique store near me, and now I might have to consider buying it.

Idea for a video (or a series): Comparing old continental style tools, techniques and styles to US/UK styles. See where we can learn neat old tricks.

Hello rex, thanks for great review! As I use the pinie planes quite often (couse they are made in my country), there is little bit more info. The plane you have seems to be some kind of a scrub plane really. Pinie does make smoothing planes of course, but they have the classic narrow mouth (eliminating the problem you encounter when planing the end of the stock). And about the quality, Pinie does make three grades of quality - EKO, classic and premium planes. They differ in quite a few things (most notably body material and iron material and hardness). In case you guys decide to buy one, I recommend going for the classic/premium as they have better irons. They also sell the irons seperatly, so in case you want new iron for your old continental wood plane they are a good choice. Here in Europe, these wood planes are really super common, and you can get them second hand for really small prices, like 2-5$, and like 10$ for the well preserved ones. I even got well preserved wooden jointer coming from late Austria-Hungary (made 1911) for 5$! On the other hand the Stanley-like steel-body planes sell for crazy prices, as they are rarity here. Always love to watch your videos mate, keep up the great work!

Best feature I can see is that big front handle that helps distribute the pushing force. How about a video looking at retrofitting a similar handle on to a metal plane?

Thanks for the review. I appreciate your honesty on all of your reviews.