Spear & Jackson CSP4 Carpenters No.4 Smoothing Plane

I haven’t used a plane for years but getting a new Stanley plane brought it all back. Once set up it performed perfectly. Door trimmed and it now fits perfectly.Great value and still as good as it ever was.

This is a barely viable plane straight out of the box. I've struggled with it for 2 days and gone through a lot of troubleshooting to improve it. Few points in order of severity:1) The blade has an edge but you'll need to sharpen it (even 240 grit sandpaper gives a huge improvement)! The blade is really hard and you won't need to sharpen it after every use.2) Parts (see frog in pictures) were assembled with blobs of paint between roughly flat surfaces. Remove the paint (and worst of grinding marks) and the frog/blade will sit more square.3) The sintered metal parts (esp. frog and clamp) are have quite a few voids and my frog wasn't sitting flush with the sole due to a large burr). Fortunately the metal is very soft so it's easy to sand them back.4) The sole is a little concave but it's good enough not to worry about.After spending 1-2 hours touching it up and tightening everything, it works really well. Check out Matt Eastleas YouTube video 'i made a £38 plane perform like a £338 plane' for details on refinishing a plane. You may find an old one (with better quality/longer lasting parts) at auction but you'll likely have to spend a lot longer refinishing it!

Manufactured in India for Spear & Jackson. I rated all aspects of this plane 5 stars. The sole is flat. Some may say no & use feeler gauges, flat beds & engineers straight edges to check flatness of base. I used an engineers straight edge & checked across the sole at 3 points. The sides are right angle to the base. I used an engineers steel square to check. Hardwood handle & front knob (Teak) secured with Brass machine screws.Fully adjustable frog. Do not adjust if you don't have to. The frog is flush to the mouth back of the plane & shavings do not jam & escape easily.This is not a DIY tool. Don't send it back because the blade is not square or honed.I am a professional carpenter & bench joiner. This is what you must do;You need a wide slotted screwdriver to release the back iron from the blade. You need a set of slotted screwdrivers to adjust the frog if necessary & other slotted screws which connect the plane parts together.The back iron is accurately machined. No visible daylight when adjusted & secured to blade. The lever cap has a large knurled Brass machine screw to lock both blade & back iron to plane.The blade is not square. It needs to be ground square as the lateral adjustment lever may not square it up to the mouth of the plane. The blade needs honing. It is not ready to use. All metal planes need the sole to be lubricated with candle wax. The wax does not prevent woodworking glue adhering to glue joints as it rubs off.Highly recommend this plane & the cost is incredible.

I bought this to plane a bit of a new door. I have an electric one but can't seem to have the control I get with a manual plane. This plane came already sharp enough and did a fine job.

On receipt, it was clear that the plane was unusable without some work. The general impression was 'cheap import' and the Spear & Jackson logo was only in the form of transfers applied to the sides the sides (which wore off rapidly).The blade seemed very thin (at 1.9 mm) and the blade edge had nicks along it. I notice that a 'spare or replacement' blade is advertised by Spear & Jackson for the same model on Amazon as being 0.5 mm thick. An initial trial with a piece of pine showed the surface planed but with lines along it where the nicks were on the iron edge.Putting a straight edge along the full length of the sole showed significant light coming through in the middle. Probably a gap at the centre of more than 1 mm.Checking the cross section of the sole at various points showed that it was convex at some points and concave at others.There were no instructions with the plane in the box which would be a problem for a newcomer.I did very significant flattening of the sole, cleaned the paint from the frog and sharpened the blade. The blade would not take an edge - it kept crumbling on the edge when sharpened at 25 degrees. It was better with a secondary bevel of 30 degrees (and a microbevel on the flat side).Having done that, it seems to be a workable plane if the iron will hold the edge. I suspect it will need a new blade but will give this one a try fist. I have hopes that it will be a useful addition to the toolset .

Very impressed for the price it's great quality, Easy to use, Easy adjustment, smooth finish, good fit in the hand.Would recommend

Well made tool but needs sharpening and setting ip before use. Blade was completely retracted on opening and completely blunt. Wouldn't cut at all. Videos on YouTube show you how to put an edge on the blade using an oil or wetstone.

Used and owned various planes in the past, both as a professional and DIY. Used this to plane some doors which were not fitting properly. It allowed me to get the doors to fit and look correct. Extremely sharp blade, which makes light work of the job.Well constructed and easy to adjust the blade. To remove the blade for cleaning and sharpening, all that's required is a flat head screwdriver. Would recommend that you clean and dry if used outside, as being constructed from steel, it would rust up if left wet. Yes well worth the price, and definitely recommended