Spear & Jackson CJP5 Carpenters No.5 Jack Plane

Feels good. Working well after honing all the mating surfaces. The blade didn’t require that much.If you want an out of box ready to go planer buy electric. Even at 10x the price you’ll eventually need to tune it.

Works wonderfully just a fair amount of flattening on blade and body. Also a bit of film coating that looks worn. I tried mineral spirits but that only helped with the coat of oil they protect it with for shipping.

Hello. I received plane number five. It is heavy and solid - it inspires confidence. I removed the knife - the sharpening is almost even, but rough, for a good result it is necessary to sharpen it on special bars. I read a lot of comments in which they write about the uneven surface of the plane sole - nothing like that. I measured it with a ruler - everything is perfect. Only all the metal surfaces are covered with a thin layer of varnish, you can see from rust. In general, I am very pleased with the plane I bought for such a small price. Thank you Spear & Jackson! 👍

Expect to spend an hour or more overhauling this plane. The bottom of the casing is not flat, the fruit is not square to the mouth, and the blade is garbage.After you flatten the shoe and align the frog and get a decent blade in it, it’s great! The furniture is very comfortable. The adjustments, while not terrific, work fine. For the price, you could do worse. If you know how to set a new plane up, this is a fine option. Blade is garbage though. Chuck it.

I will admit i had very low expectations for this. Youtube woodworkers have jaded me to only valuing a plane if its an 1800 stanley. or priced in the $300 range. This was a gift from my wife. and i fake smiled as i opened it. threw it on a shelf to rot. But when i couldn't find my $200 jack plane. I grabbed this POS. Boy was i wrong. It cuts like a dream. sharp and true out of the box. I made no adjustments before. and it gave consistent even thin paper like shavings. and kept performing. Pine, cedar, like butter. Walnut, maple (curly even) smooth as silk with no chatter on the curly. I'm impressed. if you guys wanna hook me up with a whole set. I'll gladly preach your sermon. well done

The plane is built solidly, but the sole on all of the Spear & Jackson planes I have bought have been nowhere near flat. When viewed from upside down, the heel and toe of the plane is significantly higher than the rest of the sole. The sides of the sole have also been higher than the center of the sole near the mouth. The machining on the frogs on the planes I bought was really rough and required some filing and sanding. The blade edges have not been square to the sides on any of the three Spear & Jacson planes I have. The primary bevel edges on the plane are very concave and not a true 25 degrees and were not cut straight on any of my planes, both of the edges protrude from the mouth farther than the center of the blade and the blade was not flat on any of the planes I bought. I had to sand the chip breaker on my number 4 and number 5 planes so they would rest flat on the blade and reduce clogging. The blades need sharpening quite often as well. The depth adjustment on my number 4 and 5 planes is terrible, the yoke is too small for the depth adjustment knob so I have to make three to four full turns to engage the blade. I've actually had to buy a yoke for my number four since the one I got was junk, my number 5 is a little better. To make matters worse it can slip out of adjustment on all three of my Spear & Jackson planes once in a while, which starts the headache all over again. On the more positive side, once I did all of that work, I have been able to take consistent shavings as thin as 0.005 inch, but that is only with a very sharp blade. If you don't mind putting in the work, and figuring out how to troubleshoot problems, it can be a great plane. I really wish they would spend a little more time machining the parts smoother and fitting the parts to each other more carefully. They really need to work on their blades and/or use higher quality steel and find a better way to cut the primary bevel.

Once you get it set up I couldn’t see anything wrong with it and i was trying. the iron is decent sharp out of the box and didn’t dull very fast. Why is it so cheap? Where else is this company taking shortcuts to turn a profit if not with the product itself. I worry that the workers are there against their will

Loving this tool. Good sharpness out of the box, adjusts smoothly, handles comfortably.