Amazon Basics No.4 Adjustable Universal Precision Smoothing Bench Hand Plane with 2-Inch Blade and Wooden Handles, Brown

Granddaughter wants to learn woodworking. We found that if we buy quality products she will feel good about using the tool, this keeps her interested long enough to learn the skill and add it to her repertoire. This plane is sharp enough to glide smoothly and is fully adjustable. The parts attach firmly.

Tldr; it's great value on sale if you are willing to put some work in. But your milage may vary due to poor quality control.Out of the box the blade wasn't particularly sharp, the sole wasn't flat albeit better than expected, and the handles were loose.The handles just are flat heads so it's an easy fix. The blade doesnt seem to be a very hard alloy which makes it easier to grind, but the edge retention remains to be seen.The sole seems to be slightly concave on mine, I havent gotten around to flattening it out but it's perfectly usable as is.As for the adjustment mechanism, there are a good few reviews mentioning how hard it is to turn, and it is. Some ways to make it a bit easier is by not overtightening the chipbreak/blade clamp, and by setting up the blade so you're only using the middle portion of the threads. A finer pitched thread would help but a lot of the tightness is just down to the design.There is the big caveat of quality control. To get a product this cheap, you have to cut costs somewhere, and quality control happens to be pretty expensive. There's a good chance I got one better than the average, luckily you can always return it.Over all, I'm actually pretty pleased with it. It's not a great plane, its not going to be as nice to use as a Stanley or similar brands. That being said, it gets you atleast 80% of the way for about 20% of the cost if you put some time into it.

I used this to flatten my workbench and it worked well for me right out of the box. After making small adjustments, I was able to level out my table top to the way I wanted and finish my project. Good product for the money spent.

With the clear understanding that no one in the history of tool buying has ever bought a plane that didn't need some tuning up and honing, this one in particular was the worst I've ever experienced in that regard. The handles were loose, the frog was way out, and this blade (aka iron) had the worst grind I've ever seen on a blade of any time in any kind of tool or knife. After a total of about 2 1/2 - 3 hours of lapping and giving it a proper honing and doing all the adjustments on it, I finally got it running nicely. Nice, think full width shavings, and a good, smooth stroke in walnut, cherry, and maple. Took a long time - a LONG time. The initial grind was not square to the iron's edge, or to its face. It was really just terrible. Also, the plane bottom was convex by a couple thou, and I took that down to smooth and flat on a 300 stone, then cleaned it at 1000. Again... a LOT of work, but it's working nicely. The big question now is, how well will this fine hone hold up on this iron...? I don't have a tonne of confidence, but I don't mind a 30-second tune up before each use. Anyway, for under $30, if you have the time to make it right, it's a nice addition to the tool box. If.

I'm new to woodworking and wanted to buy an old plane to refurbish and use. Couldn't find any old ones for the price of this new one (without cracks in the body or missing parts).I bought this plane figuring it needed some initial work out of the box. Wasn't too bad, but I do recommend putting it through the same process you would use to restore an old plane. I recommend the video by Paul Sellers called "Restoring the Bench Plane". After doing all the things Paul suggests, this plane works like a charm for me.The gap between the plane iron and the front of the mouth is larger than I would have expected, meaning when you attach the cap iron (chip breaker), you have to back it off from the cutting edge about 1/8", maybe more. Then you have to drop the blade very far in order to get a shaving. But I managed to get it set perfectly and it takes nice clean cut. I haven't noticed any blade movement caused from setting the cap iron so far back from the cutting edge.I bought a similar one from Menards (for a similar price) and this Amazon plane is MUCH better. It feels better in the hand, looks better, is easier to adjust. Literally better in every way in my opinion. If you can't find an old Stanley to restore and don't want to break the bank, this is the plane to get.