SOBA Serrated Smoothing Jack Plane 14"/350mm Heavy Duty Professional Plane

Initial impressions:I took this plane straight out of the box and set it to work planing some pine and cypress. These are my impressions after a couple of days.This is a nice-looking plane with a nice finish, and it feels good in the hand. I have large hands, and I might have preferred a slightly larger tote, but it's no impediment to use in practice. At first glance, the sole looks close to flat (checked with a ruler). The sides look close to square to the sole. I didn't check the flatness of the face of the frog. Note that the photo on Amazon shows a lever cap, but the plane I received has a screw-type cap. (That is just an observation, not a complaint. The screw-type cap works fine.) The knurled brass knob that controls the advance of the iron works smoothly (though it tends to lock up a little at the fully-retracted position), as does the lateral adjustment lever.The back of the plane iron needed a bit of work to flatten. I focused on flattening only 25mm or so behind the cutting edge, and worked most of it down within a few minutes, but there was one particularly nasty low spot about 6mm wide on one corner that I gave up on grinding out after about twenty minutes of work on an extra-coarse diamond plate. The iron was already sharpened (and I was impressed that it was slightly cambered), but it was hollow ground and the edge (and the camber) didn't survive its first meeting with a knot in cypress. It took only a few minutes to sharpen it up again nicely (the steel isn't as painfully hard as some other Indian plane irons I've seen), but I didn't bother to go all the way to flattening the bevel. I expect the first half-dozen routine sharpenings during use will remove the slight hollow in the bevel left by the grinding stone in the factory. The plane iron isn't as wide as the throat: when the iron is mounted on the frog, the edge starts on one side of the throat, and ends some distance away from the other side of the throat. This is a little annoying, but it has no effect on the operation of the plane. Once I had resharpened the iron, the plane worked quite well.In summary, this is a promising plane, and I'm glad I got it. It should make my life considerably simpler with flattening and truing up rough stock from the sawmill. I'm rating it as "I like it" for now, because despite all the niggles noted above, this is a definite step up from many other Indian plane manufacturers. I will update this review after a few months of regular use.

Finally a "Made in India" handtool that's actually very good.This is a fantastic plane, very well finished (there are some rough edges, but these are part of the manufacturing itself, and doesn't affect operation). The brass knob and wood handles are well finished and have a quality feel. During the initial tests, the plane was stable and smooth. As I use it more I'll get to know it better. I'm going to throw-away my 18 year old plane (of quality that Indian handtools are world-famous for).The price is reasonable for such a well made, high-quality tool.

The plane felt good when you hold it. No product from India is at its level as far as I have seen. Will put it to use and will process it for using and after that I can give in-depth review. The tote feels fine but the front knob needs a bit of an adjustment as the screw is too long and it will bruise your hand after using. The blade is a bit thin to my liking, wish they could have put a blade that is thicker and it would be amazing. The lever cap is screwed on rather than a traditional clamp one which is fine but I like the clamp more but not an issue. The India ink is nice and the machining of the sole and where the frog sits also looks OK. All in all a very nice hand plane.

Good quality product but price little high

The sole not flat at all which is beyond any one to correct it.So was the plane iron ,it took considerable time to get the back flat.The casting if the cap iron was bad.A positive point was that it had the heft otherwise it was as good as any jack plane available in the Indian market.

Not half as good as this brand called Award that I bought from a local shop and at 1/3rd the price