Faithfull No.3 Finishing Plane – Precision Machined Cast Iron Wood Planer Hand Tool for Hard & Soft Wood, Cabinet Work, Joinery & Smoothing

For beginners: A fine first plane. You won't still have it if you ever become professional because it is not a "professional" plane, but it is perfectly adequate for DIY and probably most tradesman. To me, the most important question is do you really want a number 3? Unless you have very small hands or do a lot of small work, a number 4 would probably be better and it is pointless to have both.For the experts who have pointed out its problems: Are the defects really that serious? Paint splashes can be scraped off the frog mating surfaces, the handles can be tightened, and all blades must be honed before use anyway. After this, it cuts beautifully (at least mine does). True, the frog adjustment range is small, but how much adjustment do you need on a smoothing plane? The depth adjustment wheel is not capable of fully withdrawing the blade, but I have used it for several months without realising so is it really so important? It takes only a second to loosen the brass knob and pull the blade back by hand if you ever need to. I don't like the 2-part stamped steel yoke, which WILL fall apart one day, and the pressed steel lateral adjuster lever which will eventually need straightening (although it is not as soft and floppy as many other cheap planes). But these issues will only bite you if you use it a lot.Edit: someone else suggested grinding 2mm off the end of the cap iron to solve the blade withdrawal problem, and this has worked perfectly for me.Would I buy it again? No. For only a little more money I would get a vintage Stanley on Ebay which will still be good when it is time to pass it to your grandchildren. But it is pretty.

For the price of £12 to £13, this is plane offers a lot of 'stuff' for the money. Nice handles. But how does it perform? I suspect this is mostly down to the luck of the draw.Out of the box, the plane took a shaving. Not a fine shaving, but a shaving good enough to plane some wood. Good enough to trim a door or some other basic DIY carpentry tasks. The iron (blade) sharpens up OK and the steel is not overly soft. It is not anywhere near as good as a vintage Stanley or Record iron but it will last long enough for the times when a DIYer needs a plane.The sole was nice and flat and the sides were square. Flat enough and square enough to not have to resort to lapping. The problem was with the 'frog', the part that holds the iron. I could not retract the iron into the sole. It is possible to adjust the frog on 'Stanley' type planes by removing the iron, loosening the two screws that hold the frog to the sole and adjusting the screw which sits just under the brass adjustment wheel. I had to back mine off almost as far as it would go. Convention says that this is not the thing to do for a fine 'smoothing' plane, which is what a No. 3 and No.4 sized plane is. That this opening (throat), when the iron protrudes through the sole, should be quite tight - not much larger than the thickest shaving you intend to take. Some say that this doesn't matter as the cap iron compensates for this. My experience with this plane is that it does not take as fine a shaving as a vintage Stanley no. 4 and I think this is due to the quality of the steel used in the iron and reduced opening of the throat. At first, I thought the iron was too long, so I ground it back 1/4" which was double what it protruded. This 'quick fix' made no difference, so I knew it was a problem with the frog assembly. After looking at the parts, it seemed that the problem with the Faithfull plane was that the small rectangular opening on the cap iron into which the adjustment yoke fits (the yoke is the Y-level that sits on the brass adjustment wheel) was in the wrong place. It was too high and thus forcing the cutting edge to be too low. I had to use a small file to file the hole lower, then cut up and shape a large washer to fit into the top of the enlarged hole in order to make the rectangular hole lower on the cap iron. The iron now retracts into the sole and the frog has been adjusted as far forward as it will go (which is not as far forward as a Stanley/Record). A No. 3 plane iron is 1 3/4" wide whereas the more common No.4 and No.5 irons are 2" wide. It is thus much harder to find new or used spares for a No. 3 plane. I couldn't find a cap iron on auction sites that didn't cost more than this plane cost me.In summary, the plane I purchased had a good sole - flat and square. The frog was OK but couldn't be adjusted further forward than flush with the sole. The cap iron was a disaster. However, if you want a plane for basic DIY tasks or for getting started in wood working and your hands and arm strength would benefit from a plane that is lighter to handle than a No. 4, this is a good purchase and might be better than taking a punt on something from an auction site which might be for sale because it is a messed up example of someone's attempt to restore a vintage plane who ended up making it useless. If I wanted a No.3 for use as a super fine smoothing plane, the one I got fell short (another one might not - pot luck?). You should take it out of the box and check to see that the iron retracts into the sole, if not return it. Obviously I wanted one to see what it was like and to tinker with it for hobby reasons. Due to the wide mouth opening etc. I have decided to set mine up as a scrub plane rather than a smoother.

Nice little tool to have for small jobs

This is a cheap plane. That's not a criticism, just a fact.That means it's far from perfect. There are a lot of things that could be improved.First thing I noticed was the blade has been ground slightly skew-whiff, not a lot but enough that the blade is out of square to the frog, enough so that it can't be brought back by the adjusting lever. So aside from sharpening (expected) I have to also regrind the primary angle. That's a pain.Second thing is that the blade advancement mechanism has excessive backlash. The lever that pushed the blade forward pivots on a pin which is far smaller than the hole it passes through. Result is that the knob has to be turned more than two rotations before it engages. That's a bit more of an issue. It's fixable but it needs some metalworking to insert a bush. I'll live with it for now.Finally, the sole isn't quite flat, a few thou. concave in a couple of places with a slight twist. I've seen worse but you get what you pay for and this is very cheap for what it is. It could be ground flat but again, it'll do for now.Overall I'm quite happy with it.