Clifton No. 5 1/2 Wide Jack Plane

The Clifton No. 5 1/2 is a wide jack plane. Clifton bench planes are both attractive and functional and give an accurate, smooth finish. They suit the cabinetmaker and discerning woodworker, amateur and professional alike. The planes are ready to use out of the box and don't need hours of flattening and fettling, though many woodworkers prefer to hone the iron themselves.

The body and frog are accurately machined grey cast iron with fully ground sides and sole. The knob and handle are walnut, carefully shaped, sanded and sealed. The cutting iron is cryogenically treated O1 steel, hardened and tempered to 60-62 HRC, precision ground and 0.120" (3 mm) thick. The one-piece cap iron gives rigid clamping. The frog locating pins and screws are ground and polished stainless steel, the lever cap polished grey iron, the screws and adjusting wheel polished brass and the Y-lever a solid one-piece brass casting. The lateral adjusting lever and some other parts are polished stainless steel.

The frog and frog seat are based on the Bedrock design first seen on early Stanley planes: the seat in the body is fully machined and mates with the fully machined underside of the frog. This gives absolute frog stability and a solid bed for the iron. Combined with the extra-thick Clifton iron and cap iron, it is probably one of the most rigid clamping mechanisms of any bench plane. The accuracy lets the iron be advanced to a virtually zero mouth opening, so the finest shavings can be taken even on difficult timber.

The Bedrock design lets you adjust the mouth without dismantling the frog and iron. Loosen the outer two of the three screws at the back of the frog seat (under the adjusting wheel), then turn the centre screw clockwise to close the mouth and anticlockwise to open it.