I had struggled to get a clean, chamfered edge with sandpaper. I learned that I really should have been using a plane all along.

I found some planes specifically for chamfering on Amazon. YOU PROBABLY DO NOT NEED THIS PLANE.

Buying the plane wasn’t necessarily a bad decision because it taught me why I should not have bought this plane. It also reinforced the idea that if there are a bunch of products that look identical and have the same spelling errors in the descriptions, go for the absolute cheapest one because there won’t be a different.

It was $9.99 when I bought it. Now it’s up to $17.99.

It’s not that the plane itself is bad or that the concept is bad, it’s that the plane itself is bad and the execution is bad.

It’s not nearly sharp enough, the bubble level feature is beyond useless because it accomplishes nothing and makes you wonder why it’s there. And since it won’t break easily, it gives no immediate reason throw it away.

What attracted me to it is that it’s got a consistent 45 degree angle for chamfering. No attention has to be paid to make sure you’ve got a consistent angle, and you can take off material consistently along the edge because the blade encroaches on the corner at a fixed depth relative to the corner guides.

The problem is that the edge guides rub against the rest of the wood. That both leaves a mark and creates resistance that is annoying.

This plane was a better purchase. The blade is sharper (and easier to sharpen when that becomes necessary), and it’s substantially more comfortable to hold.

I started off with what I’d managed to get out of the chamfer-specific plane.

I then took more material off pretty quickly.

And then more. Rotating it as I went to get all the sides.

I’m very happy with the small plane for this kind of work.

The rounded edges made me feel comfortable that I could wrap fabric around without causing tears.

But which fabric?

More next week.