#4-1/2 Smoothing Plane Reviews

3.5 Rating 21 Reviews

About Woodcraft:

Woodcraft Supply, LLC is one of the nation's oldest and largest suppliers of quality woodworking tools and supplies. You'll find Woodcraft stores in more than 70 major metropolitan areas across the U.S.; and Woodcraft annually distributes 1.5 million catalogs featuring more than 10,000 items to all 50 states and 117 foreign countries. The Woodcraft catalog is a standard among woodworkers as the most complete offering of first rate products for woodworking available anywhere. Woodcraft also publishes six issues of Woodcraft Magazine annually.

Visit Product Page

Phone:

800-535-4486

Location:

1177 Rosemar Rd,
Parkersburg
West Virginia
26105

Visit Product Page

“I own more than my fair share of handplanes. All of the vintage Stanley's needed a lot of work to put them in working order. My Woodriver 4 1/2 took about an hour to setup. Lapping the sole flat took 20 minutes, squaring the sides to the sole about 10 min., flattening the back of the iron took another 10 min and sharpening 10 minutes. Fitting the chipbreaker to the iron was all of 5 min. and closing up the mouth by advancing to frog a couple more min. Once all that was done the plane performs beautifully. The tote and knob are nicely shaped and look really good. All in all, I'm completely happy with my 4 1/2.”

Helpful Report

Posted 1 month ago

“I bought this plane #4 -1/2 in June of 2025. It needed some prep when I received. The iron was fine, the chip breaker or cap iron was fine, but the lever cap was warped edge to edge with a convex bend. Looking from the front edge of the lever cap toward the back, head on, it looked like it had a little smile. I tried to grind down the middle, by hand as it did not look too bad and looked like there was plenty of material. By having this convex belly, the lever cap would not hold the iron securely and lever cap would rock side to side. After one or two strokes the iron was loose. Due to my availability, I contacted customer support in early August of 2025 and sent photos of the issue. I had already flattened the sole and sides (not much). Customer support immediately sent out a new plane and a return UPS tag so I could return the first plane. The new plane arrived within 5 days and everything was perfect. I did not have to flatten the sole as I did on the first one. I had the iron sharpened within 15 minutes. The lever cap was flat and was not convex. I purchased the plane from WOODCRAFT, not thru any other source such as Amazon. WOODCRAFT customer support is Outstanding!!!! If for no other reason I strongly recommend WOODCRAFT for this and other products.”

Helpful Report

Posted 3 months ago

“I received this plane with a scratch on the front knob and a sizable nick in the corner of the blade. Though about returning it but decided just to keep it. Other than the time it took me to remove the nick, works fine. Don't think I'll buy another Woodriver product.”

Helpful Report

Posted 6 months ago

Thank you for your feedback, Pete. We're sorry to hear about the issues you encountered with the front knob and blade. Quality is important to us, and we appreciate you bringing this to our attention. I will ask our Tech Department to contact you about replacing these parts. Warm regards, Team Woodcraft

Posted 6 months ago

“The #4 1/2 smoother is the fifth Woodcraft V3 plane I have purchased. Every one of them is truly flat and well machined. I was surprised to see a number of reviews that claimed the 4 1/2 received by some people were not flat. I should point out that I determine the flatness on a registered granite plate graded to flat to .00001 - so I know if the soles of the plane is true. I have seen people on YouTube using rulers off of adjustable squares to determine if their new planes are flat. I should point out that you need a machinist straight edge or a granite plate to register true off of. Rulers are NOT true and what you might see as a gap in the plane is in fact a gap in your ruler. I should also add that If you receive a plane that is actually not flat then return it, don't mess with it, Woodcraft really honors its return policy. I have also had very good luck with the "high carbon" steel blades that Woodcraft currently employs. Again, I should point something out - most blades have a frangible leading edge when they come from the factory. Most often you need to remove a 64 to 32"nd before you reach good steel. I even have to do this with a very expensive PM-V11 blade I recently purchased. Also, if you are using an electric grinder please be VERY careful - the blade loses temper long before you see it turn blue. Anyway, the #4 1/2 I purchased had no flaw of any kind. I was very happy with the newer style tote. The blade was concave as it should be - I have 7 of these blades not one was convex. It took me 20 minutes to flatten the first 1 1/2" to 1000 grit flat. After that I use the Charlesworth (ruler trick). I honed the blade to 8000 on a Shapton professional stone and LIGHTLY stropped it. The plane performs beautifully and I would recommend it to anybody”

1 Helpful Report

Posted 7 months ago

“I guess it’s the luck of the draw, the plane I received looked really nice. I had to do a ton of tuning to get it work properly. Sole wasn’t flat. After fixing the sole. I moved on to the chip breaker. It only touched in the middle of the iron. Got it somewhat flat then noticed the cap had the same issue. Only touching in the center of the chip breaker. Took a good deal of work to get it matched with the chip breaker. The iron itself was mostly flat. I thought about returning the plane but what would a replacement be like. At this point I have so much time in this one I decided to keep it. I have other new planes with those I took them out of the box hone the iron and put them to work. I really wanted a bedrock style plane and didn’t want to pay the lie Nelson price. Now looking back on it should have saved my money and bought a plane that would work out of the box.”

2 Helpful Report

Posted 9 months ago

David Threlkeld

Unverified Reviewer

“Got this as an upgrade to my big box store plane. Sole was flat, blade was flat, but the chip breaker was twisted. By the time I gave up trying to fix it, the warranty had expired. Bought a Hock chip breaker instead. If I had added $20 to my total cost, I could have had a Veritas. Lesson learned.”

3 Helpful Report

Posted 1 year ago

“The plane works as it should. Minimal work to get the blade flat and put a secondary bevel on. The blades could be better steel but over all it is a nice plane.”

Helpful Report

Posted 1 year ago

GH From WICHITA

Verified Reviewer

“Bring back Made In the USA!!”

3 Helpful Report

Posted 3 years ago