Woodpeckers’ newest One Time Tool is the EZ-Edge corner plane, a device used for knocking down sharp corners and creating a chamfer or radiused profile.
There are plenty of other tools that can be used for this purpose, but it looks like the goal of the Woodpeckers EZ-Edge is to be quicker, easier, and more precise.
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Woodpeckers says that it’s better than using a block plane for chamfers since you get an adjustable depth of cut, and the V-groove of the EZ-Edge ensures a perfect cut angle with each pass.
The blade is made from O1 tool steel blade and can be resharpened by honing the face against a fine-grit wetstone (or other similar flat tool-sharpening system you might prefer instead).
Woodpeckers is making the EZ-Edge in four sizes – flat for cutting a 45° chamfer, and 1/8″, 3/16″, and 1/4″ radius profiles.
You can buy the planes individually at $150 each, or as part of a 4-plane set for $500.
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Replacement blades are also available at $25 each.
Discussion
It looks to me that you can order a single plane and then blades in other profile sizes to save money, instead of buying more than one full plane. From what I can tell, the plane body is the same for each.
Although, it doesn’t look like changing blades is a quick or easy process. There are 8 screws holding the planes together, and the internals might require additional disassembly. Woodpeckers did not design the EZ-Edge to be as versatile a blade-changer as typical hand planes. However, the design does make the planes compact and presumably easier and quicker to use.
Actually, it might actually be easier to change the blades on these planes than I had initially considered. More about this is discussed below.
If I need a 45° chamfer or a 1/4″ radius, I can use a router or router table. But for a small 1/8″ radius? That’s going to be more difficult, requiring more setup time and a lot of trial and error to dial things in right. I suppose the same is true if you want to make just a small chamfer to relieve an edge.
Lee Valley has a small and simple cornering tool set, although the new Woodpeckers planes do look like they’d be a bit more precise, and probably even easier to use.
The question I’m asking is this: if I could only get one size, which should it be? Since I can’t answer that, I’ll probably pass on this One Time Tool offering. If it’s popular, they might release it again in a couple of years, or improve upon the design further.
Because it’s a One Time Tool, I’m hesitant to even choose a single size. If these planes were a permanent edition to Woodpeckers’ lineup, I would be reassured a little, knowing I could change sizes down the road with the purchase of a different blade. A year from now, months after the One Time Tool ships, will it still be possible to buy these replacement blades?
All these questions and concerns, and the fleeting nature of One Time Tools helps to make the decision a lot simpler. Although the design is appealing, I find that there’s not much of a grey area. It’s either “yes I could use this and I know which size(s),” vs. “no, I don’t need this.” Although I know I would enjoy the use of these, I can’t determine which size I’d use most, and I certainly don’t want to pay $500 for a set.
I can use a router for chamfers and larger radius profiles, and for the smaller profiles lower precision is easier to hide. Hmm, maybe the 3/16″ plane would be the best size for me.
The pricing seems to be a tad high, not for what you get, but compared to other options. For just a little more than the $150 price, you can buy a good USA or Canadian-made block plane. If you already have a good block plane, have you tried some of the inexpensive cornering tools?
If you know what size(s) you could use and definitely want, go for it. Woodpeckers’ quality is usually extremely good. These are somewhat specialized tools, but likely guaranteed performers.
The O1 blade steel is going to be a little softer than other types of tool steel, but that also makes it easier to sharpen. You will need a fine-grit wetstone or maybe a glass or granite plate with wet/dry sandpaper. If you’re going to use hand tools, you’ll need to know your way around sharpening methods. Luckily it doesn’t look like the blades require any more than light honing of the rear.
What happens if you chip a blade? Looking at an image of the replacement blade, the angle is wide enough that it’ll be hard to damage it. But what if you leave the blade extended and drop it cutting-edge-down on a hard steel edge? Will replacement blades be available one, two, five years from now? Remember, these are One Time Tools, which you could consider as limited editions or “sprint runs.”
Looking at the stem of the blades, perhaps you can change blades by turning the adjustment wheel all the way until a blade falls out. Ooh… perhaps it’s far easier to change blades than I had initially suspected. Buying one plane size/style at $150 and one to three of the other blade styles at $25 each will still hurt your wallet, but not as much as spending $150 per plane or $500 for a full set.
And just like that, there’s a wider grey area than I initially perceived. Although their appeal is increasing for me, I most likely won’t be picking up any of these plane sizes. If they were permanent or longer-time additions to Woodpeckers’ product offerings, I could justify buying one plane and an additional blade or two for “editorial exploration” purposes and potential review. But as they’re One Time Tools, by the time I receive one, it’ll be too late for a review to help anyone. For personal woodworking needs or wants, I wouldn’t use them enough to justify the expense, and so the money would be better spent elsewhere.
If you’re at all interested, you have nearly 3 weeks to decide and get your order in.
Pricing
Planes are $150 each, including one blade and a wall-mountable Rack-It holder.
Replacement blades are $25 each.
A 4-plane set is $500
Order Deadline: 1/27/2020
Shipping ETA: 5/31/2020
David
I care less about the planes than that gorgeous piece of wood they’ve got in the image. I’m guessing that’s ambrosia maple?
Koko The Talking Ape
I was just about to say the same thing. Looks like ambrosia, yes. Gorgeous.
fred
Spalted maple?
DC
Exactly, the wood is beautiful.
Bolt
I wasn’t looking carefully at the thumbnail and was really confused why they were showing off the tool being used on a piece of osb.
Chris I
I thought it was granite ?
Tony
Same here. I was far more amazed at that piece of wood than the sales pitch in the video.
John Blair
I have the Lee Valley mini edge-rounding plane. It only breaks the edges (1/16th) but I find it surprisingly useful. Of course the entire thing wasn’t much more expensive than the cost of one of Woodpecker one time tool blades.
John
Cordless router or routers with quality branded bits will do the same, quicker, cheaper. Just my take. I love building things for clients; there are just more efficient and cost effective methods than specialized corner block planes. I keep several old Stanley #118 planes for easing edges but for specific shapes to edges, palm routers work wonders.
Jared
That’s a good point. I don’t use my router a lot and I momentarily bought the argument that it would be faster to have this tool than to dig out my router, maybe install it on my table and adjust the bit to the right height. But you could buy a cordless palm router and four quality bits for less than the woodpecker tools.
Eric
Exactly, you could buy 4 cordless ryobi routers and 4 bits dedicated to live in those routers for less than these. And HD still has the holiday promo going so you could get a router and 2 3.0 batteries, charger, and a bag for $99. Buy 4 of the kits then return however many of the battery sets you don’t want. Makes the router $40. I’m sure they’re not the most powerful things, but should be great just for breaking the edge.
John Lobert
I have the Lee Valley set. I think they’re worthless, as it’s extremely easy to splinter and tear out the edge with them, and keeping them sharp for any length of of time is impossible. I agree with John’s comment on the router. I use a trim router with either a chamfer or roundover bit (down to 1/8”) and get perfect results.
Philip
Pftttt $150. I already own a block plane.
fred
There are other alternative chamfer or radius planes including this one that produces an 1/8 inch radius:
https://www.amazon.com/s?k=B0000DD0TK&i=tools&ref=nb_sb_noss
that also can be fitted with a flat blade to do chamfers:
https://www.amazon.com/s?k=B0000DD1G0&i=tools&ref=nb_sb_noss
Not nearly as elegant as the Woodpeckers tools but for $20 – it might be worth a try.
fred
BTW – the Slickplane (my Amazon links) look a lot like the Rockler one for which Stuart has provided a link.
The Lee Valley cornering tools are copies of the old Stanley #28 and #29 cornering tools that are no longer made. In use, they tended to produce a rough edge on some wood – sometimes splintering out the wood.
Tom
These look awesome, but I see some potential big problems with actually using them. Looking at the first photo, a good push while holding with one hand could easily nudge the blade out of position. The user’s thumb is even touching the wheel in the photo.
Using two hands in the second photo should fix that, but with a small hand plane like this it would be tempting to just use one-handed. As cool as these look, I’ll stick to my cordless router for these jobs.
Tool Junkie
I’d rather put my money into a cast iron Lie Nielsen than an aluminum plane with a hard to sharpen profile.
The video says that you could have the edge done by the time you find your bit. If I kept my cordless router next to my bench with four quadra cut bits next to it, I doubt it.
Tom D
Very nice. But for that cost you could buy four routers, four bits, and four tables and just leave them dialed in.
Koko The Talking Ape
I used a block plane for years. I don’t like corner chamfers, so I would approximate a round corner by setting the plane a very shallow cut, take two passes right on the corner, and then one on each of the two 135 degree corners left. That’s four passes, and it doesn’t really make a nice smooth round corner.
So I tried Veritas’ cheap cornering tools made of stamped sheet metal, and they worked surprisingly well (on softwoods). But I ruined one by sharpening it badly.
I just bought a wood cornering plane from Garrett Wade that looks a lot like the mini cornering plane from Veritas. I haven’t tried it yet.
I don’t think I’ll ever use a router. For one thing, I just want a tiny rounded corner. For another, I don’t want to deal with wood chips and dust if I can help it. Also, I hate the noise.
ca
My favourite part about these so called one time tools is that we can all have a laugh about the price.
Brad Grover
I agree, if they would just do a decent production run, they could lower the overall cost and more of us hobbyists would but them.
Nathan
Thanks fred I was going to say someone does make aversion of a thing that does this. COuldn’t put a name too it though.
That thumbwheel has a lock nut doesn’t it – looked like it did.
If I got one I would get the one and the 3 other blades. One question I’ve seen a few comparisions of planed panels vs sanded panels where you do get more grain, better pop of the colors in a planned piece vs sanded pieces. Depends alot on the material of course.
Wonder if that applies here. If a planed edge would have more depth of figure than say a routed/milled edge. I’d like to think not but one never knows.
gene
lame
Patrick
I’ve got a handful of Woodpeckers tools and they’re all of pretty high quality but honestly I can’t see myself every buying something of theirs again. Pretty much the only reason is their marketing strategy – it’s beyond annoying. You simply can’t escape notification of OTTs. Even if you unsubscribe from their list, they’ve got their tentacles out and every retailer they’re associated with also blasts out a continuous stream of emails about a new OTT. I like receiving email from certain retailers, such as Highland Woodworking, but there’s no way to opt out of just the Woodpeckers emails.
Massively annoying and I just don’t want to contribute $$$ to that.
FWIW, the coverage of OTTs here at Toolguyd don’t bother me. I have no idea if they’re compensated for it or not, but I’ve always found the coverage very straightforward and unbiased. Besides, this is a news site, and that kind of stuff is newsworthy in this industry. If I’m not interested, I can always just skip the article, rather than getting dozens and dozens of emails from countless different retailers.
Leonard
I have a Slickplane and rarely use it. I can’t imagine that I would use one of these. I have router bits from 1/6 on up to 3/4 radius. It doesn’t take me but a few minutes to set up my palm router.
I use a tadpole sanding block for small radii and a block plane for bevels.
fred
Fastcap makes a couple of alternatives that don’t seem too expensive:
https://www.fastcap.com/product/edge-break
https://www.fastcap.com/product/fastbreak-sander
JR
Like most… I too am not made of money. I called and asked a cust.serv rep at WP. Are the replacement cutters a universal fit to the plane? Answer is yes.
you can buy just 1 plane and then buy the cutters, but (always there’s a but) changing cutters could prove challenging. I didn’t understand really until I watched that video on the WP site. The little gray part used to compress the spring is not included with the cutter, and if you notice– that video wasn’t shot just once. Betcha the fat fingers struggled to get that cutter back in it’s slot a few times. I am still on the fence about purchasing it. Ahh, I’ll probably talk myself out of buying, there is always something out there more shiney to own.
DS
Just one data point, but I’m over Woodpeckers One Time Tool releases as ”tool” content. I don’t mind when you delve into EDC knives, or writing instruments, or lights, or really anything at all. But these things….they’re not really tools. They’re knickknacks for accumulators/fanboys/collectors, sold under a very successful scarcity marketing tactic. The other commenters’ cost comparisons with cordless routers are spot on and help prove my point. Surely, those who are into these things, get plenty of new release notifications direct from the fashion house, er i mean, tool manufacturer??