Kunz #113 Circular Plane

Quality craftsmanship. Definitely worth the investment.

Great for its purpose. My back metal handle was cracked and the knob is cheap plastic a bit flimsy, but overall it does what it is designed to do at a reasonable price. Good tool if you need it.

Just what I needed

I bought this exact plane model new more than 30 years ago when we were building our round house, in which we still live. We cut out all of the exterior curved wall top and bottom plates for our 57 foot diameter house with a Bosch jigsaw. We then smoothed the imperfections with the Kunz circular plane. The plane worked very well, though naturally considerable physical effort was involved. I still have the plane, which has not been changed at all in the design. The plane has a nickel or other coating that has not rusted after being in our garage all this time. I am giving the plane only four stars because, to be honest, I never learned to love it, useful and indispensable as it was. I recommend this plane for similar jobs, but if you have extensive curved work to smooth, a better current choice is the electric Makita Model Number 1002BA 4-3/8 Inch Curved Base Plane. Incidentally, I still have the wonderful Bosch jigsaw which has never faltered, though I now have three newer models of the same brand.

I was introduced to the Kunz Plane a few years ago while visiting a woodworker's shop in Reno, NV. I was able to bring this gadget to my shop and have made several attempts to find the proper milieu to really utilize this Plane. I saw large alphabet letters out of Softwood, which I round the edges of every curve and contour. I built several Black Oak Rocking chairs thinking this is were the Compass Plane would work with hardwood and a softer radius arc. That wasn't the case. I made every adjustment I could to offset using other tools in the my toolchest instead of the Compass Plane. If you are not a master woodworker in need of every tool imaginable, this is a tool with limited capabilities. I lowered the feed table of my drum sander and it provides the smooth controlable "eased' edge I was looking for with the Compass Plane. Otherwise it is a great conversation piece.