No. 60-1/2 Adjustable Mouth Low Angle Block Plane Caliastro

This review will be in two parts, one for the tool and another for the company's customer service. Why? Because the first unit I received was machined out of tolerance and had to be replaced. When I discovered that there was a defect that would have made using the plane difficult, I emailed the customer support team, and described my problem (the main screw was off-center). They determined it was a defect and shipped out a replacement the very same day! I received the replacement plane in two days, and will be reviewing it instead of the first one I ordered. Having worked in customer support for over six years for different companies, I can say with no hesitation that Caliastro LLC stands behind their products and values each and every customer! They do it right, and I will have them at the top of my list for future purchases!I took the plane out of the box, and the sole was very flat. I don't have the measuring tools to determine exactly how flat +/- what tolerance it was, but it looked perfectly flat against a straight edge. I verified it side-to-side and front-to-back at multiple places, and even checked the opposing corners. Every time, it looked perfect to me. I gave the sole a light sanding with 400 grit sandpaper on a known flat surface to reduce the machining marks, and it showed no high or low areas. At this point, I was impressed and excited to see how it would do at work. I sharpened the blade using my jig to 25 degrees, checked the blade for flatness (it was also perfect), reassembled the plane, and tried it out. WOW! I will admit that I'm only a hobbyist, but this plane is fantastic! I can make shavings so thin I can see through them with minimal effort. I used it to smooth the raw end of a generic 2x4, and in no time it was smoother and flatter than I could have done with sandpaper. I then tried it on a 1x1/2 inch scrap piece of red oak, and was able to produce a bevel that I could rest the plane on with no wobbling in any direction. It was so smooth and flat that it shined in the sunlight. I was even able to smooth out a highly figured scrap piece (of I think ash) that has two knots running through it, and with careful use (and closing the adjustable mouth) it did the job very well. I ended up having so much fun smoothing and shaping scrap pieces that I forgot to take any pictures before it got too dark and cold.In summary: buy this plane from Caliastro and you won't regret your decision. Expect to sharpen the blade, and do any tuning that would be necessary for an under $100 plane, and if for some reason there is a defect, the company will take care of it quickly.

I'm a tech person but with no experience with planes to write about. I unboxed it, fiddled with it, took it apart, put it back together, figured out what each knob was for, tuned it (maybe "tooned" is more like it) without any YouTube or Google help, then used it. It works.....it works well. The insides could have a better finish, but the work surfaces are satisfactory for good use. It is sturdy and easy to use, so I'm happy with it

This is my first plane. I set it aside for a year because I was too intimidated to prep the iron and tune it up. I subsequently bought a Calistro No. 5 plane and and got it working satisfactorily after quite a bit of elbow grease and a little blood. Well, I pulled this Calistro 60 1/2 out of its dusty box and all I had to was hone the iron, cosman style on the back, which had deep flyout marks across it. Used a course and a fine diamond followed by 4000 and 8000 cheap wetstone with a little metal ruler on there to give a micro bevel, as you can see in the pictures. Back is cupped, which is OK...microbevel was not difficult to achieve and that is what counts. I used a std roller honing guide to take the bevel through the same grits. This thing was shaving sweet shavings less than an hour after I picked it up again...no problem. I waited a year? LOL. Pics speak for themselves.

Any new hand plane or chisel I expect to sharpen before use. This is no exception there. Compared to most of my better planes, the plane iron is rather soft, so I don't expect it to hold its edge for very long.The fit and finish on this was below par. The brass plating on the thumb screws was not applied completely. There are dings and dents at the front of the adjustable mouth plate. The lever cap screw appeared to be installed by a ham-fisted worker using whatever they could find that would go into the slotted screw head. The angle of the blade is a bit lower than my other 60½ planes. Because of this, the cut depth will be reduced because the adjustable mouth will not open wide enough.The good part is that the sole was flat and square.With the Calliasto name so prominent and beautifully plated on the cap, I would think they would have done a better job with the fit and finish

The media could not be loaded.  The product I bought, has a major flaw, in that the mouth was poorly machined leaving one side with much more metal than the other. It places the blade at a tilt and started to leave cuts into the wood I was planing. I was able to work around this issue, by putting a piece of paper towel at the area where it's too low. However, this is not an acceptable solution.After having some temporary fix I was able to start to get some really great results. So here are the pros and cons of the product if it did not have the defect.Pros: - Can quickly adjust blade cutting depth - Two blades that you can sharpen on you want - Slots in the blade for the adjustable angles - Heavy-duty, should last a long time - Can get super think shavings - Able to plane knots and other hard to plane areas compared to a No 4 block plane due to its higher cutting angle.Cons - The nobs to adjust the blade depth have weak areas between depth adjustment. So depending on how you hold this planer, you may accidentally adjust the blade depth. The fix is to hold it differently. - Due to the several moving parts, getting the blade straight takes some time getting right - Since its metal, and you start going ham on wood, this will start to get hot rather quickly. - It's harder to get a flat cut, due to its narrow and short size. Even with a 1 and 1/4 inch wood piece, it is hard to level it with this. This could be due to the blade not sitting right, but I cant tell.

Hecho con calidad

The plane required some fine "tuning", but is easy to adjust to give very thin shavings. It has a good weight and is easy to grip. Comparable with the Stanley No. 60 ½ block plane.

This is far better cast and machined compared to an almost identical Irvin block plane I purchased at the same time for 3 times the price.

Como un cepillo económico, ya sabía de antemano que el cepillo necesitaria una "manita de gato" para quedar listo para su uso (rectificar la suela del cepillo, quitar rebaba, afilar cuchilla, entre otros), pero lo que recibí fue un cepillo lleno de defectos de fabricación sin posible arreglo. El agujero del tornillo que sujeta la cuchilla y demás partes estaba chueco, la base donde sienta la cuchilla igualmente estaba checo, por lo que la cuchilla siempre se iba de lado, chocando con el cuerpo del cepillo. esos defectos hacían imposible que el cepillo funcionara aceptablemente, por lo que decidí devolverlo y buscar una opción uun poco mas cara, pero también de mejor manufactura.

the casting is rough - the metal requires lots of filing and the bed is rough and needs polishing - for amateurs this barely is a tool- for experienced hands it needs so much work it is simply not worth it !What happened to quality control ? why sell such a roughly made unit to find people become wary and the product no longer sells.