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I don't recall ever seeing much talk about scrub planes but if you are a hand tool addict it might well be worth getting (both LN and Veritas make superb scrubs) or making one.
Regular planes, when sharp, do take beautiful wide shavings with ease, but they really are thin. Once you crank the depth you really need to push harder and harder, and taking the bulk of a thick back or side can take a fair amount of time and sweat.

Trevor Gore recently mentioned that he uses a scrub plane and I thought about giving it a try. I bought a replacement blade and fitted it to an old wooden smoother. I must say I am quite impressed. You are not getting shavings anymore, but really thick chips. The cutting effort is very small, I could even plane this dense rosewood side by holding the board down with one hand and pushing the plane with the other hand. Of course there can be major tearout especially when going with the grain, but it's really OK if going crossgrain. The idea is to remove the bulk faster and with less effort, say down from 4.5 to 3mm, and then continue with a fore/jack/smoother. The 1mm between 3 and 2 should be enough to get rid of tearout, and between 3.5-3 you can use a lighter scrub cut.

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That's been on my to-do list for a while now Bought a blade, but haven't gotten around to making a body for it yet. Same for a scraper plane. But I did make a jointer, which has greatly improved my plate joining.

Glad to hear the scrub works as well as it's supposed to

Haaa finally some interest Really it works nicely. I also tried it on 1/2" ebony fb blank which always gave me the shivers thinking I'll fight with it for a day to thin, worked well and with little effort.

I also upgraded my plate joining but just shelled the $ and got a LN fore

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Scrub Planes are very often of the wooden variety. With good reason too - the obvious weight (or lack of) advantage.
If I resaw my own timber (not very often) I simply don't have a need for fast stock removal. Some of the supplied Indian Rosewood boards though can be incredibly thick for our needs - 6 mm for a Back that I had recently. Given that I take it down to around 2.5 mm's that's a lot of timber removal (not to mention waste).
That's when a scrub Plane comes in useful. Just have to be very careful of grain direction.

Before getting a LN scrub, I found a metal smoother at a flea market for 8$ just curved the blade left it in one position, as adjustment screw an yoke were shot, and it still does the job after 13 years. Dennis , did you use the hornbeam to make the jointer plane ?? Dennis I have 2 , 82 in broken (as new) lenox diemaster metal bandsaw blades 3/8in 3 tpi that can be easily made into a turning bowsaw I have earlier on already made 2 of them .If you want a blade PM me , can give you instructions on making one. cheers

The really amazing part of the scrub is chewing down an ebony FB blank. I have some as thick as 11mm, and thinning those with a smoother is really a pita, not only because of the amount of work but also because of the blade wear. I just went through one with the scrub and it was pure joy.

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