HNT Gordon - wooden body shoulder plane (Rating: 5)

This is a review not only of a tool but of the customer service that backs it.

HNT Gordon makes wooden body hand planes. To anyone who frequents Lumberjocks that is unlikely to be news. The planes are what you would expect, beautiful to look at, comfortable to hold, a joy to use. Also probably not news.

I only own one wooden body shoulder plane, this one, but I do own a Lie Nielsen metal body shoulder plane, a Veritas metal body shoulder plane, and multiple wooden body bench planes to compare to.

HNT Gordon shoulder planes do what they are supposed to do, cut right up to the edge of the body and leave a square shoulder behind. This plane is comfortable to use and has no problem cutting through domestic US hardwoods. The body is easy to grip and the where and how to hold it is not a question. For me the wooden body plane is a bit easier on my hands for prolonged use. All of the wooden corners are smoothed and the surface is silky. I am not prepared to say a Gordon shoulder plane is better or worse at doing it's job than a LN or Veritas shoulder plane but I can say it is prettier.

But that's kind of what you would expect from a high end plane, a quality tool that performs quality work. But that's not where the story ends.

I have had this Gordon shoulder plane for a while, I don't really use it extensively but I do enjoy using it when I do get a chance. The other day I pulled the plane out to use and noticed a mechanical problem. I couldn't figure out how to fix it myself and I thought there was an issue with the plane. I went to the HNT Gordon web site and clicked the contact us link. I thought, hey it's worth a shot, what have I got to lose. I sent an email describing the problem, a couple pictures, and asked for some help.

Now here's where it starts to get good. I received and answer from Terry Gordon himself, in less than 24 hours, which I thought was smashing given that I am in the States and HNT Gordon is on Australia. Terry didn't ask me what I had been doing to the plane, how I might have screwed it, he just just looked at the pictures, read my email, and asked one question, where should he send a replacement. Not "oh try this" or "why did you do that", just, no problem, where do I ship it. So right there I'm like WOW, it can't get any better than that, and you might think so too, but it does get better.

So I email Terry and send him my address, which is in the state of Colorado, USA. Colorado is mostly high mountain desert, it's pretty dry here most of the year round. We do get a good bit of snow but the air is pretty dry. Terry's next email to me is to let me know he wants to delay shipping me the replacement so he can dry down the wood so the moisture will be closer to the dryness of Colorado. I'm like, what !!, not only am I getting a replacement, no questions asked, the replacement is being custom tweaked to my environment. Ok, so who provides customer service like that?

All I can say is that, independent of the customer service HNT planes are reasonably priced and a pleasure to use. With customer service like I just experienced I'm not sure there is any competition.

I rate the HNT Gordon 3/4" shoulder plane 5 stars and the HNT customer service 10 stars!!