Best block plane
Updated: 22 October 2026
You have eight amazon.co.uk listings open, and the Block Planes best-seller list is leading with Surform planes, which are rasps rather than bevel-up block planes. The best block plane in this set depends on the edge you are cutting: a door wants a cutter near 40 mm, a first adjustable plane wants a moving mouth, and a corner wants a mini you can close your hand around. Nothing here is a UK test winner. There is no lab score for these ASINs. The rows, prices and review counts are on the [block plane comparison](/hub/hand-tools/block-plane). A qualifying purchase can earn us a commission at no extra cost to you. Peter F. wrote this on 22 October 2026 from those listings and from public UK notes, not from a bench test.
You have eight amazon.co.uk listings open, and the Block Planes best-seller list is leading with Surform planes, which are rasps rather than bevel-up block planes.
You have eight amazon.co.uk listings open, and the Block Planes best-seller list is leading with Surform planes, which are rasps rather than bevel-up block planes. The best block plane in this set depends on the edge you are cutting: a door wants a cutter near 40 mm, a first adjustable plane wants a moving mouth, and a corner wants a mini you can close your hand around. Nothing here is a UK test winner. There is no lab score for these ASINs. The rows, prices and review counts are on the block plane comparison. A qualifying purchase can earn us a commission at no extra cost to you. Peter F. wrote this on 22 October 2026 from those listings and from public UK notes, not from a bench test.
Our top picks
| Badge | Product | Cutter width | Mouth | amazon.co.uk reviews | Note | Price | Offer |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Best overall |  Spear & Jackson Spear & Jackson CBP65 | 35 mm | Adjustable | 4.5 from 728 | 8.3 | about £16.20 | View offer |
 Spear & Jackson Spear & Jackson CBP95 | 42 mm | Adjustable | 4.5 from 547 | 8.7 | about £23.85 | View offer | |
| Alternative |  Jorgensen Jorgensen adjustable mini plane | 1.25 in | Not stated | 4.2 from 2,258 | 8.4 | about £14.99 | View offer |
On this page
What best can mean here
Best, on this page, means a fit you can defend from the listing and from the reviews that were saved with it. It does not mean the plane that topped a browse node, and it does not mean the dearest Stanley. The eight kept tools run from a £7.69 listing with no review line to a £50.42 Stanley with a pouch. Stars sit between 4.2 and 4.5 where a star line exists. A higher price does not lift that number.
Leave Surform planes out even when amazon.co.uk files them under Block Planes. A rasp cuts with punched teeth. A block plane cuts with one iron, bevel-up, bedded at a low angle or at a standard angle near 20–21°. If the title is a pattern number such as 9½, read the centimetre line. The CBP95 body is listed at 17.5 cm. That is the length. 9½ is the name. Angle words are sorted on low angle vs standard block plane, not by a bullet that says low angle and then prints 21°.
Three fits, not one winner
For a door edge or a site fitting, the Spear & Jackson CBP95 at £23.85 states a 42 mm cutter and an adjustable mouth. Across 547 reviews the line is 4.5. In the first 49 review blocks, people use it one-handed on doors and as a site plane so a better plane stays on the bench. Some irons cut a shaving from the box. The sole is called reasonably flat and a bit rough, the depth adjuster is called fiddly, and on one plane the depth screw broke in two during reassembly. Paul Sellers, writing on 16 May 2023, described one Spear & Jackson 9½ he bought with a raised burr on the lateral adjuster. That is one workshop plane, not a defect rate for every CBP95. How little wood to take off a door is on block plane for a sticking door.
The two Stanleys with a 40 mm cutting-width line are the same kind of fit at a higher sticker. The 1-12-020 is £43.98 in the saved listing, 4.2 from 1,539 reviews, and on 21 October 2026 the public page showed £44.36. The 5-12-020 with pouch is £50.42, 4.5 from 783, and the bullets state 21° while also saying low angled. Reviewers cite bowed and cupped soles. Buy either when you want the Stanley name and a 40 mm iron and you will check the sole.
For a first plane that is not a full door edge, the Spear & Jackson CBP65 at £16.20 states a 35 mm cutter and an adjustable mouth, 4.5 from 728 reviews. Buyers hone the iron, and more than one calls that iron the weak part. It is not a 42 mm door plane and not a measured 12° bed. The Stanley 220 at £29.43 is the fit when a fixed mouth is acceptable: the bullets state 21°, and the line is 4.5 from 2,567. Stanley UK lists a 40 mm iron for 1-12-220. The amazon cutting-width line says 77 mm. Do not shop that 77 mm figure as the blade.
The Jorgensen mini at £14.99 is the fit for a corner, a cupboard edge, thin ply, or a rub already smaller than the iron. It is listed at 9 × 3.2 × 5 cm and 250 g, with a 1.25 inch width line, and 4.2 from 2,258 reviews. Reviewers do ease doors with it, and they say the narrow cutter makes a full edge slow. Use it when the spot is small. Do not buy it as a cheap 9½.
Who should skip a listing
Skip the ChongYue at £7.69 if you need a size you can trust or a review you can read. The bullets say 13.5 × 4 cm. The spec line says 10 × 2 × 1 cm and 20 g, next to a cast-iron claim, and the saved listing has no customer-review line. A door-trimming title does not repair that clash.
Skip the Stanley 220 if you need a moving mouth. The UK product page does not list one, and a mouth finished on an angle showed up in the review file as a reason for a return. Skip the 1-12-020 if you are paying about £44 so that you will not have to fettle. The saved criticism names a lever-cap screw that will not stay tight, a curved sole, and one unit that arrived looking used with a rusted adjuster. Many of the 50 reviews are still one-line praise, so the faults are specific rather than the whole file.
Skip the Robert Sorby RS-CBP95 at £32.99 if you need more than 24 reviews. All 24 were read. Several call it sharp, easy to adjust and a good size in the palm. The blade clamp is the weak detail, and at least one sole needed more than a light lap. The title says No. 9½ and 35 mm together, and the bullets say low angle with no degree. A spare iron is described as available, not as included.
Price does not buy the stars
Set the captured prices next to the star lines and the pattern breaks. The Jorgensen at £14.99 is 4.2 from 2,258. The CBP65 at £16.20 is 4.5 from 728. The CBP95 at £23.85 is 4.5 from 547. The Stanley 220 at £29.43 is 4.5 from 2,567. The Sorby at £32.99 is 4.3 from 24. The 1-12-020 at £43.98 is 4.2 from 1,539. The 5-12-020 at £50.42 is 4.5 from 783. The dearest plane does not have the most reviews, and the plane with the most reviews does not have a moving mouth.
What the money does buy, inside this set, is a wider iron, a pouch, a stated 21°, or a name. It does not buy a guarantee that the sole is flat or that the iron is the strong part. Budget a hone on every row. If two listings share 4.5, choose the cutter width and the mouth, then live with the fault the reviews actually repeat.
Common questions
Which of these planes is the one to buy for end grain?
None of these listings prints a measured 12° or 13° bed, so you cannot pick a true low-angle plane from a degree on the page. The closest shape is a 35 mm cutter with an adjustable mouth, which is what the CBP65 bullets state, at £16.20, with the iron called the weak part. The CBP95 is wider, at 42 mm, and also says low angle with no degree. For end grain you still want a sharp iron and a mouth just wider than the shaving.
Is the dearer Stanley better than the Spear & Jackson?
Not on the star line. The 1-12-020 at about £44 is 4.2 from 1,539. The 5-12-020 at £50.42 is 4.5 from 783. The CBP95 at £23.85 is 4.5 from 547, with a 42 mm cutter. The Stanley reviews add sole faults that the Spear & Jackson file, in the blocks we read, describes as reasonably flat and rough rather than cupped by a measured bow. If better means a Stanley pouch and a stated 21°, that is the 5-12-020, and you still lap the sole.
Is the Stanley 220 fully adjustable?
The bullets say the cutter rests at 21° and that the plane is manually adjustable. They do not describe a moving mouth. Stanley UK’s page for 1-12-220 lists depth, lateral adjustment and a 40 mm iron, and it does not list a sliding toe. One reviewer could not square the iron because the mouth was machined on an angle. Treat the 220 as depth and lateral, not as the fully adjustable title used on the 1-12-020. The amazon width line of 77 mm conflicts with the 40 mm iron on the UK page. Use 40 mm.
When is the Jorgensen mini the right buy?
Buy it at £14.99 when the work is a small rub, a cupboard edge, thin ply, or a corner your palm can reach, and when 4.2 from 2,258 reviews is enough evidence for you. Several of the first 50 reviews found the sole flat and the blade sharp. Skip it when the door edge is wider than 1.25 inches and you want one shaving across that thickness. Reviewers who tried that job said it works and that it is slow. The included-components line says Saw Blades, so look at the photos before you assume a spare iron.
Why do star ratings not rise with price?
Because the rating is an average of whatever buyers wrote, and in this set the faults do not vanish as the sticker climbs. A £50.42 Stanley at 4.5 still has cupped-sole reviews. A £16.20 Spear & Jackson at 4.5 has an iron that more than one buyer calls the weak part. A £7.69 listing has no star line at all. Use the count beside the stars. 2,567 reviews on the 220 tell you more than 24 reviews on the Sorby, even when you then reject the 220 for having no mouth adjustment.
Should I trust the Block Planes best-seller list?
Use it only as a warning. The visible leaders in that amazon.co.uk browse node were Stanley Surform planes, which cut with a rasp blade, not with a bevel-up iron. A best-seller rank can also sit in a neighbouring category: the CBP65 and CBP95 saved listings rank them in Hand Plane Blades. Rank is not a test, and it is not a match for your edge. Start from the job, then the mouth, then the centimetre line on the comparison.
Related pages
Sources
Public UK sources and amazon.co.uk listing files. Checked on 22 October 2026.
- John Lloyd, Top of the Blocks (retrieved 22.10.2026)
- UK Workshop: low-angle vs standard-angle block plane (retrieved 22.10.2026)
- UK Workshop: first block plane advice (retrieved 22.10.2026)
- Find My Tool: Stanley 60½ block plane (retrieved 22.10.2026)
- Stanley Tools UK: 220 adjustable block plane (retrieved 22.10.2026)
- HSE WIS23: wood dust (retrieved 22.10.2026)
- Consumer Rights Act 2015, section 9 (retrieved 22.10.2026)
- GOV.UK: General Product Safety Regulations 2005 (retrieved 22.10.2026)