This can be accomplished with nothing more than the following (no affiliate links):

• Japanese style saw ~$30
  
• El-cheapo Kanna Block Plane ~$14
  
• A few chisels, honed razor sharp ~$30-60 (I bought the Irwin Marples set with the bevel guide... VITAL in helping you establish a razor edge!)
  
• Sandpaper
  
• Finish. I used Watco Natural Danish Oil ~$9
  
• Not absolutely necessary, but helpful: Drill/Drill bits
  
  And the wood.. well, while purchasing some $2/board foot maple from a local miller (found on craigslist), I simply asked if he had some walnut scraps for wedges/inlays, he threw a bunch in (probably 10 board feet worth).

First, what is your goal? To prep stock by hand, to clean up after power tools? fine micro adjustments on tenons?

I'll just go through the order of operations and then you can decide what you will or won't use.

Start with a rough sawn board from the mill. Shaggy, cupped, and twisted.

Bench Planes

1. Scrub plane. There are dedicated scrubs, like the Stanley #44 but they are rare. There are also new scrubs like the pinnacle (high end woodriver) and expensive. The best thing to do is get a rough around the edges #4, put a heavy camber on the blade, and widen the mouth.
   These are used to remove a lot of material, and generally used cross grain. Great for getting a rough board in shape, or getting a board to the required thickness.
   
   
2. Jack Plane. In Stanley lingo, a #5. These are fairly long and wide, and they are used to clean up after your scrub plane. Because they are long and wide, they are good for getting things fairly flat. Generally used diagonal to the grain first, then with the grain.
   
   
3. Jointer. These are long. A #7 is good for most things. A #8 is good if you work with boards over 6 feet long often. This will flatten the board. Because it's so long, it will skip over small low spots. So you will have a flat board, but not necessarily a smooth board
   
   
4. A smoother. Stanley lingo #4, or the preferable and wider 4 1/2. This is what you use to get that flat board smooth. They are short, generally around 9". It should have a very tight mouth and set up to take a very light shaving.
   
   It's also used to get your piece ready for a final finish. That means cleaning up where joinery meets (like dovetails and half laps) and removing any machine marks, squeeze out, or clamping indentations.
   
   Because this is such a versatile sized plane, many people skip a #5 and just use a smoother. It will be your most used plane, so get a good one.
   
   Optional - A number 6 Fore plane. Many people substitute a scrub plane with a fore plane. You can also use it as a small jointer in spots where a jack is too small but a #7 is too big
   
   Specialty planes
   
   The block plane. Many people recommend a block in the initial purchase, but IME it's almost never the right tool for the job. Unless you need to scribe a door or cabinet really quick, a properly set up smoother is a better choice. If you have a really tight spot to get into or need to plane a very small, thin edge, a block is good.
   
   Shoulder plane - these are great for squaring up tenons and rabbets
   
   Rabbet plane - cutting rabbets
   
   Plough plane - Cutting dados
   
   As far as what to buy - Pre WWII (or even war time) Stanley bailey pattern represents the best value. They are as good as any plane sold today. However tuning them up can be tricky. You may think it's good but it still cuts like crap.
   
   I would recommend buying a brand new smoother for your first plane. That way you have a good frame of reference as to how a properly tuned plane works and can be adjusted.
   
   Good - woodriver V3. This is pretty much an exact reproduction of a Pre-WWII Stanley bedrock plane, but with a thicker iron. I also really like the T10 steel they use in their irons.
   
   Better/Best - Veritas No.4. Very high quality plane. Personally I hate the norris style adjustment.
   
   Best - Lie Nielsen #4 1/2. Yes, it costs almost as much as my tablesaw, but it's an amazing plane.
   
   
   

You're in luck.

You can sometimes find a Faithfull No. 7 Jointer Plane for less than $100 in the US. Faithfull is a UK company, but I am not sure if you can order directly from them and ship to the US for less than $100.

Amazon sometimes has them (actually, a marketplace seller), but they seem to go in and out of stock, currently out of stock:

https://www.amazon.com/Faithfull-PLANE7-No-7-Jointing-Plane/dp/B007CFFYIO/

The Faithfull No. 6 seems to be available on amazon now:

https://www.amazon.com/Faithfull-FAIPLANE6-No-6-Fore-Plane/dp/B002SHR7PE/

Bullnose or chisel plane. Very useful, not very common in most tool collections, in your price range. http://www.amazon.com/Woodstock-D3750-Bull-Nose-Plane/dp/B005W11QTG/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1449087289&sr=8-4&keywords=chisel+plane

Pretty much anywhere....

https://www.amazon.com/Stanley-Iron-for-78-Plane/dp/B0044D35RE/ref=sr_1_28?keywords=stanley+78+plane&qid=1573588803&sr=8-28

That knot will be very difficult to deal with. If it were me, I would ditch that piece and start over with a new piece with no knots. A tool that you may find very helpful in forming a saw from wood is a block plane. A block plane will work much much faster than sand paper for shaping. There are tons of good videos on youtube about planes, this one does a pretty good job of explaining block planes.

Just a word of caution, if you do choose to go out and buy a block plane, don't just buy a cheap one of the shelf at any old hardware store, those are very low quality and require a lot of work to get them in good working order. You should expect to pay more than $50.00 US for a decent entry level block plane.

Sharing my experiences with budget planes in the hopes it will help you.

• I enjoy using my Woodriver #4. It's the best of all my planes.
  
  
• I have a hock blade and chip breaker in my #3 non-Stanley vintage. It's awesome. If you go vintage, upgrading the blade and chip breaker is a big improvement.
  
  
• I have a #8 Stanley and it's great (after tuning). I think it's a sweetheart, but not a bedrock...
  
  
• I haven't used Lie-Nielsen or Veritas... and I can never bring myself to buy a plane that expensive. But if you're building furniture, it might be worth the investment.
  
  
• Avoid Groz. Fit and finish is too poor to tune. Block plane was unusable on hard woods.
  
  
• Avoid Buck Brothers. Fit and finish is too poor to tune. Jack plane barely usable as a scrub plane.
  
  
• All of my block planes suck... Eventually I'll get myself a Woodriver, Veritas or Lie Nielson.
  
  
  Okay... now I have block plane envy. I did a quick check and at these prices I would go for the LN for the block plane. That'll be sharp right out of the box.
  
  Woodriver ~ $110 https://www.amazon.com/WoodRiver-Standard-Block-Plane-Adjustable/dp/B003VR65LM/
  
  Lie Nielsen ~ $115 https://www.lie-nielsen.com/product/block-planes/small-block-planes?node=4072
  
  Veritas ~ $155 http://www.leevalley.com/us/wood/page.aspx?p=47881&cat=1,41182,41189&ap=1
  
  

I have several modern Vertias planes, joiner, jack smoother, etc. I also have a 6" (or so) Stanley block plane that was my go to plane when I did cornice work during the summer months as an undergrad and building multiple small wooden boats over the past 40 years since. If you were going for a joiner, jack, etc. I would recommend spending the money on a Veritas bevel up plane, but for a general purpose small block plane the the Stanley is a good option. Something like this one.

https://www.amazon.com/Stanley-12-920-4-Inch-Contractor-Grade/dp/B0000223QY/ref=wl_mb_wl_huc_mrai_1_dp?ie=UTF8&pd_rd_i=B0000223QY&pd_rd_r=N6MABBVFT17NY6TH1YC4&pd_rd_w=zmgoV&pd_rd_wg=t3iKf

They have 4 variants on the same plane. I just went out and looked. I and mine does not even have a model number on it but it is a bevel up plane.

I'm in the same boat as you. Was thinking of picking up a Hock and cambering the original iron that came with my #5.

http://www.hocktools.com/products/bp.html

Also a cheaper option, probably lower quality: http://www.amazon.com/Stanley-12-313-Bench-Plane-Replacement/dp/B00002X1ZE

And Hock from Amazon : http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003373MOI/ref=pd_lpo_sbs_dp_ss_1?pf_rd_p=1944687582&pf_rd_s=lpo-top-stripe-1&pf_rd_t=201&pf_rd_i=B00002X1ZE&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_r=141NKJR5R2C8FGR22SEQ

Please post back if you find any other options. Thanks!

Yup! If you're willing to spend the time sharpening the cutting iron, grizzly planes are pretty awesome. The sharpening equipment you use for your chisels can be used for a plane.

Anatomy of hand plane

Grizzly 10 inch plane Smoothing plane

1 of a 1000 youtube videos on sharpening the cutting iron

​

​

IIRC, the plane comes decently sharp to work well for a good amount of time. The blade doesn't seem to hold an edge for long though, although that might be normal and I just hate sharpening.

Having had this plane a few years now, it does the job fairly well, although I would probably buy the comparable grizzly as I have the 14" grizzly jack, and it is much nicer than the buck bro's plane.

If you're looking to expand your collection, this plane actually gets great reviews across the woodworking forums, and you can't beat the price. I may go pick up a couple more this weekend, the one I currently have I ground a radius into the blade and it works amazing as a scrub plane.

I think that a bunch of CA in the small crack near where your sand is would be OK but that large punky knot further up is going to cause more problems. Is the other side of the plank any nicer?

A #5 or #5-1/2 would be a handy size to start out with, especially with this task in mind. My 5-1/2 is the WoodRiver model but that might be beyond your budget (and even it is on the cheap side). This guy might be worth a gamble but will likely require a lot more tuning up than a more expensive model. And don't forget to budget in a sharpening setup!

I've bought several things from Amazon for the shop, and they're just the sorts of things that /u/abnormal_human suggests; Woodcraft also sells through Amazon, so you can get some decent hand tools that way, but that's not really "amazon" per se. For a recent birthday my wife went a little nuts on my Amazon wishlist and I received two waterstones, a lapping plate, and this shoulder plane - very extravagant gifts.

Amazon is also a pretty good place to shop for some woodworking machinery if you want to buy new and especially if you happen to have Amazon prime; free delivery on a drill press or a band saw can be kind of a big deal. Those are on my "dream shop" wish list...not going to happen any time soon, but if I can't dream on the Internet...where can I?

Another neat thing that I didn't know about until recently is camelcamelcamel which is an amazon price tracker. Companies adjust their retail price on amazon all the time, and you can set thresholds at which you would like to be notified. For example, here is the price history for the drill press I linked above. Helps to see if it's a good time to buy, or if you should maybe wait.

Have fun!

No, I only deburred when moving from one stone to the next. Is that going to be a big problem?

I just flattened both sides of the chip breaker today. It isn't a mirror finish but I think this made some improvements. It is cutting easier (when it isn't choking)

That is a really informative video! Thanks for the link! I'm astonished how drastic the differences were at such a microscopic scale

It is a cheap plane, they're made in the UK. Though unless I'm mistaken, it is at least one step above the planes you'd find at a big box store.. Perhaps I should buy a replacement iron?

Here is a photo of the shavings I'm getting now. They're better but still not good enough.

Also it is still choking after 10 strokes or so.. Maybe I didn't flatten the chip breaker well enough?

Yep

http://www.amazon.com/Jet-JJP-8BT-8-Inch-Jointer-Planer/dp/B001O0D6NS/ref=sr_1_4?s=hi&ie=UTF8&qid=1404595773&sr=1-4&keywords=jointer

http://www.lie-nielsen.com/standard-bench-planes/no.-8-jointer-plane/

mostly a mini hand planer, file and pocket knife. You could get away without the hand planer but it does make it easier. Glue and heavy weights to set it all up. You would be surprised how fast you can put one together. https://www.amazon.com/Great-Neck-Saw-LSO-Maker/dp/B000LNTGTM/ref=sr_1_2?s=power-hand-tools&ie=UTF8&qid=1536196045&sr=1-2&refinements=p_n_feature_keywords_browse-bin%3A2803928011

Im trying to decide if I should buy a new Japanese wooden style plane from amazon or take my chances with a used stanley plane (either 4 or 5). This would be my first plane (besides a cheapo wood block plane for 9bucks on amazon to mess with). So this plane would be my woodhorse for a bit while I experiment and see if I am interested in woodworking as a hobby.

I would prefer to buy new as I am inexperienced with spotting what can be restored and what can not. Garage sale season is over so my only option left is ebay or maybe craigslist for a old stanley plane. All the advice so far has made a point that new tools are a no-no...but is that for new stanley tools? would a new japanese one around the same price be good instead of risking a used purchase?

Japanese planes I saw on amazon:

Mini Plane (Block?)

Bigger Plane (no4/5?)

I'm assuming the bigger one would be doing the same job as a no4 or no5 stanley (correct me if i am wrong). But my thinking is that since the Japanese planes are a wood block for the body they can afford to put more into the blade giving you a lower price for the same quality of blade.

So with the prologue out of the way...onwards to chapter one!

My question is that I am wondering if it would be better for me to buy a Japanese style plane on amazon rather than risking buying a used stanley from ebay for the same price. With no experience restoring tools I fear I would end up wasting my money on something that is destined for the dust bin. Other alternatives are welcome but no 300 dollar tools... as a novice(wanting to see if woodworking is something they like) spending even 100 dollars on a rusty old tool makes me shiver. So what would be my best options?

I bought THIS one for not much more (currently $19) and it's really a great little tool.

It has an additional chip breaker/wedge which, I think, makes tuning and setting up easier.

I couldn't find a model number on the plane itself, but I'm pretty sure it's this one as my wife bought it for me on Amazon and it's not the low angle version.

I suggest buying tools for the project you’re trying as opposed to the other way around, but here’s my two cents.

Never go cheap on a planer. The hand planer is really all about the iron. I like a long stout iron to prevent warping and vibration. As a first I recommend a number 3 or 4.5 smoothing plane. Here’s a link for 4.5 smoothing plane on amazon
https://www.amazon.com/WoodRiver-4-1-2-Smoothing-Plane/dp/B00GTRLTFI

Next get your hands on a small block plane and then a jack plane. After those get your hands on a big boy like a #6 bench plane.

Once again though if I was just starting I’d buy based on need instead.