Nothing plain about this plane!

Interesting review, I was visiting the web site yesterday just curious about this particular plane….
I have the Veritas Bevel up Jointer, at the same way, an outstanding tool.

-- Francisco Luna, San Francisco Bay Area.

The guys at Lie-Nielsen will tell you, off the record, this is about the only plane you need in your tool box, for a wide variety of planing. Thanks for the review.

-- Tim -- http://tmuli.com

I love this plane…plain and simple.

-- You can discover more about a person in an hour of play than in a year of conversation. (Plato)

Was any honing needed before you began using the plane? I am curious how it will handle difficult grain, something like curly maple.

-- My job is to give my kids things to discuss with their therapist....medic20447@gmail.com

“If you work with exotics or curly woods,
I wouldn’t even bother with the traditional bevel-down tools.
Sorry, but that’s how I feel. I’d go straight to the bevel-up models. You’ll be happy.”

Christopher Schwarz
Popular Woodworking
October 8, 2008

-- Francisco Luna, San Francisco Bay Area.

Thanks for the review Mark, Now if I could just get my wife to buy me one of these planes for my birthday!

-- Paul Sayre Creativity is a drug I cannot live without. Cecil B. DeMille (1881 - 1959)

It’s at the top of my “eventually” list, with the BU smoother right behind. I think the Jack would be a perfect shooting plane.

-- "Bordnerizing" perfectly good lumber for over a decade.

No honing, MediKen, I just popped the blade in and started planing. The manual for the blade says the back is already lapped and the sole of the plane seems completely flat so I literally took it out of the box and started planing. I have a piece of maple I bought ‘just in case a project broke out’ and will probably try that when it warms up here (-37 C is getting to be a bit of a drag). I will probably run the blade over my wetstones before I start a real project, but it seem to be a real fine edge right from the word go. tinman65 Jenn and I seem to trade off buying each other tools, hers for sewing or the kitchen, mine for turning beautiful pieces of wood into sawdust ;-)

-- ...it's rennovation time!!!

Great review Mark. My wife gave me this plane Christmas before last with all 3 blades. I must say that if I could have only one plane, this would be the one I would pick. It is so versitle and useful, words cannot explain and can only be experienced thru using it. A must have in any shop!

I have the same plane, and it is fantastic. I have a selection of irons for my bevel up bench and block planes, and the versatility has to be experienced to be appreciated.

I ended up slowly ditching all but one of my bevel down planes in favor of bevel ups. I’m not a collector, so I sell off planes I don’t use to raise cash for those I want. The one bevel down plane I kept is an antique Stanley #4 set up for absolute final smoothing, and I crown the iron. It is impossible to crown a bevel up iron.

-- - Please help keep Lumberjocks an enjoyable escape by refusing to participate in political discussions. Simply spit out the bait and ignore the thread...

you can crown a bu iron, but its a real pita. David Charlesworth does it, he talks about how on one of his videos.
Thanks for the post, i was going back and forth about this plane for a month or so. Ill probably end up getting one.

-- "Democracy is by far the worst system of government. Except all the others that have been tried." ~ Winston Churchill

These are great. It’s on my short list. Thanks for the review.

-- Just 'cause a cat has kittens in the oven, it don't make 'em biscuits.

I held a brand new scrub plane by them and the tote screw was loose. I gotta believe they leave them loose when they ship them. The tote after all is made of shrinking and swelling wood.

-- "Not skilled enough to wipe jam on toast!"

I have a few of the Veritas planes including this one and it keeps me from even looking at a few of my bevel down planes, for my money they are great planes but they do need new handles right out of the box, I replace most of my plane handles with hand rasped Bloodwood, it stays pretty darned stable and it’s gorgeous on just about any plane and it turns so nicely on the lathe just finish with light cuts there and give it a coat of boiled linseed oil and the next day a couple of coats of wax burnished in for feel and voila perfect plane!...

The handles are a cinch too, rough out a handle blank and rasp the rough shape, finish with files, you get a mirror finish and a handle made to fit your hand, plus if you ever get to ugragde or replace the the tote and knobs are in “mint” condition for the next fella who may just wnt to play tug of war with the factory wood.

A couple of articles for those interested in BU planes.

Firstly, a review/examination of the LV LA Jack and its concept that I wrote about 5 years ago. This plane was given to me by Rob Lee (of Lee Valley/Veritas). The article predates the rise of BU planes and predicts their success (amazing that it has been so few years!).

http://www.inthewoodshop.com/ToolReviews/Son%20of%20Stan%20or%20LV%20and%20its%20development%20of%20the%20Bevel%20Up%20Jack%20plane..html

The second article is more recent, written a year ago, and describes a technique I developed for cambering bevel up plane blades. Rob Lee referred to this in his presentation at the “Woodworking in America: conference.

http://www.inthewoodshop.com/WoodworkTechniques/TheSecretToCamberinBUPlaneBlades.html

Regards from Perth

Derek

-- Building and Reviewing Tools at http://www.inthewoodshop.com

Have one this jack, used for nail-free board only.

-- masrol, kuala lumpur, MY.

OK as for crowning a bu iron or any iron really, it’s a cinch, if you have a felt wheel and some white honing compound. I use one on a mandrel on my lathe so I can keep it low speed with a finger grip at the heel of the blade and just enough pressure to keep it in contact with the side of the wheel vary slight pressure with two fingers just behind the two corners of the leading edge DO NOT WEAR GLOVES you want to feel any heat building up in the steel, a couple of seconds is all it takes and your crown will be mirror shine sharp you can hone the whole blade this way , but it takes practice never mind fancy and expensive jigs I say, we are craftsmen/women whose hands and eyes are meant to create beautiful things, put away your micrometers and Veritas jigs and craft with your hands and eyes, when I turn on my lathe I look at the chisel I am handling not a diagram with specs.