flattening large panels with a low-angle jointer plane

a jointer plane by itself will not create any tear outs – the blade setup will.

the nice thing about bevel up planes (and the LV LA jointer is one of them) is that you can change the angle of attach of the blade by resharpening the bevel to your needed angle. or better yet – have different blades with different angles on the bevel for different applications.

yes, the LV LA jointer is very suitable for flattening a workbench.

FYI. I recommend reading a good book about planes – it’ll makes a lot of things ‘click’. Garrett Hock’s “the handplane” book is fantastic!

-- ㊍ When in doubt - There is no doubt - Go the safer route.

Thanks for the quick reply and for clearing that up, PurpLev! Sounds like my best bet is to get the LV LA jointer with a spare blade with a higher bevel.

You know the funny thing is that I bought Garrett’s book a month ago, but it’s sitting in a stack of about 6 books that I bought at the same time. I’m midway through reading the books in the stack (just finished Chris Schwarz’s workbench book). Guess I need to move Garrett’s book higher up the list and read it next. :)

Thanks again!

“Sounds like my best bet is to get the LV LA jointer with a spare blade with a higher bevel.”
Or you can get a “normal” angle plane and hone a back bevel on it to get angles steeper than 45 degrees.

-- Galootish log blog, http://www.timberframe-tools.com

Or you can get a “normal” angle plane and hone a back bevel on it to get angles steeper than 45 degree

yes – but you cannot sharpen that high angle plane to anything shallower than the 45.

-- ㊍ When in doubt - There is no doubt - Go the safer route.

>>“Or you can get a “normal” angle plane and hone a back bevel on it to get angles steeper than 45 degrees.”

The problem with that is that the only quality “normal” angle jointer plane on the market is the LN with is $425 compared to the LV LA jointer for $260. Even with buying a second blade for the LV, I’d still save $100. Not to mention, I’d have 2-planes-in-one since I’d be able to use the LA blade on my shooting board and the higher-angle blade for truing up large panels.

I’ve seen people suggest getting an older Stanley jointer plane off of eBay, but I’ve been ripped off on eBay before years ago. So, I’m leery of getting anything from eBay these days.

Lie-Nielsen has a pretty cool YouTube channel. Here’s a link to the first part of two videos on “large block planes”. The bevel up jointer is among these. I’m pretty sure they go over sharpening angles and all that during the course of the two videos. http://www.youtube.com/user/LieNielsen#p/u/29/q2_EgqLCv78