Hand planes

A decision about planes

After reading a bunch of reviews and articles over the past few months, I decided to begin with the trio of Veritas bevel-up planes: Jointer, Jack, and Smoother.

Several factors swayed my decision:

• The possibility that these planes might be easier for me to get comfortable with than more traditional Stanley Bedrock-style planes, due to the simplicity of the bevel-up design, as well as the innovation of the set screws that keep the blade from shifting.
• The versatility that I gain by being able to swap in different blades with different angles (25°, 38°, and 50°) that combine with the 12° bed to provide the capability to work with a range of woods, including more difficult woods such as those with reversing grain patterns like birds-eye maple. There's even a 38° toothed blade that makes it easier to work on wood that has knots or that needs a significant amount of stock removal, such as wood that has suffered from significant planer tear out.

• The optional Bevel-Up Jointer Fence, which I suspect will enable me to get results with jointing work (something I'm really excited about) in much the same way as training wheels enabled me to learn to ride a bicycle. The pros make edge planing look easy, but this is a heavy tool (7½ pounds) and I think trying to keep it true on a narrow edge has to be challenging for someone learning to use it.

• My satisfaction with other excellent Veritas tools that I've purchased and used, including their router table system I talked about earlier. The toolmakers at Veritas have earned my respect: they are clever, innovative, focused on quality, and put a lot of thought into making their tools easier to use.

I've read some reviews that have complained about the comfort of the Veritas tote (rear handle), which is straighter than a traditional Stanley. One article I read said that traditional totes were designed for lower tables that called for a more downward angle of push; whereas, newer tables tend to be higher, so a more horizontal angle of push is called for.

My Record #4 has a more traditional tote, and though I've been able to work with it, I don't find it comfortable (I find it too curved and a bit cramped), so I'm actually looking forward to trying the Veritas tote, which promises to be more to my liking. In addition, I think Veritas listened to customer feedback, as they now ship totes with a revised design. Finally, if I really don't like it, I'll probably just pull it off and do some work on it, as I've done with some of my saw handles. Basically, I'm not too concerned about the tote issue.

I'm sure it will be a few years before I get familiar enough with these tools to be able to say much more about them, except perhaps for some first handling impressions. In the meantime I'm headed out to my shop to create some additional shelving to hold these planes (I still have a little free space over the windows). The excuse to putter around in my shop already has me happy about this purchase, even though the planes haven't arrived yet!

Here are some of the reviews I read while pondering this decision:

• Derek Cohen's very comprehensive reviews:
  
  • Lee Valley Bevel Up Jointer
  • Veritas (Lee Valley) Bevel Up Smoother
  • Veritas Low Angle Smoothing Plane (talks about the BUS, as well)
• Alice Frampton, who has a shop in Cornwall and a very nice site called Cornish Workshop, has written some insightful reviews that are posted on the UKWorkshop forums under the name Alf:
  
  • Veritas Low-Angle Jack (actually a bevel-up plane)
  • Veritas Bevel-up Smoother
  • Veritas Bevel-Up Jointer Fence
• Chris Gochnour's brief editor's review for Fine Woodworking: Veritas - Bevel-Up Jointer Plane
• Christopher Schwarz's article about Clifton Bench planes.
• Phil Bumbalough's BenchMark review: Veritas Low-Angle Smoothing Plane

First impressions. The first impression I had was that they are bigger and more massive than I had expected. The Jointer is a huge tool! And the Bevel-Up Smoother is wide and densely heavy, as well. The Jack was the only one that didn't surprise me. The quality and finish of all three is impressive, much better than the Records.

As I mentioned earlier, I had hoped I would find the Veritas totes more comfortable than the one on my Record Smoother. In fact, they far exceed my hope; for my hands, they are very comfortable.

The shelves turned out nicely. I made them out of clear pine, 40″ wide, with a bit of a lip at the front, more to make me feel secure than for necessity (we don't have earthquake tremors here). My shop smells wonderful; I love the fragrance of wood!

I found a couple DVDs by David Charlesworth, who provides a great introduction to the techniques of plane sharpening and hand planing. (Though watching someone as skilled as him at work sure makes me feel like a bumbling rookie!) The DVDs are sold by Lie-Nielsen.

In the book Designing Web Navigation by James Kalbach, I came across this: Abraham Lincoln is reported to have once said, "Give me six hours to chop down a tree, and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe." Well, give me a year to begin to learn hand planing, and I guess I'm probably going to need to spend the first 10 months learning how to sharpen blades!

I also found a beautiful book about planes and planing: The Handplane book by Garrett Hack, Taunton Press, Newton, 1997. Hack covers the history of planes, tuning and planing techniques, and a detailed exploration of the planes for truing and sizing, joinery, surfacing, scraping, and other specialties.

First use. I took a few days off to work on my workbench. (I wrote about flattening the top on the Sanders page.) Today I was ready to start preparing the first pieces of maple for resurfacing the top of the table, which involved sharpening and honing the first plane blade (for the Jointer) and planing the edges. I spent the better part of five hours in my shop and all I got done was one edge! It's more challenging than I had thought it would be, but the results are more beautiful than I had hoped.

Sharpening took most of my time. I used David Charlesworth's method, though he makes it look so much easier than what I experienced! I actually typed up the instructions, printed them out and hung them right in front of my face, and still I fumbled. And once I was finished, I set the blade in the plane, took a first pass, and discovered I had somehow introduce a small chip in the blade's edge that was leaving a ridge in the board's edge. Argh! So I started over. The second time I was more confident and managed to do it right, even sharpening a slight curve into the blade edge.

The Veritas Jointer handles beautifully, and I learned that my table is at a good height. I was able to produce continuous shavings that were 8' long and between .002″ and .007″ thick. This is the first time I've ever planed an edge, and I ended up with an edge that is perpendicular to the sides, flat along the length, silken to the touch, and gorgeous to the eye. Wow!

So what have I learned? I'm going to be able to do much nicer work, but it's going to take me much longer to do. I'm probably going to add a few more Veritas planes to my collection (I just read a few very positive reviews about the Veritas block and low-angle block planes, one of which specifically compares the Veritas to the Record, so I may eventually replace all my Records.) And I really look forward to returning to my shop tomorrow!

• Chris Gochnour's brief editor's review for Fine Woodworking: Veritas - Low-Angle Block Plane
• Alf's review: Veritas Block Planes
• Phil Bumbalough's BenchMark review: Veritas Low-Angle Block Plane. "[T]his is without a doubt the best plane I own and maybe even the best tool. It is the practical embodiment of quality and performance."