LV 62.5 Follow-up, long
Greg Sloop, Portland Oregon
>Well, I got to have a few hours with a LV 62.5 tonight, and I'll get quite a few more before I'm done...
I currently have had a LN 62 for just under a year and have done quite a variety of projects with it. I like it a lot. (Abbreviation note for those wondering. LV=Lee Valley, LN=Lie-Nielsen.)
One of my friends purchased a LV 62.5 at the WW show here in Portland OR a few weeks back.
He got the plane last week, but then promply moved. He opened the box, and looked at it, but then boxed it back up and thus I got it virtually untouched from LV. (He's letting me borrow it for a while...)
A few notes... There were what appeared to be water stains on the iron. Further, between the adjuster and iron, there was oil, but clearly some water residue. This left rust marks on the iron and on the brass adjuster. Nothing major, but if left untouched for months or weeks, it might be pretty bad. A little scrubbing with 600 grit WD sandpaper cleaned it right up. (I'll send some pics to Rob if he wants them...and perhaps post them here later...)
There was quite a lot of oil/film between the bed and iron - I'm sure to avoid the water/rust issues, but it seemed a little excessive. Again, minor nits...
(Ok, I had to find *something* wrong to preserve what little credibility I still have...)
I sharpened the 25deg iron to 50+ for an effective cut angle of ~62 deg.
I'm doing some specialty shelves out of QS Sycamore again, so I need the high cut angle.
(Note for those who aren't aware of this...high cut angles are much harder to push than say 45 deg cut angles. If you don't need higher angles to prevent tear-out, use something lower. It will be easier to push, and probably look better too. This is why having more than a couple of irons is a nice thing. You can use a 25deg for end grain, 45-50 for general stuff, and 60+ for super high figure stuff.)
I didn't spend much time polishing the back, and only put a tiny step bevel (from 25 deg to 50 deg) on the iron. Thus, I expected it to lose it's edge quickly - but it has done quite well.
The plane simply feels wonderful. I believe that the heft is part of the difference, but I'm not at all sure that's all of the equation.
It's a bit wider, IIRC 1/8" than the LN 62. This is a nice bonus, IMHO.
The handles feel nice to me, but I'm not much of an ergonomics freak. They could be plastic garden shovel handles and I'd probably think they were ok. So, take ergonomic kudo's with a grain of salt. They look very nice too, though probably not quite as nice as LN.
As I've said before, the iron is set back from the front of the plane much farther than in the LN62 and this makes it a joy to use. I can't emphasize this enough. It makes a huge difference.
The adjuster is much finer, IMHO, than the LN62. I also always feel there's just a bit too much lash in the LN, and that it's not fine enough in pitch. The LV62 adjuster I keep liking more and more. I'm not much of a guy to use the lateral adjust, thus it's mostly wasted on me - but if you can't sharpen your irons straight or like a lateral adjust, the LV has a very nice one.
One pet peeve on the LN is the iron cap. The LN uses a simple brass screw with a bit of a point on it. What I've experienced is that unless you crank it down quite hard, it will often come loose. Often you won't notice until the iron starts to chatter. Then you check the cap and find it's way loose. Tighten and the chatter goes away. This isn't a huge problem, but it can be annoying.
The solution to the above problem is to crank the iron cap down. But when you do, you can't make any projection adjustments - the iron is just being held too tightly to make any adjustments. Now, perhaps that's as designed, and I'm a moron, but I don't think that's the case.
(You can often find a happy medium where you don't get a loose cap iron and can still adjust projection, but it can be hard. More than occasionally, I find I'm unsuccessful and the cap iron is either too tight to allow projection adjust or too loose to stay firm, and it works its way out.)
The LV has a similar cap, but it's longer - which gives more of a fulcrum and the brass screw has a "foot" on it. (I don't know what else to call it. Perhaps some pictures later...) The cap doesn't come loose, and with a moderate tightness on the iron cap, you can still easily adjust projection of the iron without fussing with the tightness of the lever cap, both before and after.
The little screw that keeps the adjustable foot from banging into your sharpened iron is very nice. However, when taking a fine cut with the mouth wide open - not something one would often do - the shaving often gets caught behind/underneath the screw and stops up the mouth. This is easily fixed by closing the mouth down. I'm not sure how it will work when taking a thick shaving with the mouth wide open it may still occur - I've not tried it. I suppose you could always take the screw out if you found it annoying on a regular basis.
The front adjustable shoe on the LV adjusts very nicely. I think the LV that I have slides more easily and freely than the LN.
The LN does have the cam ring to help adjust the shoe, and the LV doesn't. Given how freely the LV slides, it isn't a problem at all. However, if the LV one was a bit stickier, it could be a problem. (If the LV engineering/manufacturing QC is good, I don't expect this to be a problem.)
The better feel and heft make it easy to get full length shavings - it seems easier to power through a full cut. The finer adjustment also helps, as you can more easily/quickly pick exactly how thick a cut you want to take.
I think that's about all for now.
As before, I'd gladly sell my LN 62 at a loss to pick up the LV 62.5. It may not be as pretty, but it's just got a lot better feel to me.
Both the LV and LN are very nice planes, and worth every penny. For novices certainly, and IMHO virtually everyone else, both are excellent planes. The low-angle bevel up design allows for greater versitility, IMHO.
However, when one considers cost and performance, the LV wins in my shop hands down. It's cheaper and performs better for me.
Cheers,
Greg
