What? Who needs a Veritas bevel up jointer plane? *LINK*

I do!

Denny

>It isn't scheduled to ship until about 9/6. I'm really looking forward to trying out the dedicated fence. It was easy to rationalize, no room for a tailed jointer. Now I need to find a new home for my old, pretty, but not very flat #7...

Oh, that one... Tried it this weekend...

Denis Chénard, Orléans, Ont.

>...and it is a beaut!

DC

We needs it.

Brian Sullivan - Montreal

>

Ok... Enough teasing...

Denis Chénard, Orléans, Ont.

>We of the Ottawa Woodworkers Association (www.ottawawoodworking.ca) got to try this plane on Sunday. We are not a big group yet, but we're right in Veritas country, which has its benefits...

On Sunday we held the first OWA plane fest at my house. We had somewhere near 50 planes to play with, including 14 planes and such from Veritas. The plan was to allow people to test-drive the Veritas planes, and compare them with the participants' own planes. Based on an estimate from one of our "plane nuts", we had over $6500 worth of planes on the table (that's using the bottom range estimate for the vintage planes).

The LA jointer was the star of the show. Blades are interchangeable with the LA jack and the BU smoother, so if you own more than one of these you get added flexibility.

Think of this plane as a stretched version of the LA jack. At 22" long or so, it has the length to flatten large panels.

Disclaimer: I'm still a rank amateur when it comes to handplanes. But judging from the reaction from the more experienced ones in the group, this plane is a winner. Actualy it was hard to get your hands on it, seems there was always someone using it...

I had a really nasty piece of maple waiting for this plane. The grain ran in and out of the surface. With the LA blade it did tear out in some spots. We switched to the high angle blade provided to us, and it did a perfect job, no tearout, smooth as a baby's bum over the whole length.

I did get a quick try of the fence, and it is well designed, with adjustment for setting it square to the plane sole.

There's only one thing that bothered me about this plane, and it's the tote. I am aware of the controversy about the Veritas totes, but in fact their totes always felt fine with me, until I tried the jointer. The length of the plane is such that you use a very long stroke when using this jointer, and the tote feels somewhat uncomfortable in this situation. Not a deal breaker, mind you, but my vintage Stanley #6C, which is fairly close in length and weight, does not exhibit this phenomenon.

All in all, a very good handplane, and out of the nine people present at out plane fest, there will be at least one sale, with possibly 2-3 more...

When I get all the pictures taken on that day I'll post the full story of our plane fest...

Mucho thanks to Veritas for giving us the opportunity to preview this plane.

DC

Love those widgets!

Frank D. in Montreal

>

Tote?

Hoa Dinh

>Is the tote on the new jointer more like the one on the LA jack or the one on the BU smoother?

For whatever reason, I feel the BU smoother tote more comfortable. I tried to swap the totes between them and couldn't do it (I can't recall the specific).

I wonder if LV can offer the jointer (or Veritas planes in general) with different tote options.

-- Hoa

You guys are as bad as spokeshave users who

Eric Hedberg

>are always complaining about the handles. Maybe the Veritas team needs to make a kit similar to the one available for the spokeshaves, then everyone could custom make their own tote. Panther totes perhaps? Eric (Whose glad he doesn't have to be the one designing for this fussy group)

I didn't check that closely...

Denis Chénard, Orléans, Ont.

>But the tote seems to be the same as the one on the LA jack. Then again, we had the BU smoother there too, but I didn't pay attention to the tote difference, I didn't know there was one. Felt good to me, that's what mattered...

DC

Re: You guys are as bad as spokeshave users who

Bill Grumbine (Kutztown PA)

>Everyone's hand is different. I like the LV totes, as my hand is somewhat larger than most. I have an antique Stanley #4 and while the tote is very attractive to look at, it is a bit cramped for my hand to hold on to. It is unusual for me to find a handle on ANYTHING that fits my hand, from coffee cups to cars to just about anything you can think of in between.

Bill

Re: woodworkers...

paul womack

>I wonder if LV can offer the jointer (or Veritas planes in general) with different tote options.

Woodworkers can always change handles that are made of wood.

Alice has fun with handles

BugBear

Totes - recent thoughts

Derek Cohen (in Perth Australia)

>"their totes always felt fine with me, until I tried the jointer".

I find this an interesting statement since I am in the process of writing my thoughts down from my experiences using several LV planes over the past 12 or so months. While I will save the details of this for my review of the BU Smoother (which should be completed very soon), I have not experienced the same dislike of the rear tote with the BU Smoother and BU Jointer as I had with the LV Scrub plane (see my recent review in the Articles section for details). I still find the front of the tote too thick for my hand when I compare it to the old version, but it did not become a factor using the larger planes. And therein lies a relevant factor in my understanding - the larger planes are not gripped in the same way as the smaller planes, and so the demands on the tote were different. In a nutshell, the larger/heavier planes are pushed (since their weight provides the downforce) while the smaller/lighter planes (like the scrub and the LA Smoother) receive a tighter grip as downforce is exerted. Just my take in this.

Regards from Perth

Derek

It's a beaut?

Scott Burr in Ben Lomond CA

>Well beauty must be in the eye of the beholder... cause it's butt ulgy.

With those bellied sides you can't even use it on a shooting board.

I'll stick with the LN myself.

Re: Ok... Enough teasing...

Darin in Victoria

>Hi Denis,

Does the jointer fence work on the bevel-up smoother?

I respectfully disagree and say that's one nice

Eric Hedberg

>bit of "booty" they have there. Eric (Whose not quite sure what you would shoot with a No. 8 other than a golf ball out of the rough. Fore! Four?)

Doubt it.

Hoa Dinh in Alameda

>I don't see any way to attach the fence to the BU smoother.

-- Hoa

Well, It's no #8...

Scott Burr in Ben Lomond CA

>At 22" it's more the size of a #7.

I know of a few of us here that shoot with long planes. I even use and 8 for edge jointing/shooting long pieces of veneer.

It's still ulgy IMHO...

Re: Well, It's no #8...

Rob Lee

>Hi Scott -

It cuts as long as a #8, as a result of a different mouth position...

Cheers -

Rob