Alf
Established Member
Planed up to the nines.
The third, biggest and, I assume, last member of the Veritas shoulder plane family; the imaginatively named Large Shoulder Plane. Lots of family likenesses to be seen, but let’s pretend it’s all new to us, shall we? Come over to the bench here, draw up a stool, and we’ll have a look. Try not to drool all over it…
A shoulder plane - with knobs on
Weighing in at a toe-crunching 3¾ lbs of ductile iron, this is a serious hunk of plane. The now familiar “Norris” style adjuster and twin pairs of set screws in the sides control a 1¼” wide A2 steel iron. Black finished lever cap, brass adjustments, an adjustable toe and two “multi-positional” bubinga knobs to grip complete the overall package. It comes coated in rust preventative and wrapped in rust inhibiting paper in a large cardboard box with some cardboard cutouts to stop it shifting about in transit. As usual Lee Valley provide a decent set of instructions, which you can see for yourself her... - er, no you can't. Oh well. In addition I was also sent a set of optional brass knobs to try. More of them later.
The shoulder blade's connected to the adjuster, the adjuster's connected to the...
Well, what can I say? It’s got knobs on. That was my initial reaction on first seeing a picture of it. And the second picture. And to be honest, when I opened the box I didn’t go in for a sudden burst of original thinking.
Apart from the knobs it’s simply a beefier version of it’s smaller brother, the medium. I’ve kind of got used to that look now, although one small change to this big’un is the “drop nose”, which I rather like. But I’m afraid I think the wooden knobs do sound rather a jarring note. They just don’t tie in with the other two shoulder planes in the family at all, and look plain weird. I’m not the only one to think that (makes a change :roll: ), so Rob Lee had alternative brass knobs made to compare. As you do... The overwhelming vote on the Wood Central hand tool board was they looked much better. I have to agree, but you can judge for yourself.
Purty, ain't it?
L-V’s usual high standards in finishing of milled and ground surfaces is well in evidence, as is the careful chamfering of all the potential sharp edges. In actual fact this plane is officially a “seconds” - it has a tiny machining error mark on the toe - but apart from that it’s supposed to be up to scratch in all other respects (I asked), and indeed it has the lurid green sticker to indicate inspection by quality control. By and large it is up to standard, although there was a tiny dink in the inner edge of one side too. A couple of seconds with a diamond stone smoothed it out okay though. The textured recesses, one on each side, and the interior are all finished well. One moan I’d had about the medium shoulder plane was the distinct visible misalignment of the casting, something L-V were looking into improving. I pleased to say they seem to not only have looked into it, but sorted it out too. Nice job.
Canada Vs. England
Now we come to the part I really dread; checking sole flatness and so forth. It’s not something I’d usually bother with myself, unless it didn’t work, but for the benefit of the review-reading public… The sole is very slightly convex along its length. That’s without the lever cap present at all, so it’s not the old “additional lever cap pressure deflecting sole” issue. It doesn’t seem to affect it in use, but it’s there. I turned to the sides to see if they were square to the sole. They aren‘t. Again it’s not by much, but it is definitely off. I’m more than a bit disappointed, because the medium shoulder and the bullnose were absolutely spot on and I was confident. Could be Murphy’s Law in operation of course, and the review one’s the duffer, but I can only review what‘s in front of me. :?
Edit: It's now been confirmed that the sides are within L-V's parameters - so ignore my whitterings. I was lead astray by both the medium and bullnose previously being absolutely spot on - apparently just got lucky. As I said anyway, it's not much and it certainly doesn't prevent it doing its job.
Perversely, I decided to try it without either knob. I'm like that
With relief I turned to the blade. Removal is a simple case of loosening the lever cap, lifting up the end of the blade to disengage the bullet-shaped adjuster, twist the blade on edge and remove. Plenty of room to twist the blade without dinking the edge in this one, so no need to go up through the mouth as is the case with the bullnose. Reverse the steps to replace it, and take care not to over-tighten the lever cap and deflect the 15° bed. Now just for once I’d managed to persuade myself to try this plane “straight outta the box”. Or at least without honing the iron first. Ah. Problem. What I found was easily the worst blade I’ve ever had from Veritas out of the <calculates> eighteen I’ve seen. A nasty dink right out of the middle of the edge, and the latter not even square to the sides. Oh deary me. :| The former could well be just one of those things, but the skewed edge, considering the importance of a square edge in a plane of this type, is something of a shocker. I ground my teeth - and then the blade (ho, ho). The back wasn’t fabulous either, confirming that old saw “it never rains but it pours“. Again, maybe it’s just Murphy’s hand in this, but these are uncharacteristic problems from Veritas… I cheated and opted for a large-ish secondary bevel to cut down on the length of time it took me to remove the nick, and it was really very quick to get a good edge.
Look, no knobs again. Just trying it, you understand...
Slotting the freshly sharpened blade back in, and just snugging the lever cap up, I applied myself to the set screws in the sides. It must be all this practice I’m getting; following the instructions to the letter I had them all done and dusted within a couple of minutes. I do like the control you get in setting the iron in these planes; it’s a positive pleasure. The nicest bit is when you apply the final tweak of pressure with the lever cap and the blade doesn’t immediately skew out of square, simply because it can’t. Nice. 8) Depth adjustment is fine, precise and simple. As previously the issue of backlash in the adjuster is covered in the instructions, but don’t let that give you the idea it’s a big problem with these planes because it really isn’t. As with it’s littler brother, mouth adjustment uses a simple arrangement of a moving toe piece with locking screw at the top and adjustment screw at the front. Turn the screw one way, the toe goes in and closes the mouth. Turn the other and the toe moves out and opens the mouth. Simple, but an improvement over my Record #073 which needs the toe moved out manually. Naturally I didn’t do any Homer Simpson-a-like “toe goes in, toe goes out” playing with this, ’cos I’m above all that. Yessir. Ha-hum...
Left: loosen the top clamping screw. Right: Clockwise to tighten the mouth, anti-clockwise to open it.
Can you spot the deliberate mistake, children?
Now we reach that part of my reviews that the Veritas R&D department and I probably both hate in equal measure - ergonomics. :roll: In short, back to the knobs. Those brilliant and talented designers <lays it on with trowel :wink: > at Veritas have given any potential user of this plane every possible chance of finding a way to hold it that is comfortable. The rear knob can tilt round from one side to the other, and all places in between, just like the medium shoulder plane. The front knob has three (count ’em) potential mounting points, all angled for extra comfort. Both can be removed, or just one, however the fancy takes you. Their wooden curves are warm to the touch, and designed to nestle cosily in the web of the hand. The recesses in the sides are deep and textured. The lever cap is short and shaped to fit in the palm. There’s an invitingly chamfered-edged hole right through the body. All these things have resulted in one thing, and one only.
It’s bloomin’ comfortable to use.
(Bet that had them worried in Ottawa for a moment… :twisted: )
At least, as long as you use both hands. :? Trying to wield this thing in one hand defeated me entirely, and it wasn‘t just the weight but also the depth and position of those side recesses. My attempted one-handed grip simply didn’t gell with them at all. Of course how does muggins here usually use a shoulder plane? One handed… So I’ll just have to adjust to clamping stuff down instead of holding it with the other hand, won’t I? :roll: A picture’s worth a thousand words, so you can see what various combinations of grip I found effective dotted about this review. Curiously I found myself using what’s essentially a left-handed set up for trimming shoulders. :?
Funny thing, playing cricket I always used to bat left-handed while bowling right-handed too.
Not at the same time, obviously...
A few suggestions of grips to try in the instructions might have been nice, but no matter. Of course I also got to try the alternative “good looking” brass knobs too. They‘re ever-so slightly smaller than the wooden ones, and with the combination of the colder metal and the rather crisp knurling they‘re not ‘arf uncomfortable in comparison with the original wooden style. If I’d never seen or tried the wooden ones I wouldn’t know any different I suppose, so they’d probably be fine, but as it is they just don’t compare. In a straight comfort race the wooden knobs were the right ones to go for, no doubt in my mind. So giving my aesthetic soul a kick in the pants, I once again tossed the brass widgets back in the box.
More knobs than the winner's enclosure at Royal Ascot...
After all that, how well does it work? I ran up a large faux “tenon” to try it out for the benefit of the camera - I also tried it on all sorts of varieties from my scrap box but they weren't so pretty. :wink: This plane has plenty of authority in the cut; hardly surprising, it being no lightweight. Cleaning up the cross grain of the cheek was fairly painless, with the extra width over the medium being of obvious benefit (a trifle over 31mm wide, in new money). Taking wafer-thin shavings of the end grain of the shoulders was equally easy, as you can see.
Ooo, whispy
Having a really firm, controlled grip on the plane is an huge improvement in controlling the cut. I gave it a bit of a workout on long grain, and it did okay, although to be fair the low cutting angle is never at its best for this sort of task. However, you can open up the mouth and almost hog off the wood if you want to - another benefit of the secure two handed grip. But let’s face it, this plane’s bread and butter is precision trimming of joints, and it does it brilliantly. Lots of control over all possible adjustments, so no excuse for blaming the tool (bad luck ).
So the verdict then. I do like it. I like it an awful lot more than my old stalwart Record; it’s just so easy to hold in comparison. That’s bad news too, because I’ve never had any beef with the Record, unlike the difficulties some people have reported, until now... It’s so awkward to hold after the L-V I’ve gone right off it. The adjustments, just like on its siblings, are great and a real pleasure to deal with. You’ll have noticed I’ve over-used the word “control”, but that really does sum it up. Control over blade setting, control over the plane itself, control in the cut. As far as looks go, well it does look a bit, er, differently appearanced™ with those wooden knobs, but unless you really feel the urge to just display your tools like some sort of c*ll*ct*r :shock: , the brass knobs are an unnecessary option in my opinion. <runs away to hide in bunker from the aesthetes> They do look good though.
When I grow up will I be as big as you, Large?
As far as the problems with this particular example are concerned, I find myself in the reviewer's quandary of trying to be fair to both potential buyer and toolmaker. On the one hand I could get all worked up about them, but that would be both misleading and grossly unfair based on a sample of one. On the other I could dismiss it as irrelevant on the assumption it‘s a one-off, but that would make commenting about fit and finish of any tool in a review a pointless exercise. So all I’ll say is that this is what I found on this one, and it’s not good, but also it’s the first tool from Veritas that’s really disappointed in that respect out of all the ones I’ve seen. 'Nuff said. The bottom line is easy enough - a damn fine shoulder plane that works brilliantly, and it’s reminded me all over again just why I want this plane’s medium-sized brother in my Tools ‘04 party bag. A great family of planes.
Large Shoulder Plane £129.25 available from BriMarc.
Optional brass knobs available direct from Lee Valley at $7.50 a pair
NB: In the interests of full disclosure, I should say that once again Lee Valley have very kindly said I can keep this review plane or dispose of it as I see fit, for which many thanks. I have made every effort to not let this affect my review, and I hope this is self-evident, but you, the reader, will always be the final judge.
The third, biggest and, I assume, last member of the Veritas shoulder plane family; the imaginatively named Large Shoulder Plane. Lots of family likenesses to be seen, but let’s pretend it’s all new to us, shall we? Come over to the bench here, draw up a stool, and we’ll have a look. Try not to drool all over it…
A shoulder plane - with knobs on
Weighing in at a toe-crunching 3¾ lbs of ductile iron, this is a serious hunk of plane. The now familiar “Norris” style adjuster and twin pairs of set screws in the sides control a 1¼” wide A2 steel iron. Black finished lever cap, brass adjustments, an adjustable toe and two “multi-positional” bubinga knobs to grip complete the overall package. It comes coated in rust preventative and wrapped in rust inhibiting paper in a large cardboard box with some cardboard cutouts to stop it shifting about in transit. As usual Lee Valley provide a decent set of instructions, which you can see for yourself her... - er, no you can't. Oh well. In addition I was also sent a set of optional brass knobs to try. More of them later.
The shoulder blade's connected to the adjuster, the adjuster's connected to the...
Well, what can I say? It’s got knobs on. That was my initial reaction on first seeing a picture of it. And the second picture. And to be honest, when I opened the box I didn’t go in for a sudden burst of original thinking.
Apart from the knobs it’s simply a beefier version of it’s smaller brother, the medium. I’ve kind of got used to that look now, although one small change to this big’un is the “drop nose”, which I rather like. But I’m afraid I think the wooden knobs do sound rather a jarring note. They just don’t tie in with the other two shoulder planes in the family at all, and look plain weird. I’m not the only one to think that (makes a change :roll: ), so Rob Lee had alternative brass knobs made to compare. As you do... The overwhelming vote on the Wood Central hand tool board was they looked much better. I have to agree, but you can judge for yourself.
Purty, ain't it?
L-V’s usual high standards in finishing of milled and ground surfaces is well in evidence, as is the careful chamfering of all the potential sharp edges. In actual fact this plane is officially a “seconds” - it has a tiny machining error mark on the toe - but apart from that it’s supposed to be up to scratch in all other respects (I asked), and indeed it has the lurid green sticker to indicate inspection by quality control. By and large it is up to standard, although there was a tiny dink in the inner edge of one side too. A couple of seconds with a diamond stone smoothed it out okay though. The textured recesses, one on each side, and the interior are all finished well. One moan I’d had about the medium shoulder plane was the distinct visible misalignment of the casting, something L-V were looking into improving. I pleased to say they seem to not only have looked into it, but sorted it out too. Nice job.
Canada Vs. England
Now we come to the part I really dread; checking sole flatness and so forth. It’s not something I’d usually bother with myself, unless it didn’t work, but for the benefit of the review-reading public… The sole is very slightly convex along its length. That’s without the lever cap present at all, so it’s not the old “additional lever cap pressure deflecting sole” issue. It doesn’t seem to affect it in use, but it’s there. I turned to the sides to see if they were square to the sole. They aren‘t. Again it’s not by much, but it is definitely off.
I’m more than a bit disappointed, because the medium shoulder and the bullnose were absolutely spot on and I was confident. Could be Murphy’s Law in operation of course, and the review one’s the duffer, but I can only review what‘s in front of me. :? Edit: It's now been confirmed that the sides are within L-V's parameters - so ignore my whitterings. I was lead astray by both the medium and bullnose previously being absolutely spot on - apparently just got lucky. As I said anyway, it's not much and it certainly doesn't prevent it doing its job.
Perversely, I decided to try it without either knob. I'm like that
With relief I turned to the blade. Removal is a simple case of loosening the lever cap, lifting up the end of the blade to disengage the bullet-shaped adjuster, twist the blade on edge and remove. Plenty of room to twist the blade without dinking the edge in this one, so no need to go up through the mouth as is the case with the bullnose. Reverse the steps to replace it, and take care not to over-tighten the lever cap and deflect the 15° bed. Now just for once I’d managed to persuade myself to try this plane “straight outta the box”. Or at least without honing the iron first. Ah. Problem. What I found was easily the worst blade I’ve ever had from Veritas out of the <calculates> eighteen I’ve seen. A nasty dink right out of the middle of the edge, and the latter not even square to the sides. Oh deary me. :| The former could well be just one of those things, but the skewed edge, considering the importance of a square edge in a plane of this type, is something of a shocker. I ground my teeth - and then the blade (ho, ho). The back wasn’t fabulous either, confirming that old saw “it never rains but it pours“. Again, maybe it’s just Murphy’s hand in this, but these are uncharacteristic problems from Veritas… I cheated and opted for a large-ish secondary bevel to cut down on the length of time it took me to remove the nick, and it was really very quick to get a good edge.
Look, no knobs again. Just trying it, you understand...
Slotting the freshly sharpened blade back in, and just snugging the lever cap up, I applied myself to the set screws in the sides. It must be all this practice I’m getting; following the instructions to the letter I had them all done and dusted within a couple of minutes. I do like the control you get in setting the iron in these planes; it’s a positive pleasure. The nicest bit is when you apply the final tweak of pressure with the lever cap and the blade doesn’t immediately skew out of square, simply because it can’t. Nice. 8) Depth adjustment is fine, precise and simple. As previously the issue of backlash in the adjuster is covered in the instructions, but don’t let that give you the idea it’s a big problem with these planes because it really isn’t. As with it’s littler brother, mouth adjustment uses a simple arrangement of a moving toe piece with locking screw at the top and adjustment screw at the front. Turn the screw one way, the toe goes in and closes the mouth. Turn the other and the toe moves out and opens the mouth. Simple, but an improvement over my Record #073 which needs the toe moved out manually. Naturally I didn’t do any Homer Simpson-a-like “toe goes in, toe goes out” playing with this, ’cos I’m above all that. Yessir. Ha-hum...
Left: loosen the top clamping screw. Right: Clockwise to tighten the mouth, anti-clockwise to open it.
Can you spot the deliberate mistake, children?
Now we reach that part of my reviews that the Veritas R&D department and I probably both hate in equal measure - ergonomics. :roll: In short, back to the knobs. Those brilliant and talented designers <lays it on with trowel :wink: > at Veritas have given any potential user of this plane every possible chance of finding a way to hold it that is comfortable. The rear knob can tilt round from one side to the other, and all places in between, just like the medium shoulder plane. The front knob has three (count ’em) potential mounting points, all angled for extra comfort. Both can be removed, or just one, however the fancy takes you. Their wooden curves are warm to the touch, and designed to nestle cosily in the web of the hand. The recesses in the sides are deep and textured. The lever cap is short and shaped to fit in the palm. There’s an invitingly chamfered-edged hole right through the body. All these things have resulted in one thing, and one only.
It’s bloomin’ comfortable to use.
(Bet that had them worried in Ottawa for a moment… :twisted: )
At least, as long as you use both hands. :? Trying to wield this thing in one hand defeated me entirely, and it wasn‘t just the weight but also the depth and position of those side recesses. My attempted one-handed grip simply didn’t gell with them at all. Of course how does muggins here usually use a shoulder plane? One handed… So I’ll just have to adjust to clamping stuff down instead of holding it with the other hand, won’t I? :roll: A picture’s worth a thousand words, so you can see what various combinations of grip I found effective dotted about this review. Curiously I found myself using what’s essentially a left-handed set up for trimming shoulders. :?
Funny thing, playing cricket I always used to bat left-handed while bowling right-handed too.
Not at the same time, obviously...
A few suggestions of grips to try in the instructions might have been nice, but no matter. Of course I also got to try the alternative “good looking” brass knobs too. They‘re ever-so slightly smaller than the wooden ones, and with the combination of the colder metal and the rather crisp knurling they‘re not ‘arf uncomfortable in comparison with the original wooden style. If I’d never seen or tried the wooden ones I wouldn’t know any different I suppose, so they’d probably be fine, but as it is they just don’t compare. In a straight comfort race the wooden knobs were the right ones to go for, no doubt in my mind. So giving my aesthetic soul a kick in the pants, I once again tossed the brass widgets back in the box.
More knobs than the winner's enclosure at Royal Ascot...
After all that, how well does it work? I ran up a large faux “tenon” to try it out for the benefit of the camera - I also tried it on all sorts of varieties from my scrap box but they weren't so pretty. :wink: This plane has plenty of authority in the cut; hardly surprising, it being no lightweight. Cleaning up the cross grain of the cheek was fairly painless, with the extra width over the medium being of obvious benefit (a trifle over 31mm wide, in new money). Taking wafer-thin shavings of the end grain of the shoulders was equally easy, as you can see.
Ooo, whispy
Having a really firm, controlled grip on the plane is an huge improvement in controlling the cut. I gave it a bit of a workout on long grain, and it did okay, although to be fair the low cutting angle is never at its best for this sort of task. However, you can open up the mouth and almost hog off the wood if you want to - another benefit of the secure two handed grip. But let’s face it, this plane’s bread and butter is precision trimming of joints, and it does it brilliantly. Lots of control over all possible adjustments, so no excuse for blaming the tool (bad luck
). So the verdict then. I do like it. I like it an awful lot more than my old stalwart Record; it’s just so easy to hold in comparison. That’s bad news too, because I’ve never had any beef with the Record, unlike the difficulties some people have reported, until now... It’s so awkward to hold after the L-V I’ve gone right off it.
The adjustments, just like on its siblings, are great and a real pleasure to deal with. You’ll have noticed I’ve over-used the word “control”, but that really does sum it up. Control over blade setting, control over the plane itself, control in the cut. As far as looks go, well it does look a bit, er, differently appearanced™ with those wooden knobs, but unless you really feel the urge to just display your tools like some sort of c*ll*ct*r :shock: , the brass knobs are an unnecessary option in my opinion. <runs away to hide in bunker from the aesthetes> They do look good though.
When I grow up will I be as big as you, Large?
As far as the problems with this particular example are concerned, I find myself in the reviewer's quandary of trying to be fair to both potential buyer and toolmaker. On the one hand I could get all worked up about them, but that would be both misleading and grossly unfair based on a sample of one. On the other I could dismiss it as irrelevant on the assumption it‘s a one-off, but that would make commenting about fit and finish of any tool in a review a pointless exercise. So all I’ll say is that this is what I found on this one, and it’s not good, but also it’s the first tool from Veritas that’s really disappointed in that respect out of all the ones I’ve seen. 'Nuff said. The bottom line is easy enough - a damn fine shoulder plane that works brilliantly, and it’s reminded me all over again just why I want this plane’s medium-sized brother in my Tools ‘04 party bag. A great family of planes.
Large Shoulder Plane £129.25 available from BriMarc.
Optional brass knobs available direct from Lee Valley at $7.50 a pair
NB: In the interests of full disclosure, I should say that once again Lee Valley have very kindly said I can keep this review plane or dispose of it as I see fit, for which many thanks. I have made every effort to not let this affect my review, and I hope this is self-evident, but you, the reader, will always be the final judge.
