Which Plane for a Kitchen Fitter?

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Slim

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I want to get my brother in law a plane for his birthday. He is a kitchen fitter and works with high quality hardwood kitchens. He has a #4 and #7, but I was hoping to get him a smaller one, maybe a block plane?

I know there are a few professional fitters here. Which plane do you find most useful?

Which block plane is the best? I have heard the Veritas is better than the LN, is this true?

Thanks in advance.
 
I have the LN, it has a nice weight to it and it looks very nice but
it does not have the lateral adjustment of the Veritas.....I am
sure the Plane Pro's might give give you a better comparison.




CNC Paul
 
Unless you particularly want it to be a surprise, I would ask him which one he would prefer. People tend to have strong personal preferences when it comes to planes. If you get the one he doesn't really want, it will rather take the edge off your nice gesture.

Cheers :wink:

Paul
 
Slimjim81":29xu0mav said:
I want to get my brother in law a plane for his birthday.

Which block plane is the best? I have heard the Veritas is better than the LN, is this true?

Thanks in advance.

LN block £112 Veritas £89 both are excellent, I wish you were my brother in law.... My birthday is in March :lol: :wink:

Do kitchen fitters use hand planes? all I've seen use power tools, never seen one use a hand plane. :? why not a powerful drill/driver? with loads of batteries.
 
Hi Simon

I do a lot of kitchen installations, and find my Veritas low angle block plane excellent. You can also get a chamfering attachment to go with it, which I have - makes childs play of getting those nicely balanced chamfers on the edges of wooden worktops.

I'd go with the Veritas.

I had to buy my own - but at least it was tax deductible :lol:

Cheers

Karl
 
I use an old Stanley low angle with a LN blade on site, may take a smoother with me but 99% of the time the block is what I reach for.

Jason
 
I have an LN Low Angle block plane. It's beautiful and is a pleasure to hold, but... I have a 50 year old, slightly broken block plane that my father gave me. It's uglier than sin, but I like it better. Go figure.

My next plane will probably be a LV Veritas block. I can't really explain why, but I like it. Maybe it looks more "functional" or something, while the LN is a piece of art - lovely but less functional. Don't ask me for reasons, I can't justify any of this. It's a gut reaction.

Dan.

p.s., If I bought a bigger plane, I'd try the Blum wood planes. Weird looking pippers, but quite beautiful in their own way. Nice technology too. Here's a link to their web page: http://www.blumtool.com/pages/benchplanes.html. Scroll down a bit and take a look at the blade and frog. (I don't know if he ships across the pond.)
 
Hi Simon,

The Veritas is the one fo me. Lie Nielsen look good and work equally as well, but its a matter of functionality over asthetics. As has been pointed out, the lateral adjustment and fine Norris style adjuster is far superior to the simple fine threaded adjuster of the L-N in my opinion.
I'd also consider an apron plane though. Veritas and L-N make them, but again, the Veritas has the upperhand for me, as it has the same adjustments as before, only lacking the adjustable mouth, as does the L-N.
I find the apron planes far more tactile than a standard 91/2 or 601/2 block, although if I ws doing wider end grain tweaking on worktops for example, I'd likely use one of these, or more likely, a no4 or 41/2 bench plane, using the traditional circular motion planing to minimise breakout, and working from either end if possible.
If it's just for general arrising or fine tuning fits on doors and such though, the apron plane is a really superb tool for the job, it sits so beautifully in the hand, whether Veritas or L-N.
Anyway, another consideration.
For me, as a freehand honer, the lateral adjustment allows a quick touch up on a stone and back to work. With the fixed Lie Nielsen adjuster, there is a little lateral movement that has to be adjusted manually, not with a dedicated adjuster, but not a huge amount. This means if I freehand the iron and get a bit too carried away and sharpen the edge out of square, getting a uniform shaving is a little more time consuming. I suppose this is where the honing guide comes into its own, although I prefer to leave these for 'proper' square to the sole planes such as shoulder planes and the like, which is when I would reach for one. If I'm out on site, such as your brother in law will be, a quick freehand tickle on a stone is is more likely than a full on workshop sharpening set up.

Hope this helps rather than confuses!

Andy
 
andy king":3lsib26f said:
I'd also consider an apron plane though. Veritas and L-N make them....

Yes; I've heard many full time trim fitters, kitchen fitters and shop fitters speak highly of a pocketable plane.

BugBear
 
Thanks for the replies guys. Some very useful information there.

Lord Nibbo":2kiicbph said:
I wish you were my brother in law.... My birthday is in March :lol: :wink:

Sorry yer lordship, I only have one sister and she's taken. Although, I would approve of her marrying a lord. :wink:

Lord Nibbo":2kiicbph said:
Do kitchen fitters use hand planes? all I've seen use power tools, never seen one use a hand plane. :? why not a powerful drill/driver? with loads of batteries.

He has just been kitted out with Festool across the board, so I think he is set for power tools. :evil:

It seems the Veritas has a slight edge over the LN, but I think I will have a look at the apron plane as I like the idea of him being able to keep it in his tool belt.

I am a bit worried though - I'm not sure I will be able to buy a LV or LN plane and the just give it away. I might cry... =P~ :cry:
 
Slimjim81":3lb071q4 said:
I am a bit worried though - I'm not sure I will be able to buy a LV or LN plane and the just give it away. I might cry...

I believe they are happy to sell them in pairs in order to avoid just that situation.
Cheers Mike
 
Apron plane is the right choice I reckon, the LV block is pretty chunky.

I'd have to get it sent direct to him, or he'd end up with a Stanley that accidentally got swapped somehow.
 
I would have also said go with the apron plane. I have the veritas block and find a little weighty for doing small work, it's great as a mini smoother and chamfering tool, but I have the apron plane next on my shopping list. I used to own the LN 102 bronze apron plane, but didn't like the curved sides, the veritas has square sides which makes it a little more versatile I feel.
 
Not wishing to confuse matters but have you considered a shoulder plane?

With a nice fine set they are very good for removing the slight ripple left by the rotation of router bits when cutting rebates/tenons etc. It sounds as though he does fairly high-end work work so something that would help him to go from "that's a nice neat joint" to "what joint?" might go down rather well.
 
As I mentioned above, I'm considering another plane. But since I have the old block plane and an LN Low Angle block, I've had difficulty justifying another one.

After reading this thread, I thought through what I've been using my planes for - in the last year and the work that's coming up for the next year. I realized that what I need is a small, light plane for quick trimming and chamfering.

It looks like the answer was there all the time - a nice LV Veritas apron plane! Thanks for shoving it under my nose! :D

This is a great thread! An apron plane is now on my shopping list!

Many thanks and regards,

Dan.
 
I'm with Andy on the usefulness of an apron plane. My little LN bronze plane is my most used plane by far. The lack of an adjustable mouth has never been an issue for me with this plane.
 
Thanks everyone. I have settled on the Veritas Apron plane.

So... Next question... High carbon or A2 blade?
 
A2 will hold it's edge for longer, i'm assuming he's not a hand tool/sharpening freak like some of us, so I would say the A2 would be a better choice.
 
From a personal point of view, I'd disagree Byron.
As mentioned, I freehand hone, and I find the A2 steels very hard and I can't feel the 'bite' on the stone as well as I can with standard tool steels. A2 feels like it's skating on a glazed stone to me. Plus, when I was taught to sharpen years back, (way before these harder steels were commonplace)having to go back to the stone regularly made you more adept at doing the job, so what was initially a tricky task, became seconnd nature.
It's left me in good stead for years, I can hone to a razor edge on one stone in a matter of seconds now.
Andy
 
I'm with Andy on this one, Carbon steel may not have quite the wear resistance of air hardening alloy steels but it will take an incredibly fine edge.

If you are going to spend money on a high end tool, why sacrafice performance for convenience - you wouldn't put a tow bar on a Ferrari would you?
 

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