Veritas BU smoother

[marcros]

Fortune has favoured me once again, in the form of a colleague in the USA willing to bring me something back in his suitcase.

I quite fancy one of the Veritas Bevel Up Smoothers, and so a few questions...

1. It comes with a 38 degree blade, giving effective pitch of 50 degrees. Would it be worthwhile, whilst I am buying to get either a 50 degree or 25 degree extra blade? I assume that the 25 is used for endgrain. How often is it necessary to go to the effective angle of 62 degrees on native timbers?
2. 38 degree blade- o1, a2 or the new PM-V11?
3. Same question for the other 2 blades.
4. Is there any discount on Veritas anywhere, or is it more or less fixed price?

Cheers
Mark

 

[Jacob]

Fortune has favoured me once again, in the form of a colleague in the USA willing to bring me something back in his suitcase.

I quite fancy one of the Veritas Bevel Up Smoothers, and so a few questions...

1. It comes with a 38 degree blade, giving effective pitch of 50 degrees. Would it be worthwhile, whilst I am buying to get either a 50 degree or 25 degree extra blade?

No, unless you really expect to do a vast amount of smoothing (not just planing) by hand very regularly

I assume that the 25 is used for endgrain. How often is it necessary to go to the effective angle of 62 degrees on native timbers?

Hardly ever as most people would go on to scraper, or ROS! It's just become a bit of a fashionable challenge to do it all with planes only.

2. 38 degree blade- o1, a2 or the new PM-V11?

01 I think - as A2 often has problems reported. Who needs PM-V11? Nobody, at a guess.

....
4. Is there any discount on Veritas anywhere, or is it more or less fixed price?

Cheers
Mark

Fixed. Illegal resale price maintenance. Just say no!

 

[Harbo]

I doubt if you will find it cheaper than in the USA (or Canada)?
Even there it may be worth looking on-line and posted to your colleague - often they are sent post free within the States?
Sometimes you find them on special offer over here - AHC Camberly used to sell them cheaper at one time?

My Veritas planes have A2 blades and I have never had any problems sharpening them though O1 seems to be the "flavour of the month"?
I have the Jointer, Jack and Smoother which all take the same sized blade so I could in theory have one of each grind and swap as necessary?

Rod

 

[Paul Chapman]

If you can get it at a good price, I would go for some extra blades as well. I recently bought a bevel-up smoother (LN #164 because I like the Bailey-type adjuster which enables you to adjust the blade without slackening the lever cap) and bought two extra blades for it. One to hone at a steep angle for dealing with tear-out in situations where I would rather use a plane than a scraper, and a toothed blade.

I've had no problems with 01 or A2 blades, but initial reports on the new PM-V11 blades sound good, so I would give them a go if they are available.

Cheers :wink:

Paul

 

[Richard T]

I have the BU "smoother" and just the one A2 iron as I have not felt the need get an o1 ... though it is a bit of a lottery as to how the very complicated heat treatment goes on individual irons I hear; just struck lucky it seems.

I have just been honing it in the same way I would a BD iron - foolhardy I guess, but I wanted to see how it worked like that before I got into angles and such. It has been more than fine for both smoothing and end grain work. It has next to zero camber and copes with true smoothing as well as paring through end grain effortlessly.

Get two irons if you want, or three if it's a good opportunity to save some dosh but I have been more than happy with just the one.

 

[Klaus Kretschmar]

Hi Mark,

having the LV BUS with A2 blades, I want to answer your questions. But before doing that, I would consider to test the SBUS smoother. Depending on the intended use the SBUS might be the better choice since the BUS is a large and heavy beast. It has the size of a Stanley #4 1/2. Especially the work with a high angeled blade needs some elbow grease for sure. The 38 degree blade is not easy to push, the 50 degree blade is a bear to be used. A smaller smoother might be the better choice depending on the amount of work. Nevertheless the BUS performs outstandingly. To your questions:

1. The BUS is a smoother and it isn't designed to be used on a shooting board with it's rounded sides. So IMO a 25 degree blade isn't necessary on this plane. The 50 deg. blade makes the plane to perform well on really nasty wood. But it happens not every day to me to have to struggle with that kind of wood. It's not a big deal to give the 38 deg. blade a micro bevel with 50 degrees if it's once needed. So I don't see a real need for an extra blade with 50 degrees.

2. Do yourself a favour and go with the new PM-V11 steel. You'll be hooked with it. This steel takes a very keen (keen with capitals!) edge, holds the edge in an unnown way and is despite of that easy to sharpen. I've a set of PM-V11 chisels and I'm completely hooked with this new steel. I predict that this steel will influence the hand tool world, it's amazingly good.

Klaus

 

[Vann]

If it were me (in my dreams... :roll: ) I'd get an extra iron at 25 degrees. I'd put a suitable microbevel on the 25 degree iron (probably ~33 degrees to give a 45 degree EP). Then I'd use the 38 degree iron (supplied) for troublesome timbers at higher EPs.

I'd get one irom in the new PM steel (just to try it) and the other in the flavour of your choice (for me that would be O1). If you get an A2 iron, keep it at the higher EP.

My tuppence worth...

Cheers, Vann.

 

[David C]

High effective pitch angles are essential for quartered, interlocked grain exotics, so an extra blade would be convenient.

I am finding pmv11 to be good, no difficulty sharpening with my waterstones.

David

 

[marcros]

thanks all. I will have a look at both at Harrogate hopefully. It may well be that the SBUS is a better bet.

 

[bugbear]

You might also want to consider a "wider context".

The SBUS doesn't have flat cheeks, and so can't be used for shooting, unlike the LAS.

However, the SBUS does use the same size blade as the LAJ, giving blade interchangeability in your "fleet".

If I were certain I was only buying one plane, I would therefore buy the LAS, usable for both smoothing and shooting.

If I were buying the first (of a set) I would buy the SBUS, and probably add the LAJ later.

On blade material, here's a post from a guy who strongly prefers O1 to A2 on the matter:

http://www.theunpluggedwoodshop.com/pm-v11.html

BugBear

 

[Vann]

The SBUS doesn't have flat cheeks, and so can't be used for shooting,...

Err... yes it does.

However, the SBUS does use the same size blade as the LAJ

I think you're meaning the BUS (Bevel Up Smoother), which has 2¼" iron. The SBUS (Small Bevel Up Smoother) has a 1¾" iron which is (I think) unique to that plane, while the LAS (Low Angle Smoother) has a 2" iron - also unique. Damn Lee Valley and their confusing classifications :roll: (hammer)

Cheers, Vann.

 

[bugbear]

The SBUS doesn't have flat cheeks, and so can't be used for shooting,...

Err... yes it does.

However, the SBUS does use the same size blade as the LAJ

I think you're meaning the BUS (Bevel Up Smoother), which has 2¼" iron. The SBUS (Small Bevel Up Smoother) has a 1¾" iron which is (I think) unique to that plane, while the LAS (Low Angle Smoother) has a 2" iron - also unique. Damn Lee Valley and their confusing classifications :roll: (hammer)

Cheers, Vann.

My bad - you're quite right.

Yes, read "BUS" for "SBUS" in my entire post.

BugBear