Building an Exterior Door by Hand

Well I’ve been at it this week, working through the door construction. So far so good as they say; the Oak is straight grained, heavy as sin and its aroma through my basement shop is intoxicating. A good start I’ll give you a look at the process thus far. Enjoy…

The first step and biggest challenge in the basement wood shop is space, or lack there of. I started with making a full size pattern or template showing all of the door components to scale-the joinery, mortise depth, haunches etc…this will go far at eliminating any unforeseen challenges on my way through the lay out stage. Take your time with this and make things accurate! Skipping a step or cutting a corner would be completely counter productive, square, straight and true this is my map to Heritage Doorville…I have to follow the road. The 1/4″ piece of Luan is great for this template, I screwed some hardwood offcuts on the underside of the pattern and affixed it to my shop bents in front of my workbench. Space is limited so I have to work clean. This project will really be a test of patience in this small work space.

With an accurate template it’s time to start muscling the heavy planks of Oak around the shop, again the only hard part and sometimes frustrating thing about a small workspace. I’ll begin by selecting my timber, carefully studying the grain patterns for a nice aesthetic and gentle flow throughout the finished piece. Again I’m drawn into the grain of this quarter sawn timber…it’s amazing and humbling to think of this tree as a living thing-so beautiful I really feel lucky to be working with such fine stock. I clearly and carefully mark each component and begin cross cutting my lengths to just over finished sizes. My joinery for the rails consist of 3″ mortise and tenons with haunches on the upper and lower rails. The middle or ‘locking’ rail doesn’t have haunched shoulders but both the mid and lower one will be split into two tenons due to the width of the pieces. Cross cutting 7/4 stock is a challenge in itself so I have to consider my options here. Saw bench with panel saw? Hook on my work bench with a back saw? I tried both and decided I had much more control and a far more accurate saw cut with the back saw. My 12″ Lie Nielsen Tenon saw is up for the challenge; these cuts are at the absolute top of the size of stock I could work with this saw plate. I actually had to make two cuts from both sides-a procedure I try to avoid but is my only option on this day. If I had my Bad Axe 16″ or 18″ back saws this would be a much better operation but unfortunately they’re still a few weeks away…I’ll go through the entire lot and get everything to size, from here it’s over to the saw bench and my rip saw will be introduced.

Again, ripping 7/4 white Oak by hand is not for everyone…I purchased this lumber pre-dimensioned but as you can see I still have to ‘work’ each piece by hand. The pre-dimensioning really saves me some time early on; buying rough stock is great for my own work but a commission like this justifies the extra expense. You can usually be safe with a 10% increase on the total cut list when pricing a piece. For me the additional hundred dollars spent on my thousand for wood is well worth it. At least a week of time saved. By pre-dimensioned lumber I mean it’s been surface planned on both faces and jointed on its edges. I’ll still hand plane each square inch of this stuff but only to remove the mill marks. A good investment when you’re trying to make a buck while working wood with only hand tools this is something I get asked about quite often. So consider that a trade secret revealed.

I’ll start off with my new Lie Nielsen panel gauge to establish the width of the pieces. I find my regular marking gauge is great for thinner jobs but anything over the 5 or 6″ mark and it tends to wander a bit. The marking gauge doesn’t but my control over the cut can. This panel gauge is great for this procedure. My full size Corporate Kangaroo is just getting by with the job…I have a new Rip saw in my future for the next door project but you’ll have to stay tuned for that one! In the shot above you can see my limited space here between the work bench and the tool cabinet; I usually do all of my sawing on the other side of the bench which is currently where the full-size door template is set up. Work clean and ‘Patience of Job’…gotta keep reminding myself that!

Alright, the components are cross cut and ripped, from here it’s on to hand plane alley. A welcome place to be after the day of sawing; my shoulders are thanking me already. I’ll begin with my Jack plane and go across the width of the pieces taking a traversing/controlled tear shaving.

The same procedure when using a scrub plane this process will quickly get these planks flattened out. You’d be surprised at the slight hollows and tiny hills…even off of the fine machinery they have out at A & M Wood, there is still work to be done to get these things square on four sides.

A light cut is necessary with this cross grain technique and always be careful on the outside edge especially when running at the opposing angle to the grain. A few passes back and forth, end to end then I’ll go with the grain to finish off. I establish the first flat surface and then I’ll do the opposite side making it parallel to this first one. With two flat surfaces I’ll get into the shoulder vise and get out the Jointing plane. Because I’m paranoid about keeping everything dead accurate with this project I’m using my Veritas Jointing fence. This is an accessory they sell that clamps onto the side body of their Bevel up Jointing plane and makes sure you’re planning an edge square to the first registered surface.

A good day spent surfacing the Oak and I’m finally starting to see how the door will look. This is getting exciting, the grain flowing naturally across the heavy timbers I began to appreciate just how heavy and strong this door will be when finished. I can now move on to joinery lay out and the two long stiles are the place to begin.

As I mentioned they’ll have haunched mortise and tenons with two at each of the locking and lower rails. The upper rail being only 5″ in width will only have one plus the two outside shoulders. These shoulders or haunches will really help to avoid any twisting or winding in the finished door.

I’ll clamp the stiles together and mark them off simultaneously ensuring a truly accurate lay-out. This is just penciled in and I’ll come back with a deep marking gauge and knife to make the locations permanent.

With the mortises all laid out it’s time to bet my brace and a bit together. Coincidentally about three weeks ago I stopped by a local antique store and found some nice old 8″ Irwin Auger bits. These things looked like they didn’t see much work in their life so a quick sharpening and they were ready to go. Good bits are still hard to come by but I did notice Tools for Working Wood sell some new ones that I’m interested in. These 8″ antiques were a perfect length for this application, anything longer and I’d have to work with the timber on my floor.

A few hours of drilling and the bulk of material in my mortises is removed. For anyone interested in a good arm toning work out then this is it! I’m feeling the burn in the backs of my arms for sure. A good honest days work and I’m thinking about the tenons tonight. So to back track to the title of this post…a good black stout goes down some fine with the smell of white oak lingering. Stay tuned for more.
Cheers!

PS.
The stout was enjoyed after the tools went away for anyone concerned with my personal safety.

Hollows and Rounds

My new hollows and rounds arrived on Friday from Philly Planes in England, right on schedule as Phil Edwards told me. They looked and smelled great(new tools always smell so good), right out of the box all packaged up safely making the trip across the pond. He threw in a nice Philly Planes T-Shirt as well! A nice touch indeed…This morning I set aside a few hours and finally made some shavings and I’m very happy to report that they’re great! Worth every cent which I should note wasn’t out of touch by any means for some custom made hand planes. They have a nice, traditional shape, comfortable to hold and a nice light weight; Phil had mentioned some additional honing may be necessary but not before they’re put to work awhile. He did a great job and I will recommend them to anyone interested in wooden bodied hand planes.
As you know if you’re a frequent reader here I have a new project I’m starting this week. I’m building a solid exterior wooden door for a heritage property here in Toronto and this is what the planes were specifically purchased for. Wanting to take the planes for a test drive I decided to work on a sample section of one of the mouldings on the door; this will be the trim around the panels and I’ll need about twenty running feet of this particular profile. I cut a scrap of poplar I had about 28″ long and squared it up to begin. The following process represents a brief description of the steps in ’sticking’ traditional mouldings.

To begin the moulding I first had to dimension the stock to size and this started with ripping it to width followed with some jointing with my 5 1/2 Bench plane. With the stock straight and square I’ll lay out the moulding profile at each end and figure out my rabbet and dado configurations. Funny when sticking mouldings, we think of the hollows and rounds first and foremost but the reality is that most of the bulk of the material will be removed with a rabbet and plough plane. The hollows and rounds follow to the create the curves, slopes and fair out the sharp edges left behind by the first special purpose planes.

The rabbet and plough plane I’m using are Veritas with my Lie Nielsen medium shoulder plane to clean up the inside corners. I used my right handed Lie Nielsen as well to put the small rabbet on the opposite side of the profile, this was a luxury having the right handed plane to deal with the grain direction. The curves of the moulding is squared off with a series of rabbets determining each stepped area. This process continues on until all that is left is a small dado and then again with my shoulder plane the edges are beveled. This was a tip I got while watching Don McConnell’s moulding making DVD; he states the you should always relieve any sharp edges before going to the moulding planes to help preserve the shape of the hollows and rounds. Actually, that tip as well as this entire process was demonstrated quite clearly in Dons excellent video- I recommend anyone planning on doing this kind of work watching it.

The moulding planes are a real pleasure to use, with a nice fine shaving it’s very therapeutic work…this is a good thing considering the amount of moulding I’ll have to make for this door project! The finish left behind from the hollows is quite incredible, a smooth burnished feel that doesn’t come across in photographs but really is something to behold. The entire process up to this point was probably no more than an hour for this piece just over two feet long.

With the profile complete I’ll put it aside to get ready to cut some miters, this will be another important stage of the door project. Lots of mouldings with twice the miters. I found a great old Stanley miter hook at a yard sale last year for $15.00- a sweet deal for this appliance it needed a little work but otherwise was in real good shape.

These miter cuts are purely for practice so lengths are a non-issue. This being only a sample the miter will really show me how even my profile is along its length. From here it’s to the shooting board to clean up the saw cut and I can finally see how it looks.

I’m using my new shooting board with my Lie Nielsen NO. 9 for this final step. I still didn’t make a 45 degree fence for this new board so I used the block portion of my combination square…this worked out well and it’s time to check the final fit.

I’m happy with this and am looking forward to getting into some quarter sawn White Oak later this week.
Stay tuned.

Philly Planes

Just got another update from Phil Edwards regarding my hollows and rounds…they’re complete and should be in my grubby little hands by the end of next week. I love it when manufacturers give updates of their work while it’s being done, it makes parting with my hard earned cash that much easier! Phil has been extremely professional and a pleasure doing business with; if his planes are half as good as his customer service then I’ll be a happy woodworker.
I’ll let you know when they arrive.
Cheers!

On Edge Jointing

In a previous post I was looking at some edge jointing techniques David Charlesworth uses and a few readers made some comments and posted a few questions. I thought it would make much more sense to ask David himself, instead of carrying out another online discussion or thread speculating the how’s and why’s of his methods with readers. He was gracious enough to drop me a note; if you didn’t see the original post you can see it here. Be sure to read the comments there to better understand the topic.
Cheers!

Tom,

best wishes,
David Charlesworth

Do you Buy before you Try ?

Over the past few weeks I’ve been surprised at how many new hand tool manufacturers are popping up on the Internet and all of the well known manufacturers are offering new and exciting product. This is nice but I’m sometimes weary…it either takes someone with a bucket of dough or a trusting consumer to buy tools on the Internet without first trying them out, unless it’s from an extremely well known tool maker or you’ve at least done some homework and read some reviews from reliable voices.
I know I don’t have a bucket full of dough but I can say there are a few hand tool manufacturers I feel quite confident in. I see a new product in a nice little picture, I read a few details that the manufacturer obviously wrote themselves and with that I reach for some plastic and wait for the mail truck.
Looking at some recent articles showing the rise in the hand tool market I know I’m not alone on this. So all that said what does it take to do that?
I’m just curious if there’s a lot of people out there who would never think on buying a hand tool that they’ve never once put their hands on…I suppose in a perfect world I’d be able to get to all of the wood shows and special hand tool events, try out all of the new tools before I commit, but my reality is something quite different than that. I try to develop a relationship with manufacturers and when they offer new product I go further than just reading a short paragraph on a web-site. I’ll contact them and make conversation, discuss the company history and see how the new product came to be. I’ve found almost every hand tool manufacturer I’ve contacted with questions or concerns to be absolutely forthcoming with information and assistance. If they’re not I’ll go somewhere else right? That is my job isn’t it ? My duty as a member of society to go elsewhere when I get bad service…let people know of my bad experiences as well as the good ones of course!
The good ones thankfully out way the bad and as a woodworker in 2009 I feel fortunate to be living and working through this exciting time. Whether you realise it or not we’re watching a section of history unfold in the hand tool market alone. This renaissance will be looked back upon the way we look back on our vintage Stanley’s and the like. My Lie Nielsen such and such will probably be worth more when my grand kids hock it on ‘What-Ever-Bay’ in a hundred years….
I digress…
Wooden bodied moulding planes, panel and back saws, specialty tools and educational platforms-it’s going to be an interesting few months with so many new and exciting things happening in my wood shop. I’ll fill you in on the details as they unfold. Stay tuned…
Oh yeah, the picture at the top has nothing to do with the article; I just thought it was a nice shot of our first born- Sally, the Unplugged Watchdog is our nine year old Beagle. She spends just about every waking hour with me in my wood shop. Maybe I should use this photo for my tool chest for sale advertisements? What a disgusting thought.

Cheers!

Hollows, Rounds and Non-Tapered Irons…

Last week I blogged about some new hollows and rounds I ordered from Phil Edwards in England. He makes beautiful wooden bodied hand planes in Broadstone, Dorset and is sending me pics as they’re coming along, a nice touch when ordering custom tools.
After posting the article one reader commented that he had heard Phil didn’t use ‘tapered irons’ in his planes and that this could be a difficulty while adjusting/removing the blade. I didn’t want to speculate so I asked the plane maker himself…here is what he said:
I know that some Folks say that only tapered irons will do, but from experience I have found this to be incorrect…The secret to a wooden plane that is easy to adjust and keeps it setting is a well fitting wedge – if the wedge beds correctly then you don’t need to use excessive force to lock it in place. This also means it is easy to adjust and easy to release the wedge…Traditionally, irons were made by forge welding a small piece of high carbon steel (the cutting edge) to a piece of iron. This section of iron was then hammered and teased out to make the iron longer – this gave the tapered effect. As time went by tool steel became less expensive and the whole blade was made from it, not just the first inch or two, But they still taper ground the irons. I believe they did this because plane makers were used to making planes with the tapered irons, and changing to a parallel iron meant making new jigs at slightly different angles for the layout and making of their planes…Sometimes you have try things out – just because everyone does it this way doesn’t mean its correct!

It sounds to me like Phil has done his homework and considering he’s made over 200 wooden planes I won’t question him. I should have the planes in the next few weeks so I’ll keep you posted.
Cheers!

Following the ‘Signs’

This morning, while edge planing a piece of Cherry I decided it would be a good time to demonstrate a trick I frequently do to determine the ‘flatness’ of the surface being worked. In the next photograph I’ve just taken a few through shavings down the reference edge. Please note that the stock is simply sitting on my bench top; it isn’t ‘dogged-down’ or clamped in any way. This will insure I’m not pinching the work, creating a bump or hollow over it’s length. I do have it resting up against a thin, scrap piece of plywood secured across the width of my work bench as well as having my bench dogs raised slightly along the front edge to keep the piece from moving about. With this method there’s no danger of transforming the profile of this important, reference edge in any way while I’m working it.

This is important and should be noted.

I arrived at this point after the larger ‘work’ or ‘reference’ surface was first determined and flattened. This first face surface being the most important, it will be our ‘reference’ surface to which all of our other lay-out will be referenced from. Some woodworkers when using the term ‘face side’ are usually referring to the outside ’show surface’ which can get a bit confusing…so to be clear-the work surface is actually my inside ‘reference face’ while dimensioning and laying out.
Now the trick I mentioned is a simple visual solution that clearly determines what your surface edge really looks like. Winding sticks and straight edges are great tools and visual aids showing you how straight and square you’re work really is; even a light rub with your finger tips can assist the eyes in determining this narrow, ’surface flattening’. But to be absolutely sure the reference edge is flat you’ll need some hard evidence…these are the shavings lying before you.If you look closely at the photos you’ll see the shavings I’m taking-these are only possible with a depth of cut in the neighborhood of one thousandth of an inch and taking a full, through shaving you’ll begin to see the signs. This type of shaving can only be obtained after you’ve flattened and tuned the sole of your bench plane as well as working with a plane iron that is razor sharp!
Lying there before me is a kind of road map…this clearly shows where there are still dips or hollows in the surface. In the next photo you’ll see how I’m getting closer to a truly flat edge. Again, the ‘map’ in the edge grain is unequaled in its ability to clearly demonstrate the progress. Simply take a fresh shaving and carefully unroll it. I’ve laid it on my steel flat edge to make it easier for you to see. With each pass these small ‘holes’ in the shavings get smaller. Another shaving and I’m almost there. The small ‘holes’ or ‘tears’ in the edge grain shaving mark any low or hollow spots in the surface. I can plane ‘around’ these valleys and bring things closer together. In the bottom photo you can see the three passes it took: from right, my first pass with two big sections that are obviously low. The middle shaving in the photo represents the next pass bringing the surfaces closer together; and finally the left shaving being my third pass is almost complete. I’ll follow with one or two stopped shavings to uniformly ‘hollow’ the length of the edge slightly and finish off with one or two more through shavings calling this side done.

My steel straight edge, winding sticks and engineers square together will tell the story of square and straight but for these tiny surface hollows, in the thousandth of an inch range, this road-map trick is something you should try. It can be difficult to see with the naked eye any slight valleys and a finger tip touch can only get you so far…this method of watching these signs will give you the confidence to move on with the dimensioning process of the lumber being worked. I should also mention the technique of ‘hollowing’ the edge along it’s length is a technique best demonstrated by David Charlesworth. His DVD on hand planing techniques available through Lie Nilesen Toolworks is extremely imformative and should be viewed by all using hand planes in the workshop.

Cheers!

Fine Wooden Planes made in England

I’m getting geared up to start production of an Exterior Wooden Door for a client here in Toronto. The house is located in the historic neighbourhood of Cabbagetown and is declared a Heritage Property.
The existing door was put on about 25 years ago, so I’m building a replica of the original. It will be made of 8/4 Quarter-Sawn White Oak and to keep it true to the local history when it was originally made a century ago, I’m building it using only hand tools.
The carcass is a straight forward frame and panel design with some interesting moulding details. In order to reproduce these mouldings I’ve ordered four pairs of hollows and rounds from Phil Edwards in Broadstone, Dorset.
Phil is craftsman, musician and clearly a hand tool enthusiast; during his process of manufacturing my planes he’s sent me a photo of the progress. I’m looking forward to getting my hands on them and taking some fine shavings…
Stay tuned.

Making the Best a Little Bit Better…

In my shop I have a wide selection of hand planes, from vintage Stanley’s to the modern designed, and Canadian made Veritas. I’m the proud owner of a James Krenov smoothing plane and also have an assortment of vintage wooden bodied bench planes and special purpose tools. I’ve acquired all of these tools slowly over the years but have to say that the planes I reach for the most while working wood and find to be much higher quality than all of the others mentioned are my Lie Nielsen hand planes. A league all their own comes to mind…
Right out of the package these tools perform exceptionally well but I’m going to demonstrate a few simple procedures that will make these ‘near perfect’ tools even better. The tips and techniques I’m going to describe are all methods used by English cabinetmaker and wood working teacher David Charlesworth; his hand plane tuning and technique videos are worth every cent. It’s funny to think that people go out and spend thousands of dollars on education but for the price of a handful of DVD’s, three books and some time spent in the shop you can get a kind of private lesson from this woodworking master. I had David’s books for the past while and finally got around to picking up his videos…better late than never, you’re never to old to learn a few new skills. Although I’ve been working with hand tools for awhile now there are some great tips and techniques in these books and videos that every wood worker should see. I set up a small monitor at the end of my workbench and make my way through the videos…pausing and playing, stopping and re-watching. This is a great way to learn at your own pace and I honestly can’t say enough about his videos….extremely informative!
Lie Nielsen bench planes come with a blade ground at a 25° bevel; this is where I’ll start to make my adjustments. Following the advice of Charlesworth, I’ll regrind the bevel closer to 23°. I use a JET slow speed wet sharpener for all of my grinding applications; it’s a good tool that is reasonably priced, easy to set up and dependable. It came with a wide assortment of jigs for different sharpening applications but I tend to only use the one to hold my irons and chisels exclusively. The rest of them I don’t bother much with.

After a few minutes on the grinder establishing the new bevel, it’s back to my work bench to get set up to flatten the sole of the plane. ‘Flatten the sole?’ you may be asking yourself…Why should you bother if the tool was manufactured to such high standards?
Even with an exceptionally well made tool like the Lie Nielsen line, there is always a chance that when in use and the plane body is under tension with the cutting iron, chip breaker and lever cap installed in working position, the bottom of the plane could be slightly out of true. This simple process will insure accuracy and enable me to take the finest wood shavings. Starting with a dead flat surface, in my case a piece of safety glass I’ll lay a piece of 220 grit sandpaper on it. From here I’ll take a felt tip marker and

draw out some grid lines over the bottom of the plane. A few passes and you’ll quickly be able to see just how flat the plane really is…keep taking passes until the bottom is completely clean. I’ll usually do a second round of lines just to make sure things are as flat as they should be. I follow this same procedure for all of my Lie Nielsen hand planes, fine tuning them all at once is a nice way to spend the day and will really pay off when I’m back in the shop next.
In the next shot you can clearly see what the sole of my 140, skew angle block plane while under tension of the iron and lever cap, looks like after a few passes on the 220 grit sandpaper…a bit more work and I’m there.

Notice the area around and just behind the mouth in the first shot…these are the areas you want to make sure are dead flat. A fine shaving is impossible to achieve if these areas are not touching your surface to be planed.
Again I’ll repeat these steps for my shoulder planes, side rabbet planes, block plane and bench planes.

When flattening the sole of my shoulder planes it’s a good idea to use a small square to make sure you’re keeping things square; the nature of the shoulder plane in use would not be good if you unintentionally sanded it out of square…something you could easily do with this technique…be careful!
Once I’ve flattened the soles on the 220 grit sandpaper I’ll take some super fine steel wool and a bit of metal polish and give the soles a good going over. This will make all of the tiny scratches left behind by the sandpaper very minute and give the planes a slick sole that makes it a breeze to move across the surface being planed. Seeing as I’m doing this hand plane ‘Spring Cleaning Session’ I’ll go over the sides and lever caps as well, making them shine like a new dime. Any small surface rust, tarnish and grim will be history. From here I’ll focus again on the irons. With the newly ground bevels completed, I’ll hone a second bevel on my water stones to approximately 33°. Then a third tiny bevel to finish at 35°. This again is a Charlesworth technique that will give you a razor sharp iron capable of taking the finest shavings.

Before using the stones though, it’s a good idea to use the safety glass and sandpaper method to flatten them as well. You’d be surprised at how easy it is to hollow them while honing.
Once the cutting bevel is prepared it’s time to flatten the back of the iron…these planes have been with me for a few years now so they don’t require much honing. I made sure when I first purchased them that I spent enough time on each iron insuring a flat back. The one thing I will do is perform “the ruler trick”. Again a Charlesworth technique to create a tiny back-bevel on the irons flat side. This may sound strange at first but I promise you the edge created will scare you.
Again, here in this article I’m not getting into all of the details of the process but am trying to say that a few hours spent with some sandpaper on glass, a Charlesworth DVD or two and a few of the finest planes on the market today will indeed take your wood working to the next level…guaranteed!
Cheers.

Lie Nielsen vs. Veritas

A couple of years ago I wanted to order a left handed Skew Block Plane from Lie-Nielsen Toolworks in Warren, Maine so I called their Canadian representative, Rob Cosman. At the time Rob informed me that the left handed version was back-ordered and said he had a right handed model available. He assured me it didn’t really matter if I had the left or right model because it would always depend on the grain direction when planing a rabbet if I needed a specific orientation of hand plane. Trusting Rob knew what he was talking about I went ahead and ordered it. He was right, no big deal that it was a right handed version, it exceeded my expectations and has been a pleasure to use these last few years. Late this summer Veritas introduced their Skew Rabbet Plane also available in a left or right handed version; I decided that those times when my right-handed Lie-Nielsen would tear out wood grain when planing against the grain I would order the new Veritas left handed model. It arrived quickly and well packaged as all of my Veritas tools have. Sharp and ready to go I was surprised at the size of the plane.
Now that I have one of each I’ll compare what I think are the advantages and dis-advantages of each one of these models. First up,
The Lie-Nielson Skew Block Plane:

When this plane arrived in my mailbox it was ready to work right out of the box. Finely casted bronze with a comfortable front knob in Cherry. The plane set up quite easily and even though it was a right-handed model it felt quite comfortable in use. I decided to add a longer fence to the existing bronze one that came with the plane and the folks at Lie-Nielsen had already tapped out a couple of holes just for this purpose. The plane comes with a nicker that’s great for scoring a line just before your cut which seems to help a great deal at eliminating any tear out. I find the size of this plane suits my hand very well but one problem I do encounter while using it is it can sometimes wander away from the inside edge of a rabbet while in use. I’m not sure exactly why this occurs, I try my best at keeping it firmly registered against the side of the work being planed however it still can wander just enough to leave a bit of material on the inside corner. I wonder if the Lie-Nielsen had a second post to support the fence would it correct this problem? This small left-over material is something I’ll correct by finishing off the cut with my small shoulder plane. Not a big deal but one negative against. Another item is the Lie-Nielsen model has no depth adjustment or fence. Again, not the end of the world but a depth stop would be handy when you want to cut to a certain depth and no deeper. I would not hesitate to recommend anyone purchasing this hand plane or any other models from Lie-Nielsen.

Veritas Skew Rabbet Plane

I’ll start of with saying one of the obvious differences you’ll notice right away in these two planes is size. This is not a one handed tool. Perhaps this entire article is a little ‘apples to oranges’…I know the Lie-Nilesen is technically a block plane and the Veritas clearly is not. So why bother comparing? Why not.
The Veritas came sharp right out of the box, great except that the front edge of the bottom fence and the front leading edges on the depth stop were also sharp enough to tear out some wood grain while in use. This I quickly fixed by taking a few light passes with a small file and finishing up with some 320 grit wet/dry paper. Problem solved but still my first experience with this kind of thing from Veritas…perhaps this one was made on a Friday? I also find the Veritas a little bulkier which makes set up and blade adjustment a little tricky. I’m one who likes to see down through the throat of my plane while I’m taking a shaving however the Skew Rabbet design makes this almost impossible to do while standing over it working. The design is aesthetically pleasing, it seems to have some extra ‘contours’ molded into the body just above the mouth and throat area. I’m not sure if these are there to aid in handling however, I found that they created a kind of ‘catch all’ for shavings and needed to be cleaned out after every other pass. Some advantages I found on the Veritas are these: The double pole for the bottom fence keeps things super straight and performance at cutting down a 1/4″ Rabbet in Walnut was effortless. (once I rounded over the sharp edges and finely tuned the set-up) The large front knob is also extremely nice, they also put it on an angle or skew. Having the depth stop is also great for the reasons I mentioned earlier. Another big difference between these two planes is the over-all blade set-up. This is more of a bench plane and features a bevel down blade while the Lie-Nielsen has the blade bevel up. This again is neither here or there except this: The Lie-Nielsen can be used in all sorts of planing scenarios, simply remove the fence and you basically have a nice big block plane. That said the veritas is pretty much dedicated to what it was made for. Hey, we are what we are…So with that can I say I prefer one over the other? No not really, in my perfect plane world my Skew Plane would be about the size of the Lie-Nielsen, have all of the same features it has but borrow the depth stop, the angled, slightly larger front knob and the double pole system for the fence, from the Veritas model and I think it would be ‘damn near perfect’. I’ll also suggest if you’ve been thinking about purchasing a Skew plane either one of these fine tools are far more than standard or adequate. They each have a few pluses and minuses but hey, nothing is perfect. In my shop the great thing is this; I needed a left handed model and a right handed model…so do what I did and get one of each.
Cheers!