LA jack plane veritas vs LN?
#31
Meh....
Rolleyes 
   
Much prefer a Stanley No. 3c, type 11/12...
Cool
   
At least on figured Ash....
   
Even my Millers falls No. 11, type 2 does a better job than the #62.  
   
And, I have jack planes that actually work like a jack plane should.  

YMMV...
Show me a picture, I'll build a project from that
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#32
Having been a systems guy for most of my working career I was naturally drawn to that aspect of the Veritas planes. Being a handplane noob then (and still) I found the LAJ much easier to use than the regular ole #5. The side set screws stop most all the fiddling that takes place to get a BD double iron set up again. If you are going to buy more BU planes, the fact that the blades are interchangeable allows you to set up one blade and then share it across the herd. As an example, I pulled the PM-V11 from my shooting plane and swapped it with the O1 iron in the LAJ thinking that the O1 gets sharper at 20° and that the LAJ is going to see much more use now that I've sold my jointer. Speaking of which, get the 25° blades and hone a secondary bevel to the angle you want.

From a purely personal viewpoint, it seems that while my hands fit the Veritas beautifully they are too large for the Stanley size and shape. The Veritas LAJ may not be a smoother. but you can take some mighty fine see-through shavings with it. The Veritas fits my persona better than does the LN. Enjoy...
Thanks,  Curt
-----------------
"Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards."
      -- Soren Kierkegaard
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#33
I own a WoodRiver 5-1/2 and have no desire for a low angle jack. If I really wanted a new LN, it would probably be a 60-1/2 rabbet block plane. If my heart was set on a low angle jack plane the LN would be my choice over the Veritas or any other.
Any free advice given is worth double price paid.
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#34
(05-21-2019, 01:11 PM)Ricky Wrote: Would definitely buy a few extra blades to get most out of it.

For either plane, I'd recommend a standard blade and a toothed blade.
I don't think I'd try and get a bunch of high-angle blades to use with it.

What other planes do you already have?
(For smoothing, I prefer a bevel-down #4;  for initial flattening I prefer a heavily-cambered #5; and I have a slightly-eased #7 to follow that)


The original big benefit I had was in flattening a doug fir workbench with hard (reclaimed) lumber that had some knots in it -- the toothed blade was a big help here.  The standard blade I've kept with no camber.  I used to do some shooting with this, and still do an occasional edge jointing.  I don't use it much on board faces.

The LV has the features you mentioned, and can also come with the PMV11 blade.
I can't say that I have found the features to be big game changers, and I do prefer the LN#5 aesthetics...
so put me in the ambivalent camp.

Matt
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#35
The question to answer is, what tasks are you going to use it for?

As a smoother on straighter grain woods, I like a highly tuned traditional smoother. I prefer the bevel down design over a bevel up, as a standard bench plane. I love the precision of a LN smoother when your looking for a plane to get working fast, without s bunch of fiddling or tuning. But, the bevel up will work, just takes more adjusting.

As a traditional jack to remove material fast, it’s much more cost effective to have a used #5 or equivalent, with an open mouth and a cambered blade. The high cost of precision is often overkill, when your just looking to remove wood fast.

When it comes to highly figured woods, it’s nice to have another option when your traditional smoother causes tear out. Or if you’re a hybrid woodworker, when your power planer eats your board. That is where the bevel up design can help. You can find a blade bevel angle that best handles the piece of figured wood that is giving you trouble.

For me, I use an LAJ in three situations:

I’ve found the most use for a LAJ in my shop is as a shooting plane, combined with a shop made shooting board. Once I made a shooting board that complimented my LAJ with a low angle blade, I’ve never had the desire to spend the money on a specialty shooting plane. The LAJ will do the job.

Second, when I’m dealing with difficult woods, a high bevel angle on a second blade with a tight mouth opening is a nice option. That situation is not often, if you usually use a finely tuned, very sharp, bevel down smoother. But, there are times.

Third is when I need to joint shorter boards (because of the plane length). The lower center of gravity and plane design allows me to position one hand on the tote and the other in the middle of the plane, while touching the vertical face of the board. For me, I feel I have more control in getting a 90 degree square edge. Others have methods that work for them.

In summary, in my shop, the low angle jack is more of a shooting plane that is sometimes used as a long smoother/short jointer. Because of that the design features of the Veritas plane (discussed in other posts), LV wins over the LN traditional design.
John
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#36
I can't comment on the Veritas, I've never used it. But I have an LN 62 LA jack and I love it. If you do get one, make sure you get the toothed blade with it also, that's such a useful item to have with this plane. Great for flattening uneven surfaces, I think more so than a scrub plane for me.

Cheers,
Alan
Alan
Geometry was the most critical/useful mathematics class I had, and it didn't even teach me mathematics.
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#37
(05-21-2019, 12:42 PM)Admiral Wrote: For what its worth, I've owned both (as well as a vintage Stanley #62), kept the LV, sold the LN.  Both are excellent and you really can't do wrong with either, but the "extras" you mentioned were the precise reasons I kept the LV.

My experience was about the same. Years ago I couldn’t make my mind up as to which one to buy so I got them both with the intent to sell the one I liked the least. This was before PM-V11 blades were even available, so it was a tough choice. Kept them both for about a year before selling the LN. Either one is an excellent choice-those wanting a plane most like the Stanley will be very happy with the LN while the Veritas has some unique features when compared to the Stanley and its clones.
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#38
Why not get both.
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#39
(05-22-2019, 06:07 AM)med-one Wrote: Why not get both.

Like my late dad used to say when I would try to bum 10 bucks off him to go on a date.  "Who do you think I am, John Rockefeller?" 
Laugh
Laugh

One of the things that peaked my interest was a YT video I recently saw where a guy uses a blade ground to 90 degrees to tackle very difficult wood. He claims it leaves a shimmering surface and basically acts as a scraper blade.  Here's the video:


  
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#40
The video mentions that the scraper blade for the LAJ is something new from LN, but they have offered it for a long time. Brian Boggs wrote an article for Fine Woodworking magazine many years ago, when he still lived here in Berea, on how to make a scraper plane blade which might have inspired LN to offer their version. No experience with one myself, as I pretty much stick with boring hardwoods that don’t present that much of a tear out problem.
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