Let's talk about low angle jack planes

[Rob Luter]

I went with the Lee Valley and have been happy. It works well for shooting, as a jack plane, and as a big smoother. The Lie Nielsen is a fine tool as well. I wish I could own both. No experience with the new Stanley.

[Don Dorn]

I used a Lee Valley LA Jack for a long time and it worked very well. Then, I found a Record T5 Technical Jack and got rid of the LV. While the T5 works well, I regret parting with it. It served other purposes that the T5 doesn't do as well.

[justin sherriff]

extra blades for the new stanley are quite hard to find.

[Patrick Chase]

Using a low-angle jack plane on a shooting board is so last year. What you need is a shooting plane. http://www.leevalley.com/us/Wood/pag...182,48945&ap=1 Maybe you need a pair -- one left-hand, and one right-hand.

Or one bevel-up and one bevel-down :-).

[Patrick Chase]

The Stanley iron does have a tendency to move. It has an inferior cap iron that must be locked down hard to keep the iron in place.

You mean "lever cap" here right? Obviously the 62 doesn't have a cap iron.

Assuming you're referring to the lever cap, that's my biggest gripe with the new Sweethearts. As you say the lever cap has to be locked up tight to hold the iron in plane, but then you can't adjust it without loosening and retightening the lever cap. IMO it's an ergonomic disaster compared to the LN/LV planes.

[john zulu]

I've recently constructed a shooting board for my bench and quickly realized this is a great opportunity to tell the misses that I clearly "need" to buy a low angle jack plane

I'd love to plop down for a Lie Nielsen or Veritas, if only money grew on trees....

To that end, I've been looking at the current Stanley sweetheart version that can be had for $122 (price fluctuates on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B002B56CUY...=1AERWKTKKN7QS

Chris Schwartz review pointed me in this direction: https://www.popularwoodworking.com/w...ot-yet-perfect

For the folks on here that have used all three low angle jack planes, is this one worth considering? Or should I save up for a high end version that costs more than double?

Thanks,
Chris

I use LV Jack plane. I did not regret buying it as I use almost all the blade configurations. From the 25 to 50 degrees and the tooth blade. Each has it's own use. The wood I work with has
interlocking grain which needs this kind of treatment. Western woods are more tame in general. With 38 degrees I was able to plane ebony to a glass finish. It depends on your usage.

After using the Shooting plane from LV this plane is a poor comparison or a low angle block plane for short pieces. If you go for a higher end LA jack then the veritas would be a better choice
are there are more blade configurations for it. I have LN gear but still select LV LA Jack.

[Frederick Skelly]

Before LN and LV came out with specific shooting planes an LN #62 was bought for use on my shooting board. My one recommendation is to also purchase or make a hot dog if you are going to use it for shooting. It makes things work so much easier.

Here is a post on putting together my ambidextrous shooting board:

http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthre...44777-Oh-Shoot!

It has a few other tips on shooting angles and such.

jtk

Going slightly off topic here... I finally made a hotdog handle for my LV Low Angle Jack this past weekend. Jim's right (as usual) - it makes a world of difference on my donkey ear shooting board. So consider doing that for yourself Chris - regardless of which you buy. It is so much easier to shoot that I can't imagine the the LV shooting plane that I'd saved up to buy could be noticeably better.

Chris, if you buy the new Stanley I'd appreciate reading a review here.

Fred

[Chris Stephenson]

Gentlemen - all great info, I can't get over how much of a resource and great help the folks are on this site.

So, after reading every review and taking the time to sleep on it, I decided I needed to just bite the bullet and make an investment on quality planes. Figuring one day, I can pass them down. If it was just the low angle jack, I probably would have gone the LN route, however I know i'll eventually want a nice block and smoothing plane. In which, Lee Valley offers a significant discount when you buy their bundle, so i'm going to pull the trigger on this option and will report back once I've gotten the opportunity to use them all. http://www.leevalley.com/us/Wood/pag...87&cat=1,41182

Includes their:
Low angle smoothing plane with two different blades
Low angle block plane
Low angle jack plane

Retail is $648, but as a bundle it's discounted to $530 which seems like the best value in the quality plane market.

[Prashun Patel]

It is indeed a good deal. I own two of those planes (the small bu smoother and the la jack).

I can tell you from use that the small bu smoother is not for everyone. I in fact tried to sell mine a while back. There were no takers. This might tell you something about its utility. I have come to accept and love this plane, but for small tasks. I much prefer the traditional #4 for general smoothing. Two reasons: better mass, better control of tear out. With that small smoother you may need to adjust the bevel angle for difficult woods. That blade is not shareable with the LA jack or LA jointer. So you may find yourself wanting to buy a second blade to handle trickier woods. With a bevel down smoother, you can control a good deal of tear out with proper chip breaker setting (I'm really seeing the truth in this lately).

As for the block, some people (caveat: this is hearsay) find that plane a little too large.

I think the choice of bevel up v bevel down is a personal and subtle one. I wouldn't jump into all of these just because it's a good deal.

Personally, I would buy the one plane you think you need and can put to good use. I would build your arsenal one at a time. While you may miss out on package deals, you'll end up with fewer planes - and more usable planes. Learn from my mistakes...

As for the LA jack, it is a fantastic general purpose plane. It can do many things fairly well. But for smoothing, you'll ultimately want something smaller, for jointing, something larger, for shooting something heavier, and for thicknessing something lighter. I reach for it often, yet find that it's not the best tool for the job most of the time. I am conflicted about this one. For me, it's value seems to have diminished as I've settled into a dedicated smoother, shooter, jointer, scrub plane. If you're doing any of these tasks occasionally, the veritas la jack is wonderful; any more than occasionally, dedicated planes may serve better.

[glenn bradley]

I went straight to the Veritas LAJ so cannot help with other choices. I will say that even as my hand plane corral fleshed out I do not find the LAJ going idle as others have mentioned. I do now have a dedicated shooter and the LAJ still sees enough use to warrant a spot in the till, right at hand.

[Bill McNiel]

Yet another side note-the Low Angle Block can be converted into a nice small smoother by getting the tote & knob accessory (http://www.leevalley.com/US/Wood/pag...182,41189&ap=1). I love my LA Block (I have relatively small hands and have never considered it too big) but given the assortment of blocks in my till I typically leave the Veritas LA block with the tote on it.

The LA Jack is, as Prashun says, "a fantastic general purpose plane" but I also have two Bailey #5s (one with a soft cambered scrub blade and one with a Veritas replacement blade for bevel down work) and an ECE Jack.

I also have the LA Smoother but not the "small" version. Check out Derek's site for reviews.

[kent wardecke]

Hi Kent,

The "new" Stanley products and the old Stanley products are very different things. It seems Stanley recently learned there was money to be made from some of their old designs so they went out to find off shore factories to make them.

It seems they also noticed some folks liked, and would pay more for, the SW inside the heart on vintage tools so they revived that logo. Unfortunately they didn't work on producing premium quality as much as they did to charge premium prices.

The first batches were below par.

Not sure what the current production quality may be.

jtk

OK this time
With a scarcity of intact No. 62's, the mouth was susceptible to braking. New may be the most logical choice.
I'm cheap which makes shopping a drag but if your going to pay a premium price then it has to be a premium product and the Sweet Heart's are almost twice what a new Stanley costs.

[Jim Koepke]

I'm cheap which makes shopping a drag but if your going to pay a premium price then it has to be a premium product and the Sweet Heart's are almost twice what a new Stanley costs.

There are two different eras of tools with the Sweet Heart logo. The first from the 1920's and early 1930s are valued by collectors. The recent Sweet Heart tools do have some improvements on the old design, but may not be as good as the price.

My LN #62 is definitely worth the cost in my opinion.

jtk

[Simon MacGowen]

Retail is $648, but as a bundle it's discounted to $530 which seems like the best value in the quality plane market.

I hope it is not too late. DO NOT get the starter set ... Get the Starter Set PM-V11 version!!!, especially since you plane to shoot. As long as they have not shipped, you can contact Customer Service by phone and change your order. Think PM-V11 as Enerzier Bunny: it keeps going and going. O1? You shoot and you cry (exagg.).

The nice thing about the LAJ is that you can use the same blade for a few other planes...in other words, you can swap blades with different angles.

And I agree with Jamie that using a low-angle jack plane on a shooting board is indeed yesteryear. One has to use the LAJ and the the Veritas shooting plane (skew bed) side by side to know the true difference.

Simon

[Hasin Haroon]

Hi Chris,

I have the Veritas Low Angle Jack and the Lie Nielsen No. 62 (also have the Veritas shooting plane, which is the best out of all for shooting, but since you didn't ask about it I won't go there). Out of the two, the Veritas is the better purchase. I love my Lie Nielsen No. 62, but for the price (both roughly the same price), the functionality of the Veritas is better, the quality of both is equal, and aesthetically the Lie Nielsen is better. I hope this helps you pick based on what is most important to you. Both are still great planes, and if you only ever used the Lie Nielsen No. 62 you could live happily in ignorance of the improvements provided by Veritas.