LN LA blades interchangeable?

[Matt Stiegler]

Are the blades on the LN LA planes interchangeable among the different planes they way they are for the LV LN trilogy?

I think I get why that's desireable, but if someone could give a cogent explanation I'm sure I'd understand it better.

[Matt Stiegler]

Dumb questions?

[Bill Houghton]

I bet they can answer quicklike.

[Joel Goodman]

I'm certain that they're not because the #7 1/2 jointer is a 1/4 " thick and 2 1/4" wide; the #62 jack is 3/16 X 2"; the smoother has a different adjuster system.
In terms of why it might be useful to have the interchangeability -- if you have a low angle 25 degree iron (for end grain) and a 38 degree high angle (for smoothing tough grain) you could swap them among the various planes. I myself have the LN jack and have two irons for it -- I think the lack of interchangeability is not a big deal -- I like to leave my planes set up and having an extra iron for a plane is not a big expense. Also for different uses you will want a straight iron or a cambered iron as well as different angles so I doubt I'd interchange that much anyway. Perhaps folks who have the LV trio can comment on how useful that feature is to them. I don't know the LV planes or the LN low angles except for the LN jack but I can vouch for that one -- it's a great plane.

[Richard Magbanua]

The LN LA blades aren't interchangeable. The LV ones are. This could be useful if you get all three LV planes so you can put a different angle or camber on each which would give you the versatility of three blades for each plane. I s'pose it's like having 9 blades as long as you get all three planes. I'd be interested to know if the owners of all three planes actually swap their blades out that much.

I opted for the LN LA jack with an extra blade. I have one at 38* with a camber for general flattening and smoothing and another at a straight 25* for the shooting board. I got it on sale for 20% off at Woodcraft so I think it was the same as the LV LA jack. For me it came down to the classic beauty of the thing and being able to have an actual Lie-Nielsen on my shelf. Oh, and it works very, very well.

[Matt Stiegler]

Lucid explanations, thank you both.

[Jacob Mac]

I have all 3 LV LA planes. And I swap out the blades frequently. It is a highly useful feature IMO. Plus adjusting the LV planes is so easy and fast, it is no problem switching between planes.

[Sam Takeuchi]

I, too, swap blades between my LV BU planes. I have LV LA jack and BU smoother, and I share 4 blades between them: 25, 38, 50 and toothed blade. It's nice that I don't need to sharpen another set of blades. Also I agree that switching between planes is quick and easy even if you swap blades.