Which low angle plane?

[Dave Cav]

I am considering the purchase of my first low angle bench plane. I have several vintage low angle block planes but they don't have the mass and capacity I need. I plan to use the plane mostly for trimming the ends of drawer fronts, and for trimming cabinet doors and some rail and stile trimming. I have narrowed the choices down to the smoother and jack from Lee Valley and Lie Nielsen. My question boils down to whether or not the smaller smoothers have the mass to trim the end grain of drawer fronts (typically white oak), or should I go for the greater mass of the jack plane. Also, while I have a number of Stanley/Bailey planes, I have never used a Veritas bench plane, and wonder if there is any particular advantage to the Lee Valley over the L.N. other than personal preference (and price).

thanks

[David Weaver]

I'd say any of them would work.

If you're only ever going to get one and you think you might have big end grain jobs to do in the future (ends of counter tops, etc), then you might want to start with a jack. If you're going to be doing exclusively small drawerfront stuff with a little bit of doors mixed in, then maybe the smoother is better. You'll be able to make do with either.

Get whichever one (brand) you like the looks of better - you can't tell if you like the feel unless you have used them.

To be honest, though, I have never felt left behind using a good solid sharp bevel-down bench plane on large scale end grain work, and though I have the LV LA jack, I just use a bench plane to cut the end grain off of dovetails and door/drawerfront size endgrain cuts... or perhaps a LN jointer on really large endgrain work. The LA planes have gone from a "solve all" thing to me initially to now being something I don't even use, other than a low angle block plane for chamfering or breaking edges.

I keep the LA jack only because I'm afraid that at some point, I'm going to want to use the toothing iron...but as infills multiply, the need for that hasn't materialized, either.

If mass is a problem with anything you get, sharper and lighter cut will always help.

[Harvey Pascoe]

I almost always grab the larger plane and weight is the reason, better stability, too. I use the LV jack for all sorts of small jobs and most of my work is small. Chances are you won't really know which you'd prefer until you have several planes but I don't think you could go wrong with the jack.

[Jim Koepke]

I bought a Lie-Nielsen #62 low angle Jack with a hot dog and love it for shooting end grain.

It is occasionally used for other tasks.

A smoother will not have much more mass than a large block plane for end grain work.

jtk

[Prashun Patel]

I have both LA planes from Veritas. Honestly, I'm liking the BU smoother less and less. I really like the jack. I'm SURE the problem is me, but I find it harder to tune the BU smoother to run without tracks. For final smoothing, the BD planes have just worked better in my unskilled hands. The BU jack, though, has worked well for me.

All this is to say, get to a show and try the planes b4 purchasing. It's mainly (IMHO) about what feels best in yr hands.

[Richard Line]

I have the LV LA smoother, with blades of 25, 38 & 50 degrees. It is my smoother of choice (of course, I didn't have much of choice before I bought it). I already had a Stanley jack, with the LV replacement blade. If I wasn't trying to fill a hole in my plane collection, I would have gone with the LV LA jack. I went with the LA smoother, rather than the LV bevel up smoother, because it can be used for shooting. Two features of the LV LA planes that I really like are 1) blades can be changed in a wink with no adjustment needed, and 2) the throat can be opened with about an 1/8 a of twist on the front knob to make for fast chip cleaning.

The jack will have more mass and therefore better for shooting and some other work, although I'm very happy with shooting with the LA smoother.

Check out Derek Cohen's thread on sharpening a bevel up blade to get a chamber on the edge.

I've never held, let alone used a LN bevel up plane, so I can't comment on them.

[John A. Callaway]

here is a good discussion on the various low angle smoothers out there...

http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?168984-Which-to-buy-The-LN-No.3-or-the-Low-angle-Smoother....&highlight=

[Andrew Gibson]

I have the LV BU Jack. I would highly recommend it... I find for any end grain work it is great. If i have a project that i feel is to small for the Jack I will usually be reaching for my block plane...