Anyone see the new LV palm planes?

[Jessica Pierce-LaRose]

http://www.leevalley.com/US/wood/page.aspx?p=67716&cat=51&ap=1

Having used an Ibex before, these look a little more comfortable. Might have to order one next time I carve a guitar top.

[Tony Shea]

I have not. Those look very neat. I may order on just to have, not sure how useful it would be but think it is kinda cute.

[Trevor Walsh]

They are adorable, I don't know if I need one but I'm putting a convex one on my gift wish list. I'll use it for spindles or something right?

[John Coloccia]

Rob Lee was kind enough to let me play with some prototypes a while back. They're very nice. The handle is great when you need it, and in the way when you don't. Fortunately it unscrews in about 2 seconds so removal and installation is trivial. They've definitely become part if my archtop carving arsenal.

[John Coloccia]

Here's a little mini review I did for these planes. I was at a good point in some carving work that I'm able to demo them for a second, and I wanted everyone to see what they're all about. It's difficult to get a feel for them just based on pictures.

In the video I say that I don't really like the handles, and I don't. I know at least one person who has these that loves the handles. They easily come on and off so it's really not that critical, and I DO use the handles sometimes.

Anyhow, here it is, warts and all. I've lived with these guys for some time now and really wanted to show them off because they're very nice and very useful.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eW89HKS5r1o

[Chris Griggs]

Really nice review John. You should do more - the Worksharp one you did a while back was also really good. Honestly, those aren't planes I would have even thought to buy, but now I'm wondering if I one would prove useful for the small case/cabinet/box work I like to do. What kinds of things do you find yourself using the flat one for?

[John Coloccia]

What kinds of things do you find yourself using the flat one for?

The small flat one, along with my Lie-Neilsen model maker plane, is wonderful for flushing up edges, knocking off sharp corners, etc. The flat bottom ones are also nice for evening out the grooves and inconsistencies left by the convex planes. The longer the plane is, the flatter the curve will be, so having different sizes allows me to easily smooth out the rough spots without making them too flat, though I find myself getting good enough with the other planes that I often just go right from carving to scraping these days.

You know, I have 2 sets of these. PM me your address, and I'll send you a set. When you're done fiddling, repost here and send them to the next guy. We'll let them make the rounds until the end of the year, and whoever has them at the end of December mail them back to me. We'll try it as an experiment. If it works out well, maybe we'll do it again next year.

[Chris Griggs]

The small flat one, along with my Lie-Neilsen model maker plane, is wonderful for flushing up edges, knocking off sharp corners, etc. The flat bottom ones are also nice for evening out the grooves and inconsistencies left by the convex planes. The longer the plane is, the flatter the curve will be, so having different sizes allows me to easily smooth out the rough spots without making them too flat, though I find myself getting good enough with the other planes that I often just go right from carving to scraping these days.

You know, I have 2 sets of these. PM me your address, and I'll send you a set. When you're done fiddling, repost here and send them to the next guy. We'll let them make the rounds until the end of the year, and whoever has them at the end of December mail them back to me. We'll try it as an experiment. If it works out well, maybe we'll do it again next year.

That's an awesome idea John! On behalf of everyone who gets a round with them I say thanks. I'll try to give'em a workout on my current project and pass them along pretty quickly. Just the other day I was flushing up some base molding to where it meets the interior of lower shelf of the chest I'm working on, and was thinking - "it sure would be nice to have something other than a chisel to do this with." I bet we start forming a line! Oh, what a fun idea. As you said, I'll revive this thread when I'm done with them, and send them along to whoever is interested. I love this place.

[george wilson]

I recently knocked together a few small planes with handles. When you get older,you might appreciate the relief the palm rests give to your tired out knuckles. Those aren't very expensive. If I needed any more planes and didn't want to make them,I'd buy a few extra flat ones and file them up to make less convex soles for carving arches.

Actually,I have considered making some small bronze planes for guitar or violin work.

[Bill Moser]

Nice review John. I wasn't planning on getting any of those, but your vid started to give me some ideas of how they could be used.
George - any chance you could elaborate on the idea of "knocking out" these types of plane?

[george wilson]

I just milled out some blocks of 1/2" square brass,and milled out ,partially,the throats. Then filed out the rest of the throats. Then,drilled and threaded 1/4/20 threads for a shaft of drill rod. They were capped with some 3/4" black ball handles. Nothing fancy.


If I were ever to get some bronze ones cast by the place that makes my wife's jewelry casting,I'd make a nice pattern with nice curves in it. Don't know when that might ever happen,though. My right knee,right sacrum,and right thumb are really painful at this time. I'm in the 3rd of a series of 5 injections of lubricants for my knee. I am pretty sure it will end up with surgery. My thumb has a bone spur from playing the guitar for many years. It suddenly got a LOT worse Monday night. Hopefully tomorrow I'll get an injection at the pain clinic. I had been looking forward to getting an injection in my back,and now this even worse problem pops up! I can't hold a small glass of water. At least I'm left handed,but when you are missing the use of the other thumb,it suddenly becomes a problem to do anything.

[John Coloccia]

You may well be right about the handles, George. Sorry to hear you're having problems. I'd love to see the brass planes, though. I admire your fine craftsmanship, but it's the down and dirty, simple, utilitarian tools that turn me on most (I'm very much a minimalist).

You know, I'm actually thinking of building a simple wooden plane like Benedetto built (he used an old putty knife for the iron....he's still using the same plane...and the same putty knife iron!). I know absolutely nothing about plane building. Maybe it's time to learn :)

[george wilson]

O.K.,John. As you can see,you weren't missing out on anything. Hardly any style,not much of a finish on them,Just left as milled(the brass one),inconsistent handle angles. One day I just decided I could use a few handled planes to ease my fingers. The balls were left over from rebuilding my Hardinge HLVH lathe. They are crossfeed knobs. One is beaten up.

The one plane is a boxwood one I had made some time ago,and just stuck a handle on as a quick and dirty palm plane.

And,as a bonus,my usual terrible photography!!:)

[Klaus Kretschmar]

I just milled out some blocks of 1/2" square brass,and milled out ,partially,the throats. Then filed out the rest of the throats. Then,drilled and threaded 1/4/20 threads for a shaft of drill rod. They were capped with some 3/4" black ball handles. Nothing fancy.


If I were ever to get some bronze ones cast by the place that makes my wife's jewelry casting,I'd make a nice pattern with nice curves in it. Don't know when that might ever happen,though. My right knee,right sacrum,and right thumb are really painful at this time. I'm in the 3rd of a series of 5 injections of lubricants for my knee. I am pretty sure it will end up with surgery. My thumb has a bone spur from playing the guitar for many years. It suddenly got a LOT worse Monday night. Hopefully tomorrow I'll get an injection at the pain clinic. I had been looking forward to getting an injection in my back,and now this even worse problem pops up! I can't hold a small glass of water. At least I'm left handed,but when you are missing the use of the other thumb,it suddenly becomes a problem to do anything.

George,

I'm very sorry to hear about your current health issues. I do wish you a speedy recovery. It's a hard thing not to be able to do hand work after having done it that long and that perfect you did it. Hope these things will change soon.

Best
Klaus

[Jim Neeley]

John,

Thanks for the awesome review! I'd seen them at LV's site but hadn't really considered the applications until I started seeing yours.

Jim

[John Coloccia]

And,as a bonus,my usual terrible photography!!:)

You're improving. Only one picture is out of focus this time :) The boxwood one is probably very similar to what I had in mind building for myself.

[Chris Griggs]

The small flat one, along with my Lie-Neilsen model maker plane, is wonderful for flushing up edges, knocking off sharp corners, etc. The flat bottom ones are also nice for evening out the grooves and inconsistencies left by the convex planes. The longer the plane is, the flatter the curve will be, so having different sizes allows me to easily smooth out the rough spots without making them too flat, though I find myself getting good enough with the other planes that I often just go right from carving to scraping these days.

You know, I have 2 sets of these. PM me your address, and I'll send you a set. When you're done fiddling, repost here and send them to the next guy. We'll let them make the rounds until the end of the year, and whoever has them at the end of December mail them back to me. We'll try it as an experiment. If it works out well, maybe we'll do it again next year.

Well John sent me his spare set of planes (thanks John) and I received them on Monday. I build small furniture, boxes, chests, and cabinets, not instruments, and was really curious to see how they could be used in the work I do. I've had a chance to mess around with them a couple nights this week and here's my (limited) report:

I mainly played with the single convex and the flat. I played with the dbl. convex and the concave a bit too, but didn't see myself having as much a use for those so I focused the former two. I could tell this was Johns spare set. All but the dbl. convex (Johns favorite) I believe still had the factory grind on them, so I promptly went about sharpening the flat and single convex (left the other two as it). I think I'm a respectable free hand sharpener, but honing these things, the convex in particular, definitely had a learning curve, simply because they were so small. That said, it's not unbelievably hard and after a bit of fussing with different grips and motions I got them good and sharp.

I set them up with the handle off as John suggested, and depth adjustments really were quite simple to do using a small brass hammer. However, unlike John, once I got the blade set, I put the handles on and found that I much preferred to use them this way. So what did I use them for? I had two main interests - 1) touching up drawer and cabinet interiors, and 2) touching up moldings. I quite like the flat for small chamfers and small trimming tasks, especially on the interior edges of drawers and dividers - it is indeed a nice little trimming tool.

I tested the single convex on some coved molding cutoffs (cherry) from my current project. While the plane did leave a very nice surface, this really wasn't an ideal use for it. Because of the difference in the radii in the molding compared to the plane, I found it tricky to take cuts where I wanted to. Perhaps that would have been obvious to others, but my thinking was that since the plane's radius was smaller then the cove it would work well. Once again, the eventual surface was nice, but I personally, wouldn't buy one for this use. Of course, my issue's may also have been due to my complete lack of experience using this type of plane.

Overall, I really liked these planes - they are, of course, made to LVs usual standards, and despite being quite foreign and a bit intimidating for me they were easy to learn to use. They were surprisingly small (which is obviously the point), but you really need to see/hold them in person to appreciate just how small they are. Because of their small size, I really, really liked the ball handle. It made me feel like I had more to hold on to and positioned my hand very comfortably over the plane body giving me a lot of control. Unlike John, I didn't like using them without the handle, but as they say "different strokes for different folks", so it is nice that the handles are so easy to put on/take off.

Although using these was a great experience, and even though I like them (the flat one in particular), I probably won't buy one. This is not a criticism of the planes, they're just a bit too small and specialized for my uses - that said, the little flat one, made me think I may want one of LVs detail rabbet planes, which I feel would be a bit better suited for small interior trimming tasks. I typically use chisels for these types of tasks, but can certainly see the value in having a small detail plane of some kind to help with them.

EDIT: Next user has PM'd me. I will be sending them to Jonas Baker. He will repost here and send them forward when he is done trying them.