Review (and gloat) Lie-Nielsen plane screwdriver set.

[Malcolm Schweizer]

I thought I was seeing things when I saw "buy it now $100" on a full set of LN screwdrivers. Even as I opened the package at the Post Office I was waiting for them to go "poof" and disappear, and I awake to see it was just a dream. ... But alas, it was real!

First thing to note- they are HUGE! Now I see why they are $25 each these things have handles relatively as big as a LN chisel handle. See pic below next to a 1" chisel and #1 plane. In pictures they look much smaller. The shafts are as wide as the blade, so the shafts are massive compared to your standard driver. Again, now I see why they cost so much.

I tried them on a #1 and a Cabinet Scraping Plane. They fit so well that if you don't put them in straight you might at first think they don't fit.

Next I tried the Veritas planes and they fit the cap iron perfectly. The handle required me to choose a size too small. Better than using a "regular" screwdriver, but not a perfect fit. The nicker driver perfectly fit the Veritas blade set screws.

On to the Stanley's and a bit of warning: The frog adjustment driver fit one screw on my #4, but was too big for the other screw. (Same screws but one is apparently machined a tiny bit wider in the slot, or more likely just worn a bit more.) It was too big for either screw on the #7. The handle screws, lever cap, and chip breaker all fit.

At over $200 new for the set, I would say just get the ones you need most, but certainly they are worth the money. I paid $100, so no complaints here! If paying full price I would have gotten the lever cap and chip breaker drivers and probably the saw nut driver.

[Matthew N. Masail]

NICE ! a good screwdriver is a dream, especially one that is perfect for the job!

[Malcolm Schweizer]

True! By the way, speaking of a perfect driver for the job, one picture shows them (for size comparison) next to a set of Veritas drivers, which would be my favorite all-time if they would make the Phillips with the same "perfect" handles.

[Brian Holcombe]

I have them and enjoy them as well. The only one i've had trouble with is the multi-tip one, which started spinning in the handle. They offered to repair, eventually i'll send it back so they can do so.

[Matthew N. Masail]

You mean these right ? http://www.leevalley.com/US/wood/page.aspx?p=32208&cat=1,43411,43417&ap=1

the Philips have a different handle?

[Malcolm Schweizer]

I am saying give me this set in a Phillips head, same handles. Also give me one size larger in the flathead.

http://www.leevalley.com/US/wood/page.aspx?p=70159&cat=1,43411,43417

[Adam Cruea]

Nice grab!

I had to adjust a plane in the showroom (seems someone cranked down the lever cap so tight you couldn't adjust the depth), and with the quick fettling I did, I honestly thought about getting the screwdrivers. There's definitely no wiggle-room with them, that's for sure.

[Winton Applegate]

Interesting and informative !
thank you for putting that up on the forum.
I could add, for people not that detail happy, as you and I , that the hollow grinding on the tip is really important and one of the main things that will make these drivers perform better. Flat ground (wedge shaped) screw drivers like one would get at for one example Sears cam out because the force is being transmitted to the screw high up on the lips of the slot. Combine that with a dome head screw ( compared to a pan head screw ) and it is enough to make one go looking for a hex head screw to replace the original fastener with.

These hollow ground LN tips get the point of force transfer down to the bottom of the slot in the screw so the shape of the screw head becomes less important in terms of force transfer and durability come to think of it.

I have come to appreciate large driver handles recently

For the all day mechanic’in I do the larger the handle the better. I two fist it all the time.
Of about ten handle patterns the blue/green one with three flats is THE ULTIMATE handle shape. Super grip and NO BLISTERS. Other drivers tenderize the skin in my palm and feel like blisters would be on the way if I were to continue all day.

By the way the little red one in the photo is a SnapOn . . . SNAP ON . . . for Chriyssake . . .
I never use it. It is like a Barbie nut driver. It is so small it just disappears in my fist . . . and I have small girly man hands. I can’t imagine what they think Mr. Hamhock is going to do with that. Or the Sears nut drivers next to it. Saving on plastic I suppose. Plastic trees are disappearing at an alarming rate. I mean . . . when was the last time you saw a plastic tree ? Right ?

Maybe they know something there. Buy LN screw drivers and save the plastic tree from extinction ! ! ! !

This one (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003UWHRSS/ref=oh_details_o01_s01_i00?ie=UTF8&psc=1) is as large as the Euro blue/green one (shown at top of my photo), has a rubberized grip and is my current over all winner out of all of them.

Woh, the price just went up a bunch, if you want to try one for a nut driver, and I recommend them most emphatically, watch the price, they will come back down.

This’n here (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00004WAG1/ref=ox_sc_sfl_title_5?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER) has been on my list for ages but the price never drops. The dif. is that the steel shaft goes all the way through the handle and you can put a 3/8th ratchet handle in the top for extra torque or to use the driver as a socket wrench extension. PS: you can put a metal rod through the driver in the first link and turn it into a T handle.

All I can say about price on my second link is “are you freekin out of your minds ? ” After all it isn’t a hand made LN driver with a wood handle and brass ferrule etc. now is it.

The shaft is extremely stout (I can spiral the yellow handle driver’s shaft on the driver in the first photo with the kind of torques we are talking about here). It and the second link one have 3/8 ths size ends for 3/8th drive sockets. I never came across these two before because they are listed as “spinners” rather than as a nut driver.

Heck . . . I was going to just say thanks for the new thread and that was all but you know me. Yak, yak, yak.

[Winton Applegate]

OH, OH, Oh,
I almost forgot . . .
If you look really close at the Sears driver at the bottom of my photo, the big Zarker that is so long it is disappearing into the distance out of the photo . . .
. . . if you look really close at the printing on the handle you will see an upside down "WF".
That is the mark from Western Forge and soooo
that driver was made right here in the same town where I live and not in China.

Ok
. . . what ? . . .
. . . well . . . I don't know . . .I just thought some body might want to know that.

[Malcolm Schweizer]

If I had $1,000 to drop on a set (read, "if I ever win the lottery"), these would certainly be the ones.

http://www.popularwoodworking.com/article/the-ferrari-of-screwdrivers

http://www.elkheadtools.com/drivers.html

[Frederick Skelly]

Man, $100 for those LNs is a sweet deal. Good for you!

I recently bought LVs Grace Gunsmithing screwdrivers that folks here recommended. (All three kinds - flat, phillips, square - I got carried away.) I think I have $75 in the dozen or so of them. Theyre as nice as you guys told me. The slotted ones arent really sized for planes, but they seem to work well for everything else.

Fred