Veritas Bevel Up Jack Plane: Buying Advice?

[Danny Thompson]

Okay, I am getting close to buying my next plane and I've settled on a bevel-up jack, most likely the Veritas, although the Lie-Nielsen is a close second.

As I understand it, the Lie's are going 15% off soon at Woodcraft.

Does Lee Valley ever put theirs on sale? Is there an annual sale, discount code, incantation, or brother-in-law I can use to get a break on the Veritas list price ($209)?

Thanks for the input.

(If not, please consider this a not so stealthy WTB: LV BU Jack Plane)

[Randy Klein]

Does Lee Valley ever put theirs on sale? Is there an annual sale, discount code, incantation, or brother-in-law I can use to get a break on the Veritas list price ($209)?

Nope. The only time Lee Valley has a price reduction is when they have an introductory price on a new item or are clearancing something out. With that said, I would get the LV BU jack over the LN BU jack.

[Gary Herrmann]

Free shipping if purchased at a woodworking show is your only other alternative for a break on LVs.

[Doug Shepard]

FYI - If you want a LN, you dont need to wait for a Woodcraft sale. http://www.finetoolj.com/LN/home.html consistently has 15% off plus free shipping.
I love my LN LA Jack but have given some consideration to selling it in favor of the LV. Primarily because I've already got the LV BU Jointer and I can use the same blades on their Jack. I got the two optional higher angle blades when I got the jointer and they would make my Jack plane options more flexible. The one item on the LV planes that I dont like as much as the LN is the mouth adjustment and I think the LN might have a bit more heft to it. Other than that I think it would be hard to go wrong with either.

[Rob Lee]

Nope. The only time Lee Valley has a price reduction is when they have an introductory price on a new item or are clearancing something out. With that said, I would get the LV BU jack over the LN BU jack.

Actually -

We have dropped thousands of prices since Since Jan 1 - in addition to the thousands that went down last September - Y'all just haven't noticed them.... :rolleyes: (they've pretty much been all in Canada!!).

Randy's right though - we (up 'till this fall) don't put things "on sale". Our policy has been to leave nothing on the table as far as pricing goes - that way no one misses out on a "deal", and we're always competitively priced. This October - we did put the entire book line on sale - the thinking being, that those who just bought a book, could still take advantage of the offer on another book.

We will continue to make "Introductory offers" our primary sale mechanism, though if(when) we do more "sale" offers, we'll try to make them as broad and inclusive as possible.

Cheers -

Rob

[Thomas Knighton]

Actually -

We have dropped thousands of prices since Since Jan 1 - in addition to the thousands that went down last September - Y'all just haven't noticed them.... :rolleyes: (they've pretty much been all in Canada!!).


Now I really hate the US economy ;)

Tom

[James Carmichael]

FYI - If you want a LN, you dont need to wait for a Woodcraft sale. http://www.finetoolj.com/LN/home.html consistently has 15% off plus free shipping.
I love my LN LA Jack but have given some consideration to selling it in favor of the LV. Primarily because I've already got the LV BU Jointer and I can use the same blades on their Jack. I got the two optional higher angle blades when I got the jointer and they would make my Jack plane options more flexible. The one item on the LV planes that I dont like as much as the LN is the mouth adjustment and I think the LN might have a bit more heft to it. Other than that I think it would be hard to go wrong with either.

Thanks for the tip, Doug. I've got my sights set on a BU jack as my next tool purchase, and the iron-interchangeability tips the scales substantially towards Veritas.

[Tim Dorcas]

I cannot speak for the LN but I love my Veritas LA BU Jack. Actually I love all of my LV Planes:) Having started with a bunch of no names it is a great to work with plane that (once sharpened) just works.

That said I don't think you can go wrong with either company. Good Luck!

[Marcus Ward]

Please note the following is my opinion. It will probably offend the LN homers more than I already have. When I look at planes from LV and LN, with LN I see a company who is primarily redoing a design from ~100 years ago - with their bench planes specifically J.A. Traut's bedrock, although there are others. With LV, I see a company who looked at the plane and what it does and designed a better mousetrap. Nowhere is this more true than their shoulder planes, but I see little improvements in design on every plane Veritas offers. I like that, and owning 2 of their planes in addition to my large stable of vintage stanleys, I feel like I got my money's worth because they're actually improvements over previous designs. Thus I think the LV is a better product. And I'm not just saying that because they bought me a helicopter. :P Kidding aside, whatever you choose will do the job well and be a nice product, but consider this a vote for Veritas.

[Grant Lasson]

I love the LV BU Jack and the Jointer too. The interchangeable blades are great. It's a "go-to" tool. You can't go wrong with LN either. I second the recommendation on Fine Tool Journal.

[Danny Thompson]

Marcus, that is what I was thinking . . . if you are going to buy new, try to make it something that has been improved. Hence, LV is my first choice.

Thanks for all the advice, everyone.