Veritas/LV Large or Medium shoulder plane? which one to buy?

[Kevin Blunt]

Hello,

I am going to be buying a Veritas shoulder in th every near future. I would like to hear from you guys about your experiences with either and which one you would buy if you only bought one. I am a complete novice at M&T joinery but want the right tools in place before I go down that road. Can anyone give thoughts on why one might be better than the other? I really appreciate your thoughts and respect your opinions and any info you can share, whether it's hands on knowledge of the planes or just general expertise in this area would prove really beneficial to a rookie like me.

Thanks alot for any thoughts or advice,

Kevin

[Brent Smith]

Hi Kevin,

Both have their uses. It depends on the size of work you plan on doing. I find myself reaching for the medium plane far more often though.

[Hank Knight]

I don't know about the LV planes except what I'v read about them. I have both the medium and large LN shoulder planes. I had the large one a long time before they came out with the medium and I used it alot. I bought the medium one as soon as it went on the market and I find I use it much more now than the large one. It's lighter and easier to handle - the large one weighs a ton - and it fits the scale of my work. I've heard good things about the LV medium shoulder plane. If I were starting over, I'd probably start with a LV medium.

My $.02.

Hank

[Richard Niemiec]

I have the LN large, and LV medium, if I had to pick just one, it would be the LV medium (this is not to say the large does not get its use). Go ahead, pull the trigger, you won't be disappointed.

[Chuck Nickerson]

An advantage of the medium shoulder plane, is it can be used in cleaning the bottom of 3/4" dados.

[Rod Sheridan]

I also selected the medium LV shoulder plane, like Goldilocks said "It's just Right".........Rod.

[glenn bradley]

I really like my med shoulder plane. A large one would be nice now and then but for the common household furniture I do, it would more often be more weight and width than I require.

[Jim Becker]

I have the medium and suggest that might be the best place to start unless you know you need to larger tool capacity.

[Tony Zaffuto]

I have a medium LV, since introduction. Works as well as any, but I have issues with the non-traditional looks. I bought a large LN a year or so ago, and it is my most used shoulder plane. Finally, I picked up a Preston with a blade width of about 5/8" and it is by far the plane that feels best in the hand!

In short, to remove the confusion I've added, go with the medium LV: you absolutely can't go wrong. Mine does everything I would ask of a shoulder plane and it is comfortable in the hand. However, my tastes are influenced by tradition and also by being an "accumulator", hence the LN and the Preston.

T.Z.

[Chris Kennedy]

I only have the medium, and I have found to be perfectly adequate. I will admit I have considered the large, but that is only because I think planes are like clamps -- you can never have enough.

Also, I was reading a FWW article in the recent Hand Tools compilation, going through the uses of a shoulder plane. I think in all but one or two pictures, the author is using a medium plane.

Cheers,

Chris

[Mike Duffy]

I have and use both of them.
If I could only get one, I'd get the medium.

[Thomas Pender]

I too have the LV Medium Shoulder Plane and use it to clean dados rabbets, tenons, etc. I love the darn thing and recommend it to one and all. I find I use the other two much less. Oh - I recommend you buy it with the super hard blade - works best for me with waterstones - I go all the way up to 8k during the polish. Another point - in sharpening this size of blade some old timers warned me about getting out of perpendicular, i.e., one side cut a little lower - it does happen, so use care and do get the bottom flat if it is not.

[Kevin Blunt]

Thank you all for providing your thoughts, unfortunately I don't seem to be any further ahead.

Other than cleaning up a 3/4" dado, what can't the large do that the Medium can?

At this point, the majority seem to suggest the medium but a few others have said "if you are going to only have one shoulder plane, it should be the large". Why is that?

I am leaning towards the large becuse the extra mass seems to me like a good thing and my hands are on the larger side.

To anyone that has the medium, why did you choose it over the large or vice versa?

Sorry for the questions but i really don't have any experience with these planes and I don't want to end up taking it back after the fact. As you can tell, I tend to ask alot of questions and research before making a purchase of any kind. I plan on going to LV in the next few weeks when I can get a chance and give both planes a good trial run. I guess that is when my final decision will be made.

Again, thanks for all your thoughts.

[Wilbur Pan]

I am leaning towards the large becuse the extra mass seems to me like a good thing and my hands are on the larger side.


Even though my hands are on the small size, the extra mass and larger area to register the plane against the wood is why I wanted to get a large shoulder plane. Mine's a Record 073 that I found used, which is just about the same size as the large Lee Valley shoulder plane.

Personally, I think that a router plane is much better at cleaning up the bottom of a dado than a shoulder plane.

Your plan of going to Lee Valley and trying the two sizes out for yourself is probably the best way to go.

[Peter Quadarella]

At this point, the majority seem to suggest the medium but a few others have said "if you are going to only have one shoulder plane, it should be the large". Why is that?

Kevin, I think you read some of the posts wrong. From my count there are 11 unanimous votes for the medium plane. Sometimes our subconsious shows us which item we really want to purchase, and it's often best to go with that over other people's recommendations :).

[Brent Smith]

Kevin, I have both a large (LN) and medium (LV). As I mentioned above it depends on the work you plan on doing. I use the medium far more often because most of my projects that require a shoulder plane are smaller. The shoulders are usually not more than 3/16" high and I find better registration and control is had with the medium plane. If you are planning projects using large tenons, you might want to go with the large plane. If you plan on buying only one the best thing to do is get both sizes in your hand and get a feel for them.