Official Luthiers Forum!

I know a few of the members have purchased this plane. I am curious on your thoughts about this plane, as I am thinking of getting one.



Thanks, Bob

I tried one, and it was nice, but to me, not worth the cost for the limited use I'd put it to. An old Stanley #4 or #5 works quite well.

Pat

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formerly known around here as burbank
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http://www.patfosterguitars.com

Worth every penny, get the PVM11 blade women will love you, tough gnarly wood will fear you

I was pretty sure you had bought one Greg.

Bob

Sloping the ramp on the shooting board yields the shear cut action using a plane you may already have on hand -- nice tool but over $350 is a lot of bucks. Just a thought.

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Ken Cierp

http://www.kennethmichaelguitars.com/

I had a chance to check out Greg's plane. It is a superb tool and does the job very, very well. Obviously there are other ways to get the job done but if you want to spoil yourself a bit then why not. After all, most of us have at least one or two premium tools that we don't really need but sure do enjoy using.

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Steve Smith
"Music is what feelings sound like"

What a wickedly cool tool - in a Buck Rogers sort of way! If I were shooting miters in casework all day, I might be tempted to buy one, but the angled frog and low cutting angle tells me it is meant for trimming end grain in joint making, rather than shooting short lengths of long grain, and I don't think there are all that many occasions in luthiery when we smooth end grain to a square, flat surface, finished surface and cannot do it as accurately with a sharp block plane and a bench hook.

I would also think that there is no compelling reason to skew a blade when jointing long grain unless the edge is vertical grain and prone to tear-out...and as we are usually jointing a flat-sawn/face-grain edge, there would have to be a lot of Shaker-style casework or architectural woodworking in my future to justify the cost versus a very nice vintage jack (with a good aftermarket replacement blade and chip breaker installed...) as Mr. Cierpilowski shows to advantage in a prior post.

On the angled frog versus ramped shooting board: I believe these features are present in each case for different reasons, with the shooting plane meant for end grain work (where skewed, low angle cutting is of benefit) and the ramped shooting board for spreading the wear across more of the cutting edge when working thinner stock. The shooting board design the boss details in his 'Making/Using a Luthier's Shooting Board' videos is ramped, but only because - given that they are intended for edge-jointing thin stock - it saves a bit of time at the sharpening bench.

In summary, if not already in possession of a good Lie-Nielsen low angle adjustable block plane and a nice vintage jack plane, I think the $350+ would likely be put to better use for those tools and some sharpening gear.

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A constellation only takes shape when one maps the whole.
- Beth Brower

"Worth every penny, get the PVM11 blade women will love you, tough gnarly wood will fear you"

I think women would love the plane more.

nope

I've got plenty of really nice sharpening utensils and know how to use them. The Shoot Board Plane does a really nice job easily with better control, (I've joined plenty of tops and backs with a Stanlet #4 and a hock blade) and while making the occasional piece of period furniture I'll actually use it for its intended purpose. I recently joined a highly figured set of Chechen and I don't think it would have happened with anything less than the PVM11 blade, very hard tough wood.

So many possible responses...so few that will not end in either riot or pictures of goats.

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A constellation only takes shape when one maps the whole.
- Beth Brower

It seems nice - a lot of money for something that is so specialized. I can shoot perfect joints, e.g., back and top joints, with a block plane. So that Veritas won't ever become part of my tool set.

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"Building guitars looks hard, but it's actually much harder than it looks." Tom Buck

A stanley 6 7 or 8 will do as good
the key to any hand plane is SHARP. If the blade doesn't shave you have a dull blade.

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John Hall
blues creek guitars
Authorized CF Martin Repair
Co President of ASIA
You Don't know what you don't know until you know it

Chechen, end grain in sections.

A few years ago there was a Veritas booth at the Tacoma GAL. The guy was demonstrating the plane in question as a tool for jointing tops and backs. Wrong! I've been using planes for over 40 years on instruments, but truthfully I don't know a lot about the ins and outs of them. I just get good blades, keep them sharp, and use them. Some I like and some I don't. At the time I had some extra cash from selling wood and I went for the Veritas plane. It is a very cool looking tool. However, as I later figured out, it is designed for shooting end grain, not long grain. In practice, even though I tried things like changing the sharpening angle, it just would not do what my Bailey #7 does with a hock blade. It was O.K., but the Bailey was definitely better.I ended up selling the Veritas on eBay at a bit of a loss. I called veritas on the issue of it not doing a great job on jointing long grain and they said I should not have bought it for that purpose because it was deigned for end grain. They're right, but I was a little ticked that it had been demonstrated at the GAL for long grain jointing. I should have had "eyes wide open" and not been taken in by the sales pitch.You can buy an old #7 on eBay, although you probably don't need 1 that long, for a lot less $ than the Veritas, and it is better for the task of jointing tops and backs. I'd say spend your $ elsewhere.

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“ The meaning of life is to find your gift and the purpose of life is to give it away” Pablo Picasso

Looks like pretty crazy stuff to joint Clinchriver. I had some Bubinga which drove me crazy until I backbeveled the blade 10 degrees, sharpened to 12.000 grit and set the mouth and cut gossamer fine. (Record no. 5)

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The name catgut is confusing. There are two explanations for the mix up.

Catgut is an abbreviation of the word cattle gut. Gut strings are made from sheep or goat intestines, in the past even from horse, mule or donkey intestines.

Otherwise it could be from the word kitgut or kitstring. Kit meant fiddle, not kitten.

Bob beat me to it. Look at the picture they use to advertise the plane. These babies are made with mass and a comfy handle to help shoot and square end grain. They should do just fine to shoot long grain joints, but they're overkill for what we do on our guitars.

Check out this video starting at 29:30 for an example.

I believe I took some bubinga to our luthiers meeting for the guys to try, it was next to impossible with the #4 (it would tear out in spots) but with the Veritas PVM11 freshly sharpened and stropped it was a piece of cake. Scary sharp is better.

Bob asked if anybody had one and what did they think? The folks that have had or tried one have given their honest opinions, I like mine and enjoy using it

I was fortunate to be invited to Bruce Sexauer's shop today and received some hands on instruction by a master guitar builder. He showed me, and I used, his old wood shooting plane. With a razor sharp blade it's hard to imagine anything better at any price. Of course technique is everything. I could tell just by the sound when a spot needed a little work. I was so impressed that I will attempt to build one for myself. In the mean time, I found an old #5 Jack plane I'm rehabing to start my build with. It's a wonderful thing how this community shares it's knowledge.

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Brad Hall
Mystic Dawg Guitars

I had considered a chute plane, or rather repurposing a #6 and fabbing a more ergonomic handle out of a block of something nice. It's still on my list of thing to get at.

Lie- nielsen also makes their own version, or for those who must have the real thing a stanley 51 if you can find one. Last plane and chute I saw went for $1250

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My memory is so good, sometimes I remember things that never happened.