Bill Tarbell Posted July 18, 2014 Report Share Posted July 18, 2014 Well, I finally pulled the trigger on buying some hand planes. I went shopping for some Veritas planes and ended up getting the LowAngle block plane, BevelUp Smoother, and larger Router w/Fence. I gotta admit that there's significantly more sticker shock effect when buying premium hand tools than there is spending the same amount on a single power tool. I think it has to do with the planes being so small in comparison. I'm sure they'll get enough use to justify the price over time, but boy do they feel expensive. I'm still fairly early in my woodworking adventure. The little bit of planing i've done has been with a stanley 7 jointer (type 7) that i've restored and a very cheap stanley block plane that i'm guessing is from the 80s or 90s. They've both proven useful already and i've been impressed with what they can do. Even the extremely poor block plane has performed well with a sharp blade. Sadly, there's absolutely no blade adjuster on the block plane so it has been a massive pain to set the depth and align it parallel. I'm rather excited to try out the mechanisms on the veritas planes to see how easy they are to tune to the task at hand. A side note.. I knew i wanted to get premium planes but i still wanted to save some money. I searched on ebay to no avail, so the next idea was to look for refurbs. I emailed LN and asked if they had a refurb/return outlet. LN replied saying that they pride themselves on heirloom-quality tools and so if they get any inferior products they simply melt them down to craft new ones. I also emailed Veritas and they said that they do sell planes that have slight blemishes. They called them 'cosmetic seconds' and said that they're the planes that do not pass their QA inspection but are still fully functional. Their 'seconds' are available through Lee Valley, but you need to contact them and state exactly which planes you're interested in. I did exactly that. I called up LV (be sure to call their Customer Service number - when i called their Sales number they quickly transferred me to CS) and gave him the list of planes i was interested in. The guy on the phone was very nice and said that it may take a few days to get back to me - turned out that it only took him about an hour to call me back with a reply. Sadly, I struck out and none of the models i was interested in were available. I had specifically asked about BUS, LAS, large router, LA block, standard block. I'm guessing that they don't end up with a large stock of these blemished models, but if you're about to buy a new plane then it might be worthwhile to ask to see if they have one for your desired model. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
..Kev Posted July 18, 2014 Report Share Posted July 18, 2014 Congrats on the new toys! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Llama Posted July 19, 2014 Report Share Posted July 19, 2014 Sounds like you will have some fun playing with your new toys! Sticker shock... For me it's the other way around. I feel no pain buying nice hand tools, but when it comes to something with a cord, well it's another story Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Freddie Posted July 19, 2014 Report Share Posted July 19, 2014 For me, I get a chubby when I buy a new tool, be it hand tool or power tool, it's an equality chubb. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Doomwolf Posted July 19, 2014 Report Share Posted July 19, 2014 You will be well pleased with the large router plane, I broke mine out yesterday for the first time to install some butt hinges & and it handles like a dream. Blades are sharp out of the box and the whole mechanism is well set up. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
G S Haydon Posted July 19, 2014 Report Share Posted July 19, 2014 For me, I get a chubby when I buy a new tool, be it hand tool or power tool, it's an equality chubb. I had to google that, new phrase now added to my English vocab 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pghmyn Posted July 19, 2014 Report Share Posted July 19, 2014 I had to google that, new phrase now added to my English vocab Lol. What a phrase to add. I can't imagine what google images popped up at the top of the search page. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
G S Haydon Posted July 19, 2014 Report Share Posted July 19, 2014 Thankfully I didn't image search! . On the subject of decent planes, keep saving and in the mean time enjoy the Stanley #7. If you get good results with it it's unlikely the differences to your end product will be night and day with a new plane. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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