Veritas Low Angle Jack Plane Review

Veritas Low Angle Jack Plane

One of the first techniques picked up on my beginners' course at the school of fine woodworking was the use of a shooting board to square across the end-grain.

This was a complete revelation to me as I had never seen this technique before. I'd grown up watching my father in his workshop but never seen end grain planed like this. He would always use a circular sander for this task. You can produce square ends this way but, I distinctly remember all the fine dust created. 

The ability to accurately square the ends of a workpiece with a smooth silk-like finish is a vital component of fine woodworking.

Soon after starting woodworking, I constructed a shooting board from some bits of ply. Shooting the end grain of softwood was reasonably easy with a standard bench plane but once I moved on to hardwoods, things got quite tricky.

What you really need for this is a low angle plane. I had used the Lie-Nielsen number 62 low angle jack in my classes and was suitably impressed with its performance. That is I was until I had the pleasure to use the Veritas. This is a big, weighty plane which fits great in the hand for prolonged use on a shooting board.

I've learned that there are only really two requirements when it comes to shooting end grain: the plane iron must be really sharp and it must be comfortable to use over a long period of time.

The Veritas certainly feels more comfortable then the L-N, partly thanks to the lever cap but also I think the dimples on the side are a great place for the thumb when shooting. The longer length and bigger sides also help.

I bought the plane with 2 irons: the 25 degree bevel-up iron is manufactured from the new PM-V11 alloy, an exclusive product of the Veritas company in Canada. The commonest edge tool steels are A2 and O1. A2 is said to hold its edge for longer but is more difficult to hone than the O1. An O1 blade can be honed to a slightly sharper edge for really fine work but, although easier to hone, will dull quicker.

Veritas claim that the PM-V11 steel has the best of both worlds and most reviews I read prior to buying this plane were very positive. So far I'v been very impressed.

The Veritas doesn't just excel as a shooting plane however. With a 50 degree bevel up iron, in combination with the plane bed of 12 degrees, an effective bevel-up angle of 62 degrees is achieved. The plane is therefore wonderful for the smoothing of difficult hardwoods with complex, interlocking grain patterns where tearout can be a major problem.

The first lessons taught about minimising tearout were:

1. keep the iron as sharp as possible
2. keep the plane mouth nice and tight
3. set the blade depth really fine to take a super thin shaving
4. if possible use a higher angle frog

The Veritas has a great mouth adjustment mechanism to help in this respect. 

The plane therefore offers great versatility working superb as a shooting plane or as a higher angle, bevel-up smoothing plane for dealing with difficult grain.

Using the Veritas Low Angle Jack as a shooting plane

I thoroughly recommend this plane, particularly with the different blade combinations which expand its capabilities significantly. 

See the results of the plane on my iroko oilstone box.