Official Luthiers Forum!

Just checking to see what some of our handplane gurus think of the Lie-Nielsen vs the Lee Valley low angle jack plane. Getting ready to pull the trigger on one of these planes.

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Jim Watts
http://jameswattsguitars.com

I bought one of the Veritas ones from Lee Valley, and I'm really happy with it. One thing I like is the set screws for keeping the blade centered in the mouth. Helps a great deal with canting the blade for squaring up edges that are out. I don't know if the LN one has them or not, as I didn't know the Veritas one had them until I got it. Anyway, it's a great plane, right out of the box.f

I'm sure the LN one is too, though. Seemed there was a minor price point difference, but not enough to make that be the reason.

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Waddy

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Both the LV and LN are excellent choices. Both machined to amazing tolerances and both can be fitted with high-angle grind or toothed blades. As Waddy mentioned the LV has the set screws in the throat but it also has a really nice Norris adjuster for lateral alignment. I don't think the LN has lateral adjust, but is apparently still easy to set up. They Lie Nielsen also has the optional hot dog handle for a more comfortable when shooting edges.

When it comes to bang for the buck, I'd say go for the Veritas. I have several Veritas planes and they're all A-list. They're also generally slightly cheaper than the Lie Nielsen. But I could just be biased 'cause they're Canadian like me.

-Jake.

I am a former canadian, living in the usa . I bought a lot of lee valley tools living in van bc . I highly recommend the LN planes I own about 10 of them. You cannot go wrong buying either of these high quality tools LN or LV

I have a low angle LN and I really like it. It is true that the "lateral adjustment" is crude at best, but it has worked just fine for me and has been a non-issue. The balance, heft and handles are very nice. The only ding I can see with the LV is that it looks like a kindergartner huffing paint fumes was in charge of the handle design which is kind of ridiculous considering how nice the rest of the plane looks and was obviously well thought out.. So i'd say that right out of the box the LN is better but if you're willing to grind on the handle or make a new handle the LV might be the better tool..

Peter Z

Well I decided to go with the LV O1 as I think a heavier casting would be nice along with the Norris style adjuster. I must agree though that the LN is a much prettier tool,

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Jim Watts
http://jameswattsguitars.com

I'll only say that, in my experience, you'd not regret buying the LN...to be fair, I haven't used the LV...I had an entire set of pre-war Bailey's and the LN block plane and low angle jack...the LN's are the best 2 planes in my shop...

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