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The Lee Valley
Veritas Large Shoulder Plane
by ALF
February 6, 2004
Planed up to the nines.
The third, biggest and, I assume, last member of the Veritas shoulder plane
family; the imaginatively named Large Shoulder Plane. Lots of family likenesses
to be seen, but let’s pretend it’s all new to us, shall we? Come over to the
bench here, draw up a stool, and we’ll have a look. Try not to drool all over
it…
A shoulder plane - with knobs on
Weighing in at a toe-crunching 3¾ lbs of ductile iron, this is a serious hunk
of plane. The now familiar “Norris” style adjuster and twin pairs of set
screws in the sides control a 1¼” wide A2 steel iron. Black finished lever
cap, brass adjustments, an adjustable toe and two “multi-positional” bubinga
knobs to grip complete the overall package. It comes coated in rust preventative
and wrapped in rust inhibiting paper in a large cardboard box with some
cardboard cutouts to stop it shifting about in transit. As usual Lee Valley
provide a decent set of instructions, which you can see for yourself her...
- er, no you can't. Oh well. In addition I was also sent a set of optional brass
knobs to try. More of them later.
The shoulder blade's connected to the adjuster,
the adjuster's connected to the...
Well, what can I say? It’s got knobs on. That was my initial reaction on first
seeing a picture of it. And the second picture. And to be honest, when I opened
the box I didn’t go in for a sudden burst of original thinking. 
Apart from the knobs it’s simply a
beefier version of it’s smaller brother, the medium. I’ve kind of got used
to that look now, although one small change to this big’un is the “drop
nose”, which I rather like. But I’m afraid I think the wooden knobs do sound
rather a jarring note. They just don’t tie in with the other two shoulder
planes in the family at all, and look plain weird. I’m not
the only one to think that (makes a change 
), so Rob Lee had alternative brass knobs made to compare. As you do... The overwhelming
vote on the Wood Central hand tool board was they looked
much better. I have to agree, but you can judge for yourself.
Purty, ain't it?
L-V’s usual high standards in finishing of milled and ground surfaces is well
in evidence, as is the careful chamfering of all the potential sharp edges. In
actual fact this plane is officially a “seconds” - it has a tiny machining
error mark on the toe - but apart from that it’s supposed to be up to scratch
in all other respects (I asked), and indeed it has the lurid green sticker to
indicate inspection by quality control. By and large it is
up to standard, although there was a tiny dink in the inner edge of one side
too. A couple of seconds with a diamond stone smoothed it out okay though. The
textured recesses, one on each side, and the interior are all finished well. One
moan I’d had about the medium shoulder plane was the distinct visible
misalignment of the casting, something L-V were looking into improving. I
pleased to say they seem to not only have looked into it, but sorted it out too.
Nice job. 
Canada Vs. England
Now we come to the part I really dread; checking sole flatness and so forth.
It’s not something I’d usually bother with myself, unless it didn’t work,
but for the benefit of the review-reading public… The sole is very slightly convex
along its length. That’s without the lever cap present at all, so it’s not
the old “additional lever cap pressure deflecting sole” issue. It doesn’t
seem to affect it in use, but it’s there. I turned to the sides to see if they
were square to the sole. They aren‘t. Again it’s not by much,
but it is definitely off.  I’m
more than a bit disappointed, because the medium shoulder and the bullnose were
absolutely spot on and I was confident. Could be Murphy’s Law in operation of
course, and the review one’s the duffer, but I can only review what‘s in
front of me. 
Edit: It's now been confirmed that the
sides are within L-V's parameters - so ignore my whitterings. I was lead astray
by both the medium and bullnose previously being absolutely spot on - apparently
just got lucky. As I said anyway, it's not much and it certainly doesn't prevent
it doing its job.
Perversely, I decided to try it without either
knob. I'm like that
With relief I turned to the blade. Removal is a simple case of loosening the
lever cap, lifting up the end of the blade to disengage the bullet-shaped
adjuster, twist the blade on edge and remove. Plenty of room to twist the blade
without dinking the edge in this one, so no need to go up through the mouth as
is the case with the bullnose. Reverse the steps to replace it, and take care
not to over-tighten the lever cap and deflect the 15° bed. Now just for once
I’d managed to persuade myself to try this plane “straight outta the box”.
Or at least without honing the iron first. Ah. Problem. What I found was easily
the worst blade I’ve ever had from Veritas out of the <calculates>
eighteen I’ve seen. A nasty dink right out of the middle of the edge, and the
latter not even square to the sides. Oh deary me. 
The former could well be just one of those things, but the skewed edge,
considering the importance of a square edge in a plane of this type, is
something of a shocker. I ground my teeth - and then the blade (ho, ho). The
back wasn’t fabulous either, confirming that old saw “it never rains but it
pours“. Again, maybe it’s just Murphy’s hand in this, but these are
uncharacteristic problems from Veritas… I cheated and opted for a large-ish
secondary bevel to cut down on the length of time it took me to remove the nick,
and it was really very quick to get a good edge.
Look, no knobs again. Just trying it, you
understand...
Slotting the freshly sharpened blade back in, and just snugging the lever cap
up, I applied myself to the set screws in the sides. It must be all this
practice I’m getting; following the instructions to the letter I had them all
done and dusted within a couple of minutes. I do like the control you get in
setting the iron in these planes; it’s a positive pleasure. The nicest bit is
when you apply the final tweak of pressure with the lever cap and the blade doesn’t
immediately skew out of square, simply because it can’t. Nice. 
Depth adjustment is fine, precise and simple. As previously the issue of
backlash in the adjuster is covered in the instructions, but don’t let that
give you the idea it’s a big problem with these planes because it really
isn’t. As with it’s littler brother, mouth adjustment uses a simple
arrangement of a moving toe piece with locking screw at the top and adjustment
screw at the front. Turn the screw one way, the toe goes in and closes the
mouth. Turn the other and the toe moves out and opens the mouth. Simple, but an
improvement over my Record #073 which needs the toe moved out
manually. Naturally I didn’t do any Homer Simpson-a-like “toe goes in, toe
goes out” playing with this, ’cos I’m above all that. Yessir. Ha-hum...
Left: loosen the top clamping screw. Right:
Clockwise to tighten the mouth, anti-clockwise to open it.
Can you spot the deliberate mistake, children?
Now we reach that part of my reviews that the Veritas R&D department and I
probably both hate in equal measure - ergonomics.
In short, back to the knobs. Those brilliant and talented designers <lays it
on with trowel  > at Veritas
have given any potential user of this plane every possible chance of finding a
way to hold it that is comfortable. The rear knob can tilt round from one side
to the other, and all places in between, just like the medium shoulder plane.
The front knob has three (count ’em) potential mounting points, all angled for
extra comfort. Both can be removed, or just one, however the fancy takes you.
Their wooden curves are warm to the touch, and designed to nestle cosily in the
web of the hand. The recesses in the sides are deep and textured. The lever cap
is short and shaped to fit in the palm. There’s an invitingly chamfered-edged
hole right through the body. All these things have resulted in one thing, and
one only.
It’s bloomin’ comfortable to use.
(Bet that had them worried in Ottawa for a moment… 
)
At least, as long as you use both hands.
Trying to wield this
thing in one hand defeated me entirely, and it wasn‘t just the weight but also
the depth and position of those side recesses. My attempted one-handed grip
simply didn’t gell with them at all. Of course how does muggins here usually
use a shoulder plane? One handed… So I’ll just have to adjust to clamping
stuff down instead of holding it with the other hand, won’t I?
A picture’s worth a thousand words, so you can see what various combinations
of grip I found effective dotted about this review. Curiously I found myself
using what’s essentially a left-handed set up for trimming shoulders.
Funny thing, playing cricket I always used to
bat left-handed while bowling right-handed too.
Not at the same time, obviously...
A few suggestions of grips to try in the instructions might have been nice, but
no matter. Of course I also got to try the alternative “good looking” brass
knobs too. They‘re ever-so slightly smaller than the wooden ones, and with the
combination of the colder metal and the rather crisp knurling they‘re not
‘arf uncomfortable in comparison with the original wooden style. If I’d
never seen or tried the wooden ones I wouldn’t know any different I suppose,
so they’d probably be fine, but as it is they just don’t compare. In a
straight comfort race the wooden knobs were the right ones to go for, no doubt
in my mind. So giving my aesthetic soul a kick in the pants, I once again tossed
the brass widgets back in the box.
More knobs than the winner's enclosure at Royal
Ascot...
After all that, how well does it work? I ran up a large faux “tenon” to try
it out for the benefit of the camera - I also tried it on all sorts of varieties
from my scrap box but they weren't so pretty.
This plane has plenty of authority in the cut; hardly surprising, it being no
lightweight. Cleaning up the cross grain of the cheek was fairly painless, with
the extra width over the medium being of obvious benefit (a trifle over 31mm
wide, in new money). Taking wafer-thin shavings of the end grain of the
shoulders was equally easy, as you can see.
Ooo, whispy
Having a really firm, controlled grip on the plane is an huge improvement in
controlling the cut. I gave it a bit of a workout on long grain, and it did
okay, although to be fair the low cutting angle is never at its best for this
sort of task. However, you can open up the mouth and almost hog off the wood if
you want to - another benefit of the secure two handed grip. But let’s face
it, this plane’s bread and butter is precision trimming of joints, and it does
it brilliantly. Lots of control over all possible adjustments, so no excuse for
blaming the tool (bad luck  ).
So the verdict then. I do like it. I like it an awful lot more than my old
stalwart Record; it’s just so easy to hold in comparison. That’s bad news
too, because I’ve never had any beef with the Record, unlike the difficulties
some people have reported, until now... It’s so awkward to hold after the L-V
I’ve gone right off it. The
adjustments, just like on its siblings, are great and a real pleasure to deal
with. You’ll have noticed I’ve over-used the word “control”, but that
really does sum it up. Control over blade setting, control over the plane
itself, control in the cut. As far as looks go, well it does look a bit, er, differently
appearanced™ with those wooden knobs, but unless you really feel the
urge to just display your tools like some sort of c*ll*ct*r 
, the brass knobs are an unnecessary option in my opinion. <runs away to hide
in bunker from the aesthetes> They do look good though.
When I grow up will I be as big as you, Large?
As far as the problems with this particular example are concerned, I find myself
in the reviewer's quandary of trying to be fair to both potential buyer and
toolmaker. On the one hand I could get all worked up about them, but that would
be both misleading and grossly unfair based on a sample of one. On the other I
could dismiss it as irrelevant on the assumption it‘s a one-off, but that
would make commenting about fit and finish of any
tool in a review a pointless exercise. So all I’ll say is that this is what I
found on this one, and it’s not good,
but also it’s the first tool from Veritas that’s really disappointed in that
respect out of all the ones I’ve seen. 'Nuff said. The bottom line is easy
enough - a damn fine shoulder plane that works brilliantly, and it’s reminded
me all over again just why I want this plane’s medium-sized brother in my
Tools ‘04 party bag. A great family of planes.
Large Shoulder Plane £129.25 available
from BriMarc.
Optional brass knobs available direct from Lee Valley at $7.50 a pair
NB: In the interests of full disclosure,
I should say that once again Lee Valley have very kindly said I can keep this
review plane or dispose of it as I see fit, for which many thanks. I have made
every effort to not let this affect my review, and I hope this is self-evident,
but you, the reader, will always be the final judge. 
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