I have one of those planes somewhere. I believe mine is a WoodRiver, but it is a similar design to the Veritas (without the Veritas handle design). I really dislike that plane. It is very uncomfortable to hold, and I have not gotten it to work very well. If the dado/groove you are working on is shallow, it is very hard to keep these planes registered and vertical. Most of the trouble is likely my own fault for not taking the time to get it set up very well in what little I have used it. Trying to get the blade depth adjusted is annoying to say the least. One of these companies needs to add a depth adjuster to their design.
That said, I have a project on the bench where I need to slightly widen a bunch of grooves, so I am off to dig out that plane and tune it up. Maybe I can get it behaving itself. Then maybe I can borrow some ideas from the Veritas and find a way to get a more comfortable handle on it instead of the little knob it has now.
One company did:One of these companies needs to add a depth adjuster to their design.
Preston Side Rabbet Plane.jpg
The Veritas spokeshave following the Preston design made me wonder why they didn't work with this design.
They do offer a lot on the curve of learning. Learning to hone a blade at a skew, developing a light touch to move the blade for adjustment.
Once you get them to take a fine cut, you will love what the can do to the rough edge of a dado, slot or rabbet.
My wife is calling, more later.
jtk
"A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty."
- Sir Winston Churchill (1874-1965)
Man, that is one fine looking plane! My only complaint about my Stanley 98 is how hard it is to finely adjust the blade, but once it's adjusted I find it fun to use. I also had to take a file to the very tip of the point to stop it from digging in to the work.
Tom.
I hadn't seen that Preston. Cool little plane.
I spent some time this afternoon fixing up my little side rabbet plane and getting it adjusted. It's working pretty well now actually. A huge leap over where it was before. It made pretty quick, clean work of the grooves I had to widen slightly. I still find it [at least this model] somewhat awkward to hold. But for those few times when you need it you really need it. Good thing to have around.