Jointer plane help

[lowell holmes]

Actually, I think you should get one of each kind of plane like the rest of us.

That means a #7 Stanley Bailey, a 607 Bedrock, a bevel up plane or two from Lee Valley or Lie Nielsen. And if you run across a #6 along the way, pick it up too.

I have a 607 Bedrock for my jointer. I can tell you that a # 5 1/2 Bailey that I have gets used a lot. It will joint lengths up to 36 to 42 ".

[Prashun Patel]

I own the Veritas Bevel Up Jointer Plane. I also own a BD jointer plane, as well as a bevel up jack and smoother.

While I am increasingly moving away from the bevel ups in favor of bevel downs, the Veritas Jointer plane is my exception. I like its ergonomics better than the bevel down. I can't explain it, it just feels better to me.

If you are new to edge jointing, I'd also spring for the edge guide. It's a little fidgety to set up, but produces perfect results.

[John Sanford]

Good morning, I wish to buy a jointer plane that I will use for jointing boards to glue up into larger panels and then use the plane to flatten the new panel if needed. I am looking at the Veritas Jointer plane # 05P37.71. Then I see their Custom Bench Planes and wonder if there is enough reason for a novice woodworker to go with that custom model. All very confusing to me.
Any help and advise will be very appreciated!!
Thank you for your time!!
Jeffrey

I have the Veritas Custom Jack Plane (#5), and love it. The adjustable mouth is, to my mind, a much more convenient method of varying shaving width than moving the frog. Both, of course, do work, but there is easy peasy (adjustable mouth), simple (Bedrock frog) and annoying (standard frog). My "desert island bench plane" would be either the Custom Jack or Low Angle Jack. I also prefer the Norris adjuster, likely because I've spent too much time futzing with the standard lateral adjuster on older mid quality planes.

For the jointer, I'd go with either the Lie-Nielsen (#6 or #7, play with them at the Hand Tool Event), a Veritas (my preference is for the Custom, but only available as a #7 currently) or in third place would be a Woodriver (#6 or #7). Given that it's your first plane, I'd be more inclined to the Lie-Nielsen or Veritas, simply because the chance of getting one that isn't dead nuts ready is very small. Having gone through the noob learning curve myself without any hands-on guidance or instruction, I can say that one of the most valuable things that I did was get a good plane. Before I did so, I had no benchmark, no sense of what a properly set up plane was like. This is the problem with the notion of a noob getting a used plane. Sure, you COULD restore one to working condition, but you'd be just as likely to accomplish nothing or make it even worse. All at the cost of a good bit of time. Get one good plane, and then you'll know what it is that you're aiming for when you resurrect old planes.

When you're at the Hand Tool event, the three things I suggest you focus on learning are sharpening, setting the cap iron on the blade and setting the lever cap tension just right. Getting the last one right means you can adjust the blade easily. Getting it wrong either means that the blade won't hold it's setting or it's a bear to make fine adjustments.