Originally Posted by
William Fretwell
After the Rowden woodworking school broadcast email this morning the timing of this post is MOST unfortunate.
It seems LV's attempt to save face with their planes has failed, Rowden thoroughly trashed their planes.
I checked my planes today and sadly Rowden is right. Both my jointer and jack BU planes no longer have a flat sole, the jointer markedly so. They did when I bought them 8 years ago. I spent hours with large sheets of 600 grit taped to my very flat table saw side table. I covered the bases in black marker and watched the heel toe rub down as I 'figure 8' the planes.
To see that today and then see a shooting plane that out of square is horrible. There can be no serious quality control.
Rowden's premise was that Veritas planes don't stay flat, they move with time. It seems the school and students no longer use them.
He was not happy with their blade irons either.
I haven't heard of any "attempt to save face" from Lee Valley. Please folks, be careful here. We have the potential to seriously damage the reputation of a well-established, well-respected firm. Go out into your shops and measure the flatness of your planes' soles and report back like Derek did. I'm going to.
William: Im not clear - were your planes out of flat when you bought them, or did you just recently have to flatten them? How far out of flat - one thousandth or four - "markedly so" is kind of vague.
Edit: My BU Jointer is 0.001 out at the heel, near the center. LA Jack has a 0.002 hollow on the far "port" side, behind the mouth and is dead flat everywhere else. BU Smoother is dead flat all the way. I did not check any of these tools when new so I cant comment on whether the metal has moved. For comparison, I checked a Tom Bussey-prepared jointer I bought "second hand" and my Wood River #3. They were both dead flat. Personally, I'm not convinced I need to worry about this - all 3 LV tools perform flawlessly.
Last edited by Frederick Skelly; 03-17-2017 at 9:10 AM.
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