So my latest project was installed last week and I’m doing a bit of R&D these past few days on stage two of the design but wanted to mention these new little planes being offered by Veritas here in Canada.
Detail Rabbet Plane by Veritas
The Detail Rabbet Planes were introduced in February and if you’re like me you probably noticed little blurbs and reviews popping up here and there around the internet. Being a hand tool user, I always take new product reviews with a grain of salt because I’m well aware that most of those people you see out there doing these hand tool reviews haven’t actually used the tools other than perhaps those ‘incredibly demanding and rigorous-work-shop- tests‘ for at most, 10 minutes..??
Well thanks to the side table I just finished building, I now feel I can give an honest opinion about this new line of miniature hand planes available at Lee Valley Tools.
The side table had three floating panels per side with rabbets wrapping around each one; that’s 48 rabbets cut in my usual method: I begin with my skew rabbet plane and establish the width of the cut. I’ll usually take about half a dozen passes and then I prefer switching over to a shoulder plane to finish the job. From there, with a small chisel I would generally clean up any bits of waste, test fit and move onto the next but one area I found this new plane really handy was in the clean up and fine tuning stages of the operation.
The small size fits the hand and makes fine tuning a breeze.
It was easy to set the iron depth and because the plane sits so comfortably between your index finger and thumb, it was extremely well suited to fine tune the joinery. A few quick passes and test…not quite there? Another pass or two and we’re done.
Maple panels are rabbeted and ready to fit
The detail planes are available in different widths or can be purchased in sets of 3 or 5. You may prefer to pick up one at a time depending on the specific needs but I think you’ll find them useful in the wood shop.
Veritas logo is ‘Innovation in tools’ and once again they’re proving that to be true.
Cheers!
13 Comments
Now I’m waiting for you to get the skew block planes that just came out.
Yeah, maybe-
I already have the Veritas skew rabbet plane and the Lie Nielsen skew block so its not way up on my list…
thanks for the comment.
Tom, how do you decide between using the LV skew rabbet and the LN skew block? Do they work better at particular tasks?
thanks for the comment Mark-
two words to answer: depth stop.
the LV skew rabbet has one while the LN skew block doesn’t….I tend to use the skew rabbet for cutting rabbets- and the skew block for things like raised panels where depth accuracy isn’t absolutely vital.
Hope that helps.
Hi Tom,
Thanks for your thoughts on the detail rabbet plane. How would you compare it to a small shoulder plane? Could it take the place of one?
thx!
Dave
Dave,
thanks for the comments- and that’s a really good question. I suppose it depends on how much you do with a small shoulder plane…I use my Lie Nielsen small bronze, infill shoulder plane quite often for little trimming and tunings as well as fairing mouldings and other small jobs like that. I don’t think I’d grab the detail rabbet in the same way- why?
The sole in front of the mouth is quite short so some jobs would still be better suited to a small shoulder. These planes almost replace some chiseling jobs instead of some small shoulder plane jobs-does that make sense?
If you don’t already have a small shoulder plane and have been using say, a medium or large shoulder for the bulk of your work then maybe this would be a good choice. But as far as replacing a small shoulder plane- I don’t think so.
Different animal…
These would also be a good choice for cleaning out the bottom of grooves and dados and because of the different widths available, they tend to be quite versatile.
Hope that helps.
Tom:
Great post and insightful comments. As someone new to woodworking, your book and blog posts help me better understand the best tools for each job without “selling” me as many reviews do. It’s nice to get honest advice. Thanks again.
Jason
thanks Jason…
I think some people think I work for one of these fancy wood working publications or that I get paid or make money writing these posts….truth is, I build furniture using hand tools and enjoy the process and when I recommend a tool its because I use it on a daily basis in my work shop and I certainly don’t have a problem with letting readers know what I think.
happy shavings!
Tom, thanks for your time, we clearly all appreciate it.
Here’s a follow up question: If a skew block can do raised panels, I assume the skew rabbet could also, so is there anything that a skew rabbet can’t do that a skew block can?
thanks
Hey Mark,
good to hear from you and thanks for the question.
The skew block will certainly do some jobs that the skew rabbet isn’t suited to- why? because its a block plane. So things like trimming end grain and fine tuning tenons can be easily tackled by the skew block but I wouldn’t reach for the skew rabbet to do those type of jobs.
I think when we put ‘skew’ in front of the plane-word it throws some people off- the skew block plane is just that- a block plane with a fancy iron and fence. You can leave the fence off and use it as you would any other bock plane.
The skew rabbet is more of a one trick pony, its size and set up keep it from the versatility of the block. Its good at cutting rabbets, don’t get me wrong, but as mentioned I wouldn’t use it for small scale things better suited to a block plane.
cheers!
thanks, let’s keeping beating the skew plane topic to death
how much better is a skew block at block plane tasks than a regular low angle block?
hee-hee…
ok. Mark-
in my opinion it isn’t.
I never use my skew block for block plane tasks….what can I say??
- I have a lot of block planes!!!!!
Tom:
Great post and insightful comments. As someone new to woodworking, your book and blog posts help me better understand the best tools for each job without “selling” me as many reviews do. It’s nice to get honest advice. Thanks again.
Jason