Canadian Woodworking Magazine eNewsletter

For the past umpteen years Lee Valley has displayed a bronze edge trimming plane in their catalogue. But at $170, it always seemed a bit too pricy for me. At one time I had an opportunity to purchase an old Stanley #95 (the ancestor of the Veritas edge plane) for all of $25, but passed it up. Chagrin! So I didn't pass up the opportunity to try out the new ductile iron Veritas edge trimmer.

If you look carefully at the edge and face of a board after you run it across your jointer you'll notice milling marks - little ridges left by the knives of the jointer. A lot of woodworkers sand these marks off. However, with sanding you run the risk of rounding over the crisp edges. Alternately you could use a block plane. Again, there is still a risk of rounding over the edges. This is where the edge trimming plane comes in. It's designed as a finishing tool to finely joint one edge of a board exactly 90º to the adjoining face.

Like all Veritas hand planes, this one is exceptionally well made - the tooling is as good as it gets, with all the parts fitting together well.

Consistent with other Veritas planes, there are set screws on either side of the blade that prevent the blade from shifting in use. Once set you don't have to adjust the screws again.

Precise depth adjustment of the blade is effected through a knurled knob and follower, common to other Veritas planes. It's an excellent system. I find it best to hold the plane so that the blade is parallel to the floor, and loosen the brass knurled knob just enough to allow the blade to move.

There is a shallow groove that facilitates smooth movement of the plane. A nice touch. You'll also notice two holes in the side of the base. These enable you to attach an angled block to the plane with #8 wood screws to true bevels.

The plane is available with either an A2 or O1 blade. Choose A2 if you want a super hard blade that really holds an edge. Select O1 if you are willing to sacrifice a little hardness for more ease in sharpening.

The back of the edge trimming plane is very smooth and perfectly flat. While I don't think it critical to smooth it any further, it could benefit from a polishing. However the bevel shows a distinct pattern of milling marks, that would definitely benefit from honing.

The side and bottom of the bed are exactly 90º to each other. Likewise, the front and back of the sole (for and aft of the mouth) are perfectly flat.

I like to have the gap at the mouth as narrow as possible. The narrowest gap I could attain on this plane was about 1/8". I was still able to get pretty decent shavings from it.

The very first shavings I produced with this plane are shown in the bottom photo on right sidebar. I wonder however, if I could get finer shavings with a narrower setting of the mouth?

It's just as easy and effective to hold the plane with either right or left hand. I even tried pulling the plane towards me - worked quite well.

Since I first reviewed this plane Veritas has come out with a left hand version. With both of these edge planes you can tackle grain running in any direction with easy.

A great addition to any woodworking tool collection.

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Specifications:

Iron Edge Plane
$119.00 (either right hand or left hand models)
$219.00 (both models)
Veritas Tools
Lee Valley Tools