Lee Valley has improved their Veritas low-angle jack plane with a couple of modernizing features.
The low-angle jack is a workhorse-type woodworking blade that can be used for flattening and shaping tasks. It measures 15″ long x 2-7/8″ wide and weighs nearly 6 lbs.
Lee Valley says this model is ideal for shooting miters, working end grain, jointing edges, and initial smoothing.
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They described the improvements:
This updated low-angle jack plane now has an enclosed toe, threaded holes to accept our auxiliary fences and shooting grip, and a bit more mass – bringing it to a weight of just under 6 lb.
As with the original (dare we say classic?) version, it has our highest recommendation for anyone asking, “Which bench plane should I buy first?”
To sum it up, they changed the toe, added threaded holes in the sides for use with fence accessories, and made the sole a little heavier.
Price: $276 (A2, O1), $299 (PM-V11)
COO: Made in Canada
The plane ships with your choice of O1, A2, or PM-V11 blades. The blades are 2-1/4″ wide x 3/16″ thick and are lapped and sharpened to a 25° angle.
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MM
Wonderful timing! (that was sarcasm).
I bought the original model less than two weeks ago. It was actually a bit of an annoyance too: First they told me they had stock. Then I was informed by phone they only had stock for retail sale (Ottawa) but not for mail-order, and they wouldn’t have any more inventory until late December. I tried to sign up for an online Email alert when they went back in stock, but that didn’t work. I called again to sort out the Email alert, and this time a different employee–a very helpful lady–said they *did* have stock and could ship right away. Which they did.
Today I get an Email notification about this new model, yet none of the employees I had spoken with recently had mentioned: hey, we have a new model on the way, it will be out in just a few days….
And the real rub? This new one is slightly less expensive. I paid $319 for the original with PM-V11 iron.
That said, I’m not bummed out, Veritas makes amazing planes, the original is fantastic. I honestly don’t care about the closed toe or the holes for the fence rods. Extra weight? That’s a personal preference thing, I’d have to try it, I tend to prefer heavier planes. Overall it looks like a great plane got a little better, and a little cheaper at the same time. That’s a rare thing these days.
Harrison
Veritas makes great stuff, and Lee Valley is a great retailer.
My partner briefly worked at one of their stores- Only a handful of their employees (retail and otherwise ) are tuned into the wood working products to the level where they would be aware of something like that.
will
yes but employees would be aware of a replacement coming in 2 weeks. hard to find good help these days.
Stuart
Contact them. Lee Valley is FANTASTIC when it comes to customer service. Figure out what will make you happy, ask them, and if it’s reasonable they’ll do right by you.
Goodie
Ditto on this. I can’t say enough about their customer service. Call them and they WILL find a way to make you a happy customer.
CMF
Like Stuart mentioned, they are tops with customer service.
Tell them the whole scenario, as you did here, and each person you spoke with, never once was it mentioned that a new model was coming out.
They do not have price match but do have, I forget the slogan as it has changed over the years, “the sale is complete when the customer is happy.
I think at the very least, they should give you the price difference, even if it is a Lee Valley gift card.
MM
Just a follow-up here: I did contact Lee Valley about this, and as expected their customer service was awesome. They offered to exchange the standard model I purchased for the new one at no cost to me, offering to cover shipping both ways and refund the difference in price.
I told them I was happy to keep the plane I had–but I gladly accepted the price adjustment.
My decision really came down to the weight of the plane. More weight is nice for shooting but I plan on buying a dedicated shooting plane before long so my Jack won’t be having to do that job. Also, as nice as it was for LV to offer, I think it would be a bit wasteful to ship packages across the country for features I don’t see myself using.
Stuart
Glad to hear it!
MKY
Stuart-
“ They described up the improvements:”
Stuart
Thank you! *fixed*
Bonnie
I’ve got the original model and have had it for years. I quite like it but I wouldn’t really describe it as a “workhorse”. Yes you can use it for traditional jack plane tasks, but it’s so heavy it’s really not suited for like flattening a slab or day-in-day-out jobs.
It’s a fantastic hybrid though, being able to do a bunch of more specialized tasks without you having to invest in specialty planes, and it can be called on for jointing and face smoothing if necessary.
It’s a solid second plane (your first should be a smoothing plane like a #4) and you could stop your collection right there if you’re mostly a machine woodworker, but if you do a lot of hand work you owe it to yourself to get a lighter jack for the large repetitive tasks.
MM
Speaking of hand planes for machine woodworkers: I started woodworking with machines and got into hand tools later. I find a shoulder plane useful from that perspective because it is great for cleaning up and adjusting rabbets and tenons that were cut on a table saw, router, etc.
fred
I got into woodworking in stages. Moved into a larger house in the 1970’s and had room for a big shop. So, a cabinet saw. band saw, 8-inch jointer, shaper, sanding station, and drill press were soon being delivered. Right after – my first panel (table top) glue-ups were jointed on my Delta machine. No dowels, biscuits or splines – but the top looked nice and after some scraping and sanding the joints passed the fingernail test. Then I added breadboard ends. This top did not weather well – and after a few years of summer/winter indoor climate cycles splits (joints opening) started to show near the ends. A few projects later and I had learned to first machine-joint the boards then create mid-section hollows with a hand plane. The resultant glued-up “spring joint” is far superior at resisting wood movement with changes of climate and moisture
will
what would be your recommendation for a first jack of all trades plane be?
fred
Many folks start their hand plane journey with a No.4 smoothing plane – then decide what it can and cannot accomplish to see what to add. If I were buying 2 planes – I’d add a low angle block plane.
Lee Valley’s starter plane set represents a different take – recommending a bevel-up smoother, low angle jack plane and low angle block plane.
When we’d promote or hire someone into the position of “lead carpenter” – we’d gift them a Lie Nielsen block plane of their choice. The LN 102 was often the choice.
MM
There are others on this board with a lot more woodworking experience than I, but in my opinion the plane to buy first is a low-angle block plane. I’d almost say that it’s a workshop fundamental even if you aren’t doing fancy woodworking. You can easily make minor adjustments to boards, knock off high spots, trim protruding dowels, put chamfers on things, round off exterior corners, etc.
Beyond that I think you need to think about exactly what you want to use your planes for. Someone who works primarily with power tools has different needs than someone who intends to do traditional work, and what plane(s) they need first depends on what power tools they have. There is also the question of the scale of what you are working on. If you want to make dining tables and full-size doors you have very different needs than someone making jewelry boxes.
I do think the Jack plane is quite versatile. If you want one plane that can do a lot of different jobs it’s hard to argue with. If you put a cambered iron in it and open up the mouth you can hog off quite a lot of material quickly. It’s good for general-purpose flattening, you can joint smaller boards with it, it’s good for shooting.
I bought a block plane first, then a shoulder, then a couple different smoothers. I already had a cordless power plane I could use for rough tasks so it was later on that I purchased the Jack. If I didn’t already have that power plane I would have bought the Jack earlier.
Lee Valley sells a “starter set” of planes which includes a block, jack, and a small smoothing plane. I think this set is almost perfect, IMHO it should include their larger smoother which uses the same blade size as the Jack so you can swap irons between them. One of the advantages of bevel-up planes is you can easily tweak their performance by swapping irons with different bevels and amounts of camber. That small bevel-up smoother is a great plane and I do love mine but I bought the larger one first to facilitate swapping irons.
CMF
I am a Lee Valley fan, and even more their Veritas tools. Always well mad and well thought out.
Not a lot of change for this next gen Jack Plane, I wonder if it was more a way to introduce a lower price point. Regardless, I have the older one, which I have used maybe 2 times. I am sure this will be an excellent addition for anyone who buys one.
Daniel
Have always been pleased with Lee Valley and their products and have ordered many times from them. Love the Veritas tools.
The past few months though they have annoyed me with stock issues. Mainly because when shopping it states everything in stock only to find out a few days later they are not. Still waiting for a marking knife listed in stock I ordered back in June. Then they keep pushing out expected shipping date. Then the new date arrives and they push it out again. Delays can be understandable, but when it says in stock, shouldn’t take months to get. I am likely going to cancel and buy one from someone else.
Only had a few experiences with their customer service and it was always excellent.
MM
Their stock situation has been frustrating lately. I’ve been checking their site often in the last several weeks to budget future purchases and I noticed the stock levels of a few of the items I was looking at (all Veritas products) were bouncing around like mad from day to day. That’s what initiated the confusion I mentioned above: I figured I’d call to clarify what the website said but that only led to more confusion.
As annoying as that can be it’s not as bad as waiting on stock from Lie-Nielsen though!
fred
I own almost 40 Lie-Nielsen planes – but haven’t bought anything from them since 2018 (a cambered roughing iron) – so I don’t know what’s up lately. But my impression was that they did not produce to maintain large amounts of stock – but perhaps waited on production runs to fulfill backorders when they had enough to justify the work.
MM
I haven’t been in the game long enough to really know what’s going on with LN, but many of their products sell for absolutely mad money on Ebay so the demand is clearly there. Supposedly they maintain waiting lists and then do a production run once there is enough interest but I am skeptical, I’ve signed up for multiple notifications like that from quite some time ago but never received any notices. It may just be that production runs are that infrequent? I remember talking to a gentleman at Woodworker Specialties about a particular Pfeil gouge I was looking for. He told me that when the factory ran out of stock it could be anywhere from a month to 2+ years before they would be making more, it came down to exactly how popular that specific size was. It may well be that Lie-Nielsen does the same thing?
@Stuart
Yes, that was my understanding as well, it’s absolutely possible that tariffs are involved.
Bonnie
This is why I bought all my LN planes through other stores, as I could actually trust their stocking. This was ages ago, and i don’t think it has improved.
Stuart
I believe most Lee Valley Veritas tools are made in Canada. It’s possible the tariffs situation have disrupted things a bit.
Daniel
I’m sure the tariffs are a contributing factor to their on hand stocking. When I called Lee Valley to inquire about the items on back order I was told they were waiting to be cleared through customs. That is understandable and really isn’t my issue with Lee Valley.
What I don’t like is that all the items were listed as in stock and only find out a few days after ordering that they were not. When shopping their site in the past, items would be listed as in stock OR they would show an estimate of when it would be in stock. I don’t like it when any website lists something in stock when it’s not.
To be fair, their customer service is excellent. They didn’t’ actually charge me for any of the items until they shipped. Some of them I received, some I canceled and I’m still waiting for a Hock Marking Knife. Which was suppose to ship last Friday and has again been pushed out another month. I am not optimistic that it will ship as it is not listed on their website anymore. Guess I’ll have to look elsewhere. Any suggestions on a good marking knife?
Lee Valley is a great source for tools and I will continue to shop there, just annoyed with them lately.
fred
I have an old Sabatier single-bevel marking knife that I bought 26 years ago from Lee Valley. It has a bigger handle than most which fits my fat hands well. I also use a double-blade marking knife that I bought from Highland Woodworking (about 15 years ago) – and find it useful for inlay work. Highland still sells it along with others including the Hock:
https://www.highlandwoodworking.com/search.aspx?find=MARKING+KNIFE%2c
I know folks who just use an X-Acto knife or snap-off blade craft knife instead of a dedicated marking knife