Reply To: Skew rabbet + plow plane or combination plane?
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I don’t have either Veritas plane, but I do have comparable plough planes and the Stanley #289 the Veritas skew plane is based on. The short answer is you really need both planes. The Veritas small plough or t he combination plane may not do everything on your list well.
The small plough should be fine for rebates, and simple reeding, fluting and beading. You will have to find cutters, as I believe Veritas still doesn’t have a complete line. Some Stanley cutters will fit. As important I think, is the ability to match plane (T&G) , which the small plane will do, though not with a large tongue. . More complex profiles theoretically possible with a combo plane, but I’d lean towards moulding planes or H&R planes. Even just a few will allow many profiles and do a better job.
Be aware that the small Veritas plough plane has no knickers, so cutting Dados ( housing grooves) require the extra step of scoring the edges of the dado as you go, which adds considerable time to that task. Older plough planes by record and Stanley ( Record 044, Stanley’s 45 and newer Stanley 50’s ) do have these nickers.
If you feel you just have to have a new Veritas with nickers, your only choice is their combination plane for $150 more.. it’s also a bulkier plane and cutters will cost you ( stanley 45 irons will fit)
But if a lot of dados are in your future, I don’t think the small plough is for you.
I don’t think you should count on the small plough as a general purpose rebate plane. It has no mouth which means rougher cuts in contrary or cross grain, and it you want wider rebates you have to purchase the wide blade attachment .The plough plane comes with cutters to 3/8”. I don’t see the wide cutter widths listed , but they certainly aren’t 1”5/8. It possibly maxes out at around 3/4”. Maybe not that.
While it will do rebates respectably in well behaved wood, an actual rebate plane with a mouth is a better tool.
The Skew filletster will not only cut a wider rebate (1” 5/8) with less fuss, but it makes a respectable panel raiser
Here’s is an article which includes doing that with the Veritas plane :
Iin addition to the #289 skew rebate plane I own, I have the #78 which is not skewed. In my opinion the skew filletster is the superior tool for any cross grain or contrary grain work. It’s not even close in those situations. The sanding and cleanup you have to do afterwards is much less.. properly set up, it also ejects shavings much more easily, forming a spiral shaving much like a spill plane. The filletster with a straight cutter tends to clog a bit and the plane body breaks the shavings into a mass which often clogs the mouth. This is also so with the plough or combo planes.
Attached is samples of shavings and rebate. With the 289 skew filletster plane .
- This reply was modified 3 years, 8 months ago by Larry Geib.