Cheap Lee Valley Veritas Skew Block Plane

This is a truly versatile plane. It excels at trimming rabbets, working end grain, or making final jointing cuts on boards, plus you can use it in all the ways you would a regular block plane.

The blade is skewed at a 15° angle, which makes cutting easier, either with or across the grain, and helps pull the fence tight against the work. Because the blade sits flush with the side of the body, corner cuts are clean and accurate. A Norris-style adjuster combines feed and lateral positioning for easy, precise blade setting. Set screws on either side of the blade prevent the blade from shifting in use. A scoring spur ahead of the blade reduces tear-out on cross-grain work; it is adjustable for depth and projection and can be recessed when working with the grain.

Machined and surface ground, the contoured 6 3/8″ × 1 3/4″ ductile cast iron body has a 12° bed angle and a movable toe fully enclosed by the body casting. A hardwood locking knob sets the toe to control the mouth opening, while an unobtrusive set screw in the throat allows repeatable mouth positioning and prevents contact between the blade and toe. Held by a large brass locking knob, a sliding collet allows adjustment of the 3 1/2″ wide, 5/16″ thick hardwood fence. The fence base is tapped to substitute a user-made fence extension such as a wooden wedge for cutting controlled bevels.

The plane is available in left- and right-hand models (neither is for left- or right-handed use only, but having both lets you handle any grain direction). It comes with a lapped blade 1/8″ (0.125″) thick, 1 1/2″ wide, with a 25° bevel, made of A2, O1 or PM-V11 tool steel.

Optional 3 1/2″ stainless-steel fence rod and depth stop sold separately.

Made in Canada.