Thread: Veritas Low angle block plane tote fix

As you say, "fixed for now".

Drilling through the sole seems a bit heroic, but the holes won't affect the plane's performance in any way - there are a few old Stanleys out there that have had the tote screws driven through the sole either deliberately or accidentally.

I've never been a fan of Veritas's handles on their bench planes, neither the angle nor the shaping are satisfactory to my taste. There was much discussion about the angles on their totes back in the day, and Veritas claimed they'd chosen it after feedback from many testers, though I've always wondered how many used the test planes for a very long session! Most owners seem to have gotten used to them over the years; the complaining has died off, at any rate.

Being rusted on to (old) Stanley totes & knobs, I found the totes on the BU smoother & scraper I have really hard to live with - not nice in the hand & too upright for any serious planing on my bench, which was deliberately made to a height that suits me for hand-plane use based on Stanley planes. The upright Veritas handles are ok if you hold your work at a higher level, but I can't put my back into it with a higher bench, which means more arm work & less momentum from the body, and that gets tiring very quickly.

I put up with it for a while but eventually scrapped the original handle for something much more like a 'real' tote. I had two goes at it, the first was a bit tentative because I couldn't fit the two studs through without them coming out front or back. This is try #1 compared with the original: Old and new.jpg

That was better, but still not sloped forward enough. After thinking about it for a while I reckoned I could do a "full Stanley" if I bent the studs where they exit the sole. Luckily, Veritas uses common old 1/4" NC threads, so I got a bit of all-thread (ok, so it's BSW, not NC, but close enough for the bush) and tried out the concept. It was much easier than I'd anticipated to put the necessary bends in the studs so they would stay within the wood of a tote of the same profile as a Stanley. So now my Veritas planes sport totes that I can live happily with. This is the first & second attempt compared: handles cf.jpg

Actually, I didn't scrap the original woodwork, I've kept them so when I pass the tools on to new owners they can choose what they prefer (so long as I can find them & the termites haven't taken a fancy to them!).

Cheers,

Oh man. I always have thought the veritas design was awful but when you see two pics close together like that it really reinforces it doesn't it. Your handles make them look a lot nicer. That's the problem coming to sites like this. Something else I can put on the list to make.


Interestingly. I pulled out all my veritas and it appears the newer it is the more they've mimicked the stanley handle angle. The jack rabbet is my newest and the handle, though still ugly, is very similar angle to my bedrock. I have a couple screw rabbets also and they're handles are leaned forward also. Whereas my smoother, from the late eighties, is upright

Originally Posted by The Spin Doctor

....... I pulled out all my veritas and it appears the newer it is the more they've mimicked the stanley handle angle.....

That's an interesting observation, I haven't looked closely at any Veritas planes for many a year, so that had escaped my notice. I wonder if it's a response to more recent consumer feedback? When they were challenged in the early days on those 'orrible excuses for a handle (like on my smoother), they were rather defensive & claimed it was what we all wanted! P'raps more folks have taken to using their tools for longer sessions & discovered how awful the upright handles are, & why tools that were made to be used seriously all day every day had handles that are a bit easier on the user.....

Cheers,