The latest addition to our family of Veritas low-angle bench planes is their state-of-the-art pure smoothing plane. It is the plane to use for the final finish on surfaces, especially woods of difficult grain patterns. It also complements Veritas' low-angle jack plane.

To produce this plane, Veritas combined the generous width and weight of a dedicated smoother with the versatile inner workings of a low-angle bevel-up plane. The 12° bed angle, coupled with the 38° blade bevel, yields an effective cutting angle of 50° (commonly known as a York pitch). This is an ideal starting angle for minimising tear-out when working difficult wood. It is also easy to create a higher micro-bevel angle for very difficult grains.

The ductile cast iron body is fully stress-relieved, and has a 12° bed angle similar to a low-angle block plane. The accurately machined sole is flat. The adjustable mouth can be closed to a narrow slit for fine shavings with minimum tear-out or opened for heavier cuts. A stop-screw in the throat adjusts to whatever mouth opening you find ideal for chip breaking and chip clearance. This lets you open the mouth fully for blade removal (for honing) and replacement, yet quickly restores your exact mouth setting. The large wooden front knob and rear handle provide both comfort and excellent control. The adjustment mechanism, with its combined feed and lateral adjustment knob, makes blade setting easy and accurate. Set screws prevent the blade from shifting, but allow full lateral adjustment.

It weighs in at just under 2.3kg and has an exceptionally low center of gravity. Veritas have dubbed this plane a 164-1/2 H. It is an excellent choice for even the most demanding reversing grains, where even higher bevel angles (for creating Type II chips) are required to eliminate tear-out. The coffin-shaped body has a sole length of 254mm and a width of 79mm. Includes a 38° blade that is 57mm wide, 4.8mm thick and is made of A2 tool steel hardened to Rc60-62. The blade is the same size as the one on Veritas' low-angle jack plane, allowing blades of various bevel angles to be interchanged between planes.

Made in Canada. Patent pending.