Tool Review: The Little Victor Plane

Lee Valley Tool’s latest plane is turning a lot of heads this week. Most people are amazed at its small size (3-3/16″ long), its premium features (an investment cast steel body) and its attractive price ($29.50 until May 15, 2007). Add to that list the fact that it’s made in Canada and you can just imagine that a small fleet of these guys are crossing the St. Lawrence River as I type this.

This week I took a look at the plane, a close reproduction of a plane first made by Leonard Bailey in the 19th century as part of his line of Victor Planes. And though this new plane is a copy, it also is a first in many ways for Lee Valley Tools. It is the first of a new line of tools that will be reproductions and will not carry the company’s Veritas imprint. Robin Lee of Lee Valley Tools says the new line of tools has yet to be named.

The plane is also the first tool offered for sale (perhaps by anyone) that has a sole that’s lapped flat with a rotary lapping machine. This remarkable machine gets stuff really flat (Ã?±0.0002″ or better), and Lee Valley Tools/Veritas has been lapping its plane irons with great success this year.

With this plane, called the “Little Victor,” both the sole and iron are lapped flat. This feature is not marketing hype; it is one of the most serious advancements in recent years in making hand tools easier to use. What does this mean to you? You’ll be able to set this plane up and use it in less than 10 minutes after you take it out of the box.

Our Little Victor arrived in the morning. At about 3:30 p.m. I took it to the shop and started lapping the unbeveled face flat of the iron. I took one stroke on a #1,000-grit waterstone and took a look to see how much work was ahead of me.

I was done. I was so astonished that I took the iron around to show to the other editors (there was some eye-rolling I assure you).

So I put it on the #4,000-grit stone and took four strokes. I took a look at my progress. Again. I was already done. The back was up to an acceptable polish for work. But hey, since the process had only taken three minutes so far I went all the way to #8,000 grit. That took eight strokes. I flipped the iron over and put a secondary bevel on the edge (the high-carbon steel iron comes ground at 30�°; I put a 5�° secondary bevel on it).

Minutes later I dropped the iron into the plane’s body and went to work, spending the rest of the day using the tool for a variety of chores , flushing pegs, trimming joints flush, chamfering edges.

The way you set the iron is ingenious and simple. The iron is wedged in the body at four points: a machined area up by the mouth, two steel ribs on the sidewalls of the tool and a rotary knob under the iron. There’s no depth adjustment for the iron (what do you want for $30?), but the tool is simple to set if you know how.

Lay the tool on a flat surface and drop the iron in the tool. Use two fingers to press the iron down against the mouth. This will keep the iron square in the mouth. The depth of cut is determined by how much pressure you use at the mouth. More pressure equals a heavier cut. Then use two more fingers to tighten up the rotary knob. Check your work on a scrap.

The plane works well one-handed or two-handed. My only complaint about the tool is that the back of the iron bites into your palm in some applications. Al Frampton (who also has one of these planes) came up with a novel solution that I’ll have to try. Why not ship the plane with a shorter iron? I suspect one reason the length is key is that the iron wouldn’t fit into the common commercial honing guides if it were much shorter. Bottom line: The comfort of the tool isn’t as big a deal with a tool that will see short bursts of use , if a bench plane had this issue I’d be concerned.

Oh and Managing Editor Megan Fitzpatrick had one more request when she picked up the tool: She wants one, but in blue.

– Christopher Schwarz