Description
Dear Customer,
It was in September of 1986 that we first offered for sale a plane of our own design and manufacture. Based on the venerable Stanley #95, our cast-iron edge plane had a redesigned body shape (to better fit the larger hands of today), a more centrally located blade for improved registration, and a screw feed that was more sensitive and easier to adjust. In the fall of 1990, we tweaked the design again for a bit more size and a return to a lever feed, and cast the plane in bronze.
While it took until 1999 before we released another new plane, we hit our stride quickly and have brought more than 50 new planes to market over the past 18 years.
The Veritas Combination Plane shown on the back cover (and described on page 154) is the latest and most complex addition to our line. Combination planes have always had a bit of a checkered reputation; many have been sold on promises of performance that were just not attainable. Instead of trying to replicate the functions of combination planes that have gone before, we focused only on incorporating the operations we knew a plane of this type could do well. Additionally, we made the plane straightforward to set up, easy to adjust and comfortable to use.
We first showed the plane at the Handworks tool show in Iowa, where we had two pre-production models available for folks to try. While the number of knobs and adjustments seemed daunting to most of the crowd, I watched as a nine-year-old girl quietly picked up an idle plane, cut a perfect 3/8" flute in a test board, and ran her finger down the groove with a smile, before moving on to the next table to try another tool.
I can think of no finer accolade for our design and manufacturing teams than that.
Cheers,
Robin C. Lee
President