After quite a bit of consideration, I recently bit the bullet and bought a Veritas router plane kit and after using it on a couple of projects I have some comments.

First, this is a really really useful piece of kit.  

 

I have routed out notches in my split top benchtop filler bar, cleaned up the bottoms of blind mortises, routed dados for ledgers, and dealt with some particularly stubborn grain on a couple of tenons.  In each case, this has been a joy to work with.

 

I bought the whole kit with cutters from 1/16” to 3/4”  The larger cutters are two piece to facilitate sharpening with the clever flat extension included in the kit.

I debated a lot between open and closed mouth router planes but the Veritas solves this problem by being able to swivel the cutter clamp 180 degrees and lock the cutter in place on what would normally be the back side.  It is a compromise on the open mouth cutter for sure but it does work well.

Adjustment of the depth and depth stop is straightforward and using some brass setup blocks, very precise.

The pitch is 1/32” / turn so you can accurately dial in your depth of cut even if you aren’t using the depth stop.

The fence is well constructed and a lot sturdier than it looks, it also has mounting holes for a longer fence piece if you need to make one.

 

Definitely happy with this one.  

Great review Michael. Nice looking tool set. Glad you're finding multiple use applications.

WOW! Very cool Static! I love the way you are just absolutely rocking this whole hand tool thing, I am completely envious and ya, a tad jealous Thanks for the wonderful review and the encouragement for the rest of us to jump in on the hand tool work!

@John Morris  Thanks for the kind words, the deeper into the hand tool world I go, the more I am enjoying it.

I find a certain zen in it that I don’t get with power tools.  

5 hours ago, StaticLV2 said:

@John Morris  Thanks for the kind words, the deeper into the hand tool world I go, the more I am enjoying it.

I find a certain zen in it that I don’t get with power tools.  

There is certainly a whole new world of considerations in material selection and processing when using hand tools rather than machinery. It's endless, I think that's part of what keeps me moving forward in my quest to just become efficient in their use, and I certainly look at material selection in a completely different way than I used too, the fancy curls and knots and wavy grain, aint always a good thing now is it! Give me a plain straight grained board any day, just to make my life easier at the bench.

 

The one thing I had to learn to stay away from, because I used mainly powered machines and tools my whole woodworking life, when I started to convert to hand tools for most processes, I was still trying to get that machine perfect look, that went on for about a year or so, then I realized I'm taking the fun and reality away from the whole experience, now I'm fine with the occasional gouge and non perfect fit, and most definitely ok with tool marks, folks who like "hand tool made" are ok with it too.