Trimming Tenons

Which plane should I get to trim tenons?

Lie-Nielsen rabbet block

http://www.lie-nielsen.com/catalog.php?grp=1269

or


Verital medium shoulder

http://www.leevalley.com/wood/page.aspx?c=2&p=48430&cat=1,230,41182,41192

My thinking is that the LN has a wider sole so the tenon would be more consistent in thickness since I'd be removing more stock at once. Wouldn't it work on the shoulder also?

Are there some advantages/disadvantages I don't see of each?

John, I just got the LV Medium shoulder plane, and I really like it, REALLY like it, the adjustable mouth is a big advantage, you can make very fine cuts with it on endgrain, the shoulder part of the tenon. The shoulder plane is also more useful, as it is just under 3/4" wide, 11/16" IIRC, so it can be used to clean up dados and grooves too, like on a shelf, where you use your dado blade, but the bottom is not quite square, you can under cut it a bit, and then square up the bottom of the dado with the shoulder plane.

For cutting down the thickness of the tenon, if you already have a good block plane, you can use that for the majority of the cutting and the shoulder plane for just the little bit right next to the shoulder of the tenon.

I'm no expert, but to me the shoulder plane is more useful, I think the rabbet plane would not get used nearly as much, by I could be wrong.

I know you will be happy with the LV Medium Shoulder plane, I was concerned that I was maybe buying a tool that is too specialized to use much, but now that I have it and I see what I can do, I'm sure I'll use it a lot more than I thought I would.

Cheers!

John,
I don't own a shoulder plane yet but I did have a chance to look at all three sizes of the LN planes when they came to town, after picking up all three and having Carol Reed with me at they time I probubly get the Small one it seemed to fit better in my hand, I have fairly small hands.

John Daugherty said:

Which plane should I get to trim tenons?

Lie-Nielsen rabbet block

or

Verital medium shoulder


...Are there some advantages/disadvantages I don't see of each?

Click to expand...

John

What do you mean by "tenons"? The shoulder? Or the cheek?

For the shoulder, get a shoulder plane. For the cheeks, use a router plane.

http://www.inthewoodshop.com/Furniture/AHandcutMorticeandTenonPrimer-BlindMortice.html



Regards from Perth

Derek, great tutorial on making Mortise and Tenons

In my opinion I would buy the lie neilsen rabbet block. The only thing I use a rabbet plane for is trimming tenons after they are cut on the table saw and with the lie neilsen you would be able to do one pass for the face, but with the shoulder plane you would have to take multiple passes. Also it would cut easier since its at a low angle. The shoulder plane is more versatile but are you going to really use it for anything else?