Veritas Small Router Plane — and the Amazon Alternative
The small Veritas router plane fits where the full-size one cannot. The Kakuri Japanese router plane is the closest thing on Amazon.
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Router planes cut to a set depth below the surface they sit on. That makes them the only hand tool that will bring the bottom of a hinge mortise, a dado or a tenon cheek to a consistent level, over and over.
The full-size planes are the ones most people buy. The small versions exist because a big sole bridges across small work: on a narrow hinge mortise or an inlay recess, a large router plane rocks on the edges rather than referencing on the surface. Veritas’s small router plane is the answer to that, and Lee Valley sells it direct — it is not on Amazon.
The Japanese alternative
The Kakuri plane scored here is a different design reaching the same result: a small oak body, a laminated Japanese steel blade, and a sole that references the surface while the blade cuts below it.
The blade is the strong point. Japanese laminated steel — hard tool steel forge-welded to soft iron — takes a very keen edge, and a keen edge is what stops a router plane bruising the fibres at the bottom of a mortise instead of slicing them.
The adjustment difference
This is the real trade-off, and it is worth understanding before you buy. The Veritas has a threaded depth adjuster with a graduated dial: set 3 mm, cut, come back tomorrow and set 3 mm again.
The Kakuri is set by tapping the blade down and wedging it. It holds fine once set, but returning to a previous depth is judgement and a test cut. For one mortise, irrelevant. For six identical hinge mortises in a door frame, the Veritas adjuster is doing real work and is most of what you are paying for.
Maintenance a metal plane does not need
A wooden sole moves. Check it with a straight edge occasionally and true it on sandpaper laid on glass if it has cupped. It takes minutes, and it is normal rather than a fault.
What works
- A small footprint reaches into places the full-size router plane cannot, which is the entire reason the small size exists
- Japanese laminated steel takes and holds a very fine edge, so it will clean a mortise bottom rather than bruise it
- The oak body is light and warm in the hand, and it is easy to true the sole yourself if it moves
What doesn't
- Depth adjustment is by tapping the blade and re-wedging it, not by a screw — repeatable depth takes feel and patience
- A wooden body moves with humidity, so the sole needs checking and occasionally truing
- It is a different tool rather than a copy: if you want the Veritas mechanism and graduated adjuster, only Lee Valley sells it