Veritas plow plane blade question

Have you tried calling Veritas and explaining your experience? They seem like a solid company and may send you a new blade based on the issues you have and your setup(properly sharpened, no grinding, light cuts, etc.). These high end manufacuteres (Lie-Nielsen, Veritas) are expensive tools that are expected to work, not no-name knockoffs that you know lemons are possible.

+1 call Veritas.

FWIW:
1)Have seen several brand new ‘cheap’ tools where the 1st 1/8-1/4” of the blade is ‘soft’. The cheaper M1/M2/M4 grades used in chisels are worst for me. Have seen A2 soft on the end as well. The root cause is usually too much heat during grinding/sharpening by factory, which destroys temper at the very end.

Usually after you sharpen the blade 4-6 times and remove the broken burr, you find harder steel that has not lost the temper; and the blade acts like normal. If you have tools/skills to (wet) grind off the end of the blade without heating over ~200F, you can get remove the softer steel quicker.

2) I buy only PM11 blades from LV, and have never seen this issue on PM11 steel? That said, I think I remember a small recall by Veritas on a lot of PM11 for improper temper shortly after it was introduced. That was years ago. If my memory is correct, it reinforces that a call to Veritas is a good idea.

Best Luck!

-- If it wasn't for bad luck, I wouldn't have no luck at all, Doom, despair, agony on me… - Albert King - Born Under a Bad Sign released 1967

yeah i love veritas tools and have never had an issue,sounds like a defective blade that was not tempered properly,as said contact them and id bet it will be fixed quickly,i doubt they want someone bad mouthing their tools on a large wood forum.let us know what happens.

-- working with my hands is a joy,it gives me a sense of fulfillment,somthing so many seek and so few find.-SAM MALOOF.

Crogenically treated metals sometimes end up too brittle, call LV

-- Think safe, be safe

Ok, thanks. I’ll give Lee Valley a call and see what they say.

Call Veritas first off. But it sounds like you have a tempering issue. If they replace it without demanding you send it back, you can re temper it easily. Use a pro po and torch to heat it up till it won’t draw a magnet, then quickly quench it in oil. Most folks in a home shop now a days use vegetable oil, but any oil will work. I use old drain oil. Then after it cools, wet sand it to clean off any scale. Now it should be harder than woodpecker lips, but it’ll be brittle.So, when the wife is off to visit her great aunt edna or whoever, put it in the oven and warm it up to about 475°F. For an hour or so. Then turn the oven off and allow it to cool. After it has cooled, re sharpen it and try again. Veritas is pretty good stuff, but on the pi of chance you got one made of garbage metal, this won’t help you any.

Hope this helps

-- Debbie's old man