Hand Planes
Hi,
I was also going to stay out of this. However, here I am.
At a woodshow a few years ago I purchased two planes. Glenn and I went back and forth between the Lee Valley Veritas and Lee Nielsen booths. Both makes felt good in my hands. Both brands planed the wood very well. Both of them appeared to be very well made.
The Lee Nielsen man said something like, "Let me tune this up a bit for you. I just finished demonstrating it to another person." It took him over 15 minutes to tune the plane. He felt that he had to tune it again to demonstrate it to Glenn and me. The blade was not resharpened in this process.
I mentioned tuning at Lee Valley booth. The man there said he would show me. I don't think it took him a full minuted to get the Veritas plane un-assembled, re-assembled and completely tuned. Again, without resharpening the blade.
I had three older Stanley planes (block, jack, and a real long one I cannot remember the name of). These planes took the same effort as the L Nielsen planes to get them to work their best. Yes, when tuned they worked fine. It was just a tension type of thing trying to get to the optimum set-up.
I purchased two Veritas planes at the show: 1) "Low-Angle Smooth Plane" and 2) "Low-Angle Block Plane." I love both of them. I can remove an iron and replace it with an iron with a different grind and have it tuned to perfection in less than two minutes. The cost at that time: Block = $129, Smoother = $192.
I am not poor. I am also a long way from rich. I darn near had a heart attack paying that much. I had king size buyer's remorse---the remorse went away right after I used them a few times.
My father was a great hobby person. Some of the things: Rare cacti, rare camelias, mineral collecting (one of his specimines was one of five in the world), faceting diamonds, racing cars, racing airplanes, racing boats, motorcycles, jewlery making, free flight model airplanes, etc. etc. etc. The family knew when a hobby was dead---when he started coming in first most of the time, when his gems won internationaly prizes, when the camelias were best in show, etc.
Then he was off on to a new hobby. I spread all of the above stuff so you would get a mind set because---He told me he learned to never buy the cheap or the mediocre tool (camera, drill press, whatever) because you will out grow it and buy something better. IT IS CHEAPER TO PURCHASE THE BEST FIRST because you save all of the money you would have spent on lesser quality items.
By the way, he was not rich either. He worked for the Telephone Co. Many times I have found his philosophy nerve wracking at time of purchase. However, I always found it the best way when I followed it.
Same subject but off of the LV, LN track. I have a delightful wood plane that Toni C made and gave to me. It has a Hock iron. It takes a little bit more time to adjust than the Veritas, however much easier and faster than the Stanleys. I am sure my set-up time for the wood plane will shorten as I use it more. I have only had it a few shop days.
I have absolutely no idea how much time and effort went into the making of the wooden plane. I do know I have been leaving it out on a shelf, easy to reach. Perhaps Toni could give you some leads on how to make a plane. Personally, I would 10 to 1 rather have it than the Stanleys.
As an added benefit, the wooden plane can be customized. Toni knows I am small so he only semi-finished the top, leaving it for me to shape it to my small hands. I have not reshaped it at all. I won't reshape it until I have used it some more---I do not want to whittle and regret. I do have two spots that are probably going to get sanded down a bit---but not yet.
Summary: I buy by quality. If money is tight, something else has to give. Buying cheap is expensive; I gave the Stanleys away (money wasted).
Enjoy,
Jim
