Hi All!
Still asking away here...soon I will post pictures of my first complete woodworking (and neander) project - my workbench...as soon as I complete the bench
Anyways, Xmas is rolling around and I need a smooth plane, and for a variety of reasons, I've decided on "requesting" the Lie Nielson #4. I am trying to decide between bronze and iron, and am leaning towards the iron one. I am leaning towards it because of decreased price, greater durability (i've already put several dings in my other new plane), and less obscene trails of oxidation (iron surface rust doesn't seem as bad as the black stuff from bronze) I have read many posts about the preference of bronze vs. iron (and, or course, about which smoothing plane is "best").
What I've learned is that many people prefer the bronze planes from L-N.
What I really want to know is, how many people are perfectly happy with an iron L-N, and have seen beautiful final-finish results from it? Alternatively, how many have seen perfectly wonderful finished from a restored Stanley #4 (since the iron L-N and a restored Stanley #4 are reasonably similar).
Thanks!
-Ray