Quote Originally Posted by Thomas Knighton View Post
Just the thoughts of a newbie here, but how does buying a $300 plane that works great right out of the box help me fiddle with vintage planes? Sure, I would know what a well tuned plane can do. Honestly, all I currently have to go on is what shavings should look like and that it shouldn't jump around while I'm trying to plane with it.
A brand new quality plane won't help someone tune up a vintage plane. The argument that a novice should buy a good quality new plane is that the novice won't have to learn how to tune up the plane first and can instead just concentrate on learning how to use it.