I have a couple of poorly made modern planes, a modern WR #4 smoother and a 100+ year old #6 with the original thin iron. The Wood River smoother is nicely made. Not a thing wrong with it and it works well. I'm sure the tolerances on the LV and LN smothers are even even smaller. However, I really don't think it slices wood any better. If I had it to do over, I'd go with a vintage #4 Stanley Bailey style.
The #6 works great and the junk planes work like junk.
Originally Posted by
Chris Griggs
That's dead on accurate...I started about 5 years ago. At the time the majority of what was being said online was..
- Vintage planes are only good for coarse work..you NEED a newly made LN/LV smoother and jointer
- If you must use a vintage plane you NEED to throw out the iron it came with and get a new thick iron...(emphasis on word need vs want)
- Chipbreakers are only there to stabilize thin irons that Stanley made thin to save money
- etc...
Some of that still exists, but its much more individual sentiment and more often spoken about as a personal preference than a need/nice thing to have. There really is a lot of great info out there now being regularly shared that just wasn't present in the online or print woodworking world 5 years ago.
Last edited by Daniel Rode; 04-09-2014 at 1:44 PM.
-- Dan Rode
"We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit." - Aristotle