On Mon, 12 Feb 2007 20:40:54 GMT, Andrew Hartung
wrote:

Could I get the group's opinion on Groz Planes? Or for that matter any
of the other (new) lower cost planes, like Bailey, Grizzly. I'm in need of
a #4 smooth and a #7-8 jointing plane and maybe a rabbet/bullnose. The
Groz planes are on sale at Woodcraft.

New low cost planes take a good deal of effort to beat into a usable
condition, if they can be at all.

The last Bailey I got showed problems in the workmanship that were
characteristic of badly worn tooling--they probably produce some good
ones but unless you know what to look for and find someone with a
large stock of them it would be difficult to cherry-pick. I pretty
much had to remachine the thing before it was happy. Shame too, they
used to be nice tools and it probably wouldn't cost all that much to
fix the tooling.

An old Stanley off of ebay or Craigslist or a local auction would
likely be a better bet--it may still need some work to render usable
but at least it wasn't screwed up at the factory.

If you're looking for a working tool rather than a project then spend
the bucks for an LN or Lee Valley or Clifton or Steve Knight. If
those are too pricey for you you might want to consider Japanese or
Chinese pattern wooden planes--Japan Woodworker and Lee Valley both
have a selection for surprisingly low prices (Japan Woodworker also
has another selection for prices more in line with LN/LV/Clifton).
When the Chinese imitate Western tools the results are unpredictable,
but their traditional designs work quite well.