Well, I ordered a Veritas low angle block plane. Personnally it was
between that and a low angle smoothing plane. Between my thinking and
some of the comments of you that have used to low angle block plane I
felt that it was the best next purchase. I tried this plane about 3
yrs ago (when it first came out) at a show and it was impressive then
when I knew JACK about plane usage. I know I will appreciate it now.

John McCoy wrote in message .11...
(Eric Anderson) wrote in
om:

Just thought I would ask the rec what they suggest for the next plane
purchase I should consider.

Having read the other responses, I agree with Andy & Chuck that a
low-angle block plane seems to be something useful that's missing
from your list. I have an L-N #102 that is far and away the most
used plane in my shop - I doubt there's a day I don't pick it up
at least once. Andy will point out that the Stanley #102 is a
totally different plane (and is crap).

David's suggestion of the #98/99 pair is also a good one, IMO. I
have the L-N set, and have found them on occasion to be extremely
handy for adjusting a dado which was just a tad tight.

You might also consider a rabbet plane, like the #78. I generally
use the power router to cut rabbets, but occasionally it's fun to
do some by hand.

Someone suggested the low-angle jack, the L-N #62. I'd reccommend
against that, I have one but rarely find myself using it. If your
other smoothers work well, then it would be redundant.

A full size jointer, a #7 or #8 might be worthwhile. It would be
partly redundant on the #6, but on the other hand there's something
satisfying about using a really big long plane to prepare an edge.

Speaking of edges, it's surprising how nice a result you can get
with a #66 hand beader; so there's another tool to consider.

John