Doug White wrote:
With Christmas coming, I'm thinking I could finally get myself a good block
plane. I've seen decent reviews of Veritas's planes, and Lie Nelson is
probably too pricey.

Veritas and Lie-Nielson are both good. The difference in price,
in my opinion, isn't that significant. The main difference between
the two is that Veritas takes a modern approach to design and
features, while Lie-Nielsen improves on the traditional designs
with better metals and thicker blades. Both products are pretty
much ready to work out of the box. Veritas however is typically a
bit better here as their blades are usually dead-flat and only
require a bit of honing.

None of the reviews I've read put the Stanleys in the
same general class as the Veritas planes.

I don't know about the new "Sweatheart" planes, but Stanley's other
"new" stock would not be in the same class as either Veritas or
Lie-Nielsen. However I have found Stanley's 9-1/2 (12-920) and
60-1/2 (12-960) block planes to be fairly decent--after a bit of
fettling.


I'm not going to be doing much fine cabinet work, but have occasional
need to trim pine, oak & walnut to get a good fit. That & the
occasional sticky door.

Given the woods you intend to work with, which are typically fairly
well behaved, you could get by with a 12-960 or 12-920 from Stanley.
But of course the Veritas or Lie-Nielsen will be better, and not
require any fettling.

In terms of features, what do folks think about low-angle vs normal,
and adjustable throats? The low angle planes seem to be recommneded
for end grain, which I have to deal with on occasion. Is there a
downside to the low angle?

Low angle is best for end grain and can be used on well behaved
straight grained woods. On difficult grained woods, the low angle
will just cause tear out. An advantage of the low-angle plane is
that if you buy another blade to fit it, you can grind that to a
steaper angle and then swap blades around. Use the low angle blade
for end grain and well behaved woods, and the higher angle for more
difficult grain. If you find you use your planes a lot, having to
swap blades around can be a time consuming task. In which case,
it easier to just have both a low angle and a regular angle block
plane.

As for the adjustable throat, it is an advantage over a fixed throat
and can help with tear out sometimes. If you're going to only have
one block plane, get one with an adjustable throat.