"Nick" wrote in
:

Good hand planes, with some very expensive
exceptions, are no longer manufactured as they are not needed
generally. Sorry, that's a very sweeping statement that may irk some
but I feel it is correct. I'm thinking of Veritas who make some fine
stuff although I have no experience of it.

Yeah, I'd be one that would dispute that :-)

I think the Veritas stuff is fine quality, and price-wise it's
not so out of line compared to what a Stanley plane would have
cost pre-WW2, allowing for inflation.

Lie-Nielsen are unquestionably good (better, I think, than
anything Stanley ever made), but as you say they're expensive.

Admittedly the Anants, Buck Bros, and Windsor Designs aren't
good, but then neither was Stanley's "Handyman" line of
cheap planes back in the day.

John