...Patriarch... bought a $29 foot print crappy plane.....
after 3.0 hrs
worth of flattening the sole, flattening the iron. Changing the
bevel angle and then some serious honing. I could actually plane oak
and it did a pretty decent job. It did a god job of smoothing the
face and edge. It even did a good job of planing end grain.




So you bought the Footprint H4 for $29 and completely tuned it "out the bazoo"
and it is now a perfectly fine working plane, as good as any other no matter what
brand, except maybe the iron not being a Hock A2... that teaches me something
about the cost of things and their necessity. Do a little studying on tuning, work
hard doing it and we'll be just as good. It is not so much the tool as it is the crafts-
manship. I suspected as much, and frankly, you get more of my respect.

Alex



taking a sad case plane and bringing it up to good running user status
is a great way to get the basic education in plane mechanics, and you
get a plane at the end of it. there are some planes that just aren't
worth the trouble- the castings are too light, have too many voids,
*are* gonna crack on you if you look at them funny... there are the
ones with folded sheetmetal bodies, the ones that are just a block of
rust where was once a fine plane, woodies with big 'ol cracks in
them.... But there are lots of planes out there that with some care
and attention will make great users. in general I prefer to start with
an older stanley or such. just better design than a new cheapie. but
the bottom line is what it does to the wood when you're done with
it....

another think to thing about- you can make a plane for *any*
application from the ground up, in a wood body. another whole side of
the plane story...