Well, if you truly go from "rough to ready" you need more than just one
plane to do it properly. Initially you'll use a scrub plane to hog off wood
quickly and get it close to flat. Then clean this up with a jack plane or
fore plane. At this point it is probably pretty good. You'll want a
jointer to get the edges nice and straight and square the faces. And you'll
want a smoothing plane to get the surface finish-ready. If the grain is
gnarly (maybe not too likely with red oak, but you never know), you might
want a high-angle smoother or a scraping plane. So, if you just have the
one plane, (probably a smoother ?) you might be in for a tough time. If
you have multiple irons, you could grind one with a curved profile and open
the mouth and probably get away with it for roughing out and getting close
to flat. I'm sure it can be done, and if you enjoy the process you'll
probably learn a lot and have a blast.


Least expensive scrub plane: http://www.stjamesbaytoolco.com/

Alex