Originally Posted by
Rob Lee
Hi,
A few general comments on some of the statements in this thread.
Planes and prices...Stanley made hundreds of thousands of Planes....Veritas and Lie-Nielsen make hundreds, and rarely thousands. Everything we make is closer to bespoke, than mass production. They cost what they cost... and I make no apologies for prices.
Blades.....I knew that our blades would be dear, which is why we made our plane compatible with Stanley and Record blades. You can pick up a set of blades ( with or without a plane) for probably $100-150, depending on condition. You will have to spend a lot of time lapping, and making them usable. Yes...they will be flat, concave, and convex. O1 warps when hardened. Manufacturers (well, those that know what they're doing, anyway) will ensure blades are oriented before grinding the bevel so that blades will be concave relative to bedding surface. Ours are flat, and lapped. All of them.
PM-V11 choice....it hardens with better dimensional stability than O1, and retains an edge much longer. For complex profiles, we think it is the best choice. It would not be economic to produce them in multiple materials.
I saw the first batch of planes running through assembly a week ago, before I left for vacation. I believe we are just waiting on boxes before we begin to ship orders.
FWIW, people's preferences are what they are - that's what keeps manufacturing going.
Cheers,
Rob
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