I'm looking to purchase my first premium plane and upgrade my old bailey stanley no 5 with either a new LN no 5 or 5 1/2. Deciding to "upgrade" because 1) I finally have the budget for it and 2) I would like to see what its like to work with a good high quality plane.
It seems to me that there are guys coming out of the woodwork to say that the 5 1/2 is superior in every way to the no 5, but I'm wondering if there are any out there that actually prefer the no 5? I've never seen a 5 1/2 and don't have a good way to actually see one in person so was hoping to get some advice from those more experienced than I. I have looked up the weight/dimensions differences so I have a good feel for the differences there, but what I don't have a good feel for is how that translates to the real world. Is there anything that a 5 1/2 does better than a 5 and vise versa? My plan for this plane would be to set it up more for lighter cuts and tailor my current no 5 to be more for rough removal/dimensioning. I work a mix of both machine prepped stock and rough air-dried stock mostly in oak and walnut since that is what is most prevalent from my local sawyer.
How close is the 5 1/2 to a Stanley no 6?
If using this plane as mostly a smoother, would a 4 1/2 be a better fit?
I know a lot of this is personal preference and everyone is different, but I'm just curious what everyone thinks.
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