Wood River planes mn65 steel blades

[ian maybury]

That's broadly what I was being cautious about too.

I don't (a) know how MN 65 performs in practice (but maybe given the fairly decent quality of the other planes its not too bad - maybe the manganese content (?) helps with toughness and wear resistance versus a simple carbon steel - which is why some more user feedback would be interesting), and (b) i don't have a clue as to how much of the cost of a plane like that the choice of steel grade may account for. (it will probably have implications for ease of manufacturing as well as purchasing cost)

Chinese made products do from our perspective (of being exposed to stuff bought by pile 'em high western importers at minimum prices) have a tendency to cut corners on materials, and to struggle to maintain consistently high quality levels. The lesson of Japan in the 80s though was that this tends to be a short term situation. Japan was a bye-word for junk products in say the 50s and 60s - but by the late 80s/early 90s had become the benchmark. One which as a direct result of their ability to deliver pretty much perfect quality at competitive costs almost wiped out most of the US automotive and consumer electronics manufacturers.

'The Machine That Changed the World' (book) http://www.amazon.com/The-Machine-Th.../dp/0060974176 is a good place for anybody that fancies some reading on the topic to start - it's the results of a major late 80s study of management methods in the japanese automotive industry by their US counterparts. It's not light reading - but it in effect laid the foundation for the 'Lean' methods which these days comprise best manufacturing practice worldwide...

ian