Veritas LA/BU planes or Custom planes?

[Jim Koepke]

I went a little nuts buying stuff a few years back

Same here, the upside is there isn't really much left to buy.

jtk

[Erich Weidner]

Uh, I'm pretty sure you meant BU jointer there.

Opps. Yes! :O

[Will Blick]

To OP, you made some great choices...
While I too have learned a ton from the experienced members here...
there is many variables, so what someone complains about, is not a problem for someone else.
For example, as another poster mentioned, honing your sharpening skills is critical for BU planes, as its only the edge you have to prevent tear out vs. BD. After I really mastered sharpening, and sharpen to 15-30K on every re sharpen, tear out is a non issue for me. Now granted, I prob. I have not tried every knarly wood that Derek prob. has So this has a lot to do with your success... are you working just burls or crazy figured woods? With the figure I have worked with BU has been near flawless.
The other thing I appreciate about my BU line up, is one set of blades, a few angles, but every blade can be used in every plane...change the angle, change the blade, very versatile and FAST. Covers a ton of applications with the same plane.
As many have pointed out, if you have a specific application, such as working with heavy figured woods on a regular basis, its very possible, BD is a more ideal plane. My guess, this represents a very tiny % of users.
The one benefit of BD I miss is, the ability to adjust the depth on the fly... but there is ways around that too... a depth set up jig with shims.