For my birthday, September last year, I was gifted 2 Woodriver hand planes from Woodcraft. One never arrived, and that was dealt with promptly by the company so I can't complain other than say I was disappointed. The other was a 4 1/2 that arrived with a few issues. Woodcraft was great about trying to get it taken care of, but eventually the lemon was just too sour. Collectively with Christmas money and that birthday money, I am looking for a bevel down 4 1/2 plane, and am inbetween the Lee Valley offerings, the WoodRiver from Rob Cosman, and waiting a VERY LONG TIME for a Lie Nielsen. I am not interested in buying an oldie and restoring it again, more on that later.

At this point, with the pandemic raging, most of the planes I have looked at are either out of stock, or backordered quite heavily. Rob Cosman has 4 1/2 WR in stock the last time I checked, the Lee Valley Custom 4 1/2 is out until August, and Lie Nielsen 4 1/2's are on backorder with no date in sight. I would consider the regular Lee Valley 4 1/2 with the moving back portion of the body, but if the Custom planes have the support all the way to the bottom of the plane iron the way the old Veritas 4 1/2 style, then I think they are out of the running. I don't love the idea of the moving back end.

I'm in Canada, and would rather not pay the heavy exchange and import taxes on a Lie Nielsen if it isn't necessary, and so it has got me wondering, is the Lie Nielsen really leagues ahead of the Lee Valley Custom 4 1/2, and if so, how?

Other than the adjustment being Norris versus traditional Stanley, I can't see obvious differences that would make one plane more effective than the other.I prefer PMV-11 or O1 over A2, everyday of the week, so LV has my vote there. I don't mind the bevel up adjustments by Lee Valley, so would that be indicative of the adjustment on the bevel down custom planes? Is the difference in value between a WoodRiver 4 1/2 and a Lie Nielsen consistently high enough that it makes sense to get a Lie Nielsen, over say a Woodriver 4 1/2 or Lee Valley Custom 4 1/2 with a bevel up smoother for "close to" the same cost (LN to Canada is pretty close to even BUS + Lee Valley Custom 4 1/2, unless I have messed up the math somehow), to completely cover my smoothing needs?

I have read Derek Cohens review of the Custom 4 1/2 and the Bevel Up smoother, that's why I'm leaning in that direction. I really would rather not pay for a Lie Nielsen with steel I don't really like, unless people with experience have input that says how the Lie Nielsen smokes the Veritas in some way, shape or form. If that is overturned, and Veritas bevel down is in the running, now the question becomes which Veritas? Does the Custom 4 1/2 blade have complete support through the frog face, the way the old style or non-custom 4 1/2 does? I can't seem to find that information online.

I am not opposed to having to fix up planes, I have hand scraped a few Stanleys in, but the #4 I have doesn't feel good in my hands (it's a newer Type, not one of the older types I prefer), doesn't have a tight mouth, and I'm waiting for a chipbreaker to go with the Lee Valley replacement iron it currently has in it. At this point, I would rather have one smoother I know I can rely on, and I am hoping a bevel up smoother and one of the aforementioned bevel downs will accomplish that without too much trouble. I have done enough scraping recently to be fond of the idea of getting back to wood shavings over iron shavings.

Recently I purchased a replacement blade and chipbreaker for my Stanley #8 I have started to scrape flat (it works really nicely now), it tooks months of getting blades and chipbreakers sent to me, where some form of an unacceptable issue was present; blade was incredibly humped, the underside leading edge wasn't milled in the chipbreaker, or it didn't mate properly with the blade from Veritas due to significant twist in the chipbreaker, or the chipbreaker had a receiving hole for the screw that wasn't threaded.. I finally gave up, and have tried to fettle the chipbreaker they last sent me that mates when I torque down the receiving screw, but doesn't sit anywhere near flat when the screw is away from the blade and chipbreaker set. That is a big concern to me in buying a Veritas bevel down, is whether or not I am going to have to do "repair" or "troubleshooting" work like that mentioned, which would be similar effort to what I would need to put into a WoodRiver 4 1/2. The Veritas bevel ups avoid a lot of that issue, with a ruler trick on the blade, and no chipbreaker to mate with. Has anyone received a Custom 4 1/2 recently with a chipbreaker and blade that actually mated properly out of the box, before preparing the leading edge of the chipbreaker, and the blade was flat?

A lot of questions, but I'm new to this, and I would rather do this tool buying properly, after having made some mistakes at the beginning of this journey. I will primarily be working with straight grained North American woods, on smaller projects I give away, and larger furniture pieces for myself and family with straight grained domestics. There may be some burl and exotic hardwoods in the mix in the smaller boxes I give away; but an accent element to the overall design, not the primary design element.

Thanks in advance everyone, if I can figure out how to post pictures, I'll post pictures of one of the planes I have scraped in that I can't identify. It's a Stanley block plane of some sort.

Rick