I am looking for what is termed, I believe, a new smoothing plane.
All the discussion regarding handle design, bevel up vs bevel down, chip breaker setting, secondary bevels, convex grinds, etc as me excited about improving my own woodworking capability. I feel I am perhaps limited by my tools as well as my knowledge and and expertise (naivete I believe is the proper term).
Maybe a bit more about my application. Woods of prime interest are hard and soft and curly maples, pine, walnut, white ash, red and white oak. Nothing exotic and particularly difficult like some folks here frequently work with. Maybe even just a focus on the finer woods of this type (ie - don't worry about trying to come up with something for the red oak which is so despised by some). I have an assortment of Stanley, Bailey, Great Neck, Buck Bros, other old off brands. I have far too many Jack planes and not one go-to smoother. What I'd like to do is dedicate one carefully adjusted plane to my final finishing work.
I suspect everyone here has their own thoughts on what would constitute the best plane to look for and buy for this purpose and therefore what I'd like to solicit is thoughts on which one plane each of you endorse most heartily for your own work of this nature. If you wish, then any rationale you have for your choice would be appreciated as well but, please, don't feel like this is what I am asking for - really I just want to integrate and rank the responses by model and type and so that I can dig into each of them with some research and testing perhaps to help me make a final decision. If its a new plane available from LN or LV or where-have-you, or a vintage Stanley, or perhaps a custom built woodie - anyway you wish.
Thank you in advance for sharing your knowledge in this regard.