woodbrains":3v6u8b11 said:
Jacob":3v6u8b11 said:
Stanley are now making a new range of planes which seem to be improving and gaining in popularity. Maybe you missed all that?
And they have been universally branded as utter rubbish (and made in Mexico apart from blades). There is even whispers of them being discontinued.
Mike.
Hi Mike
Yes the early premium Sweetheart Stanley planes have several issues with their design and quality. But fair does to Stanley, they took all the feedback and fixed the problems and now these planes are 90% as good as LN. Even Christopher Schwarz has said so in his blog.
( The logical question at this point is where this tool, at $180, is compared
to its competitors. I think it’s still a notch below the Lie-Nielsen
($245) and Veritas ($220) versions, though only for aesthetic reasons.
The brass knobs aren’t as finished. The casting is a little rougher –
stuff like that.
With a couple changes, Stanley has made a fully
functional premium tool. Now it will be interesting to see if the
company continues to improve the line. )
As per my review, I was really amazed on what a true "premium" plane I had. I Purchased a Stanley no 62 LA jack for 86.00 including postage and thought it would "ok", turned out to be stunner!
But like Clifton, Stanley do not seem to publicize this achievement at all. Leaving it to a few blogs and hard to find new reviews. When doing some research before buying I couldn't find hardly any up to date reviews, except Christopher Schwarz's and a couple of others. bit of a British Leyland syndrome, If you have a product with problems, then fix it and don't tell anyone, you still get your products laughed at.
So you have a choice, Stanley Premium, Clifton, LN, Veritas, with Stanley's being about 80% cheaper and 90% as good.