low angle smoother

[Jacob]

Niall, as mentioned earlier, better construction and materials (such as ductile iron) made the re-introduction possible. The early Stanley #62 (I have one) were fragile and the mouths would chip owing to the thin grey iron construction. These early planes were only intended for planing end grain, such as chopping blocks.

That's probably why they didn't catch on - end grain planes easily with a sharp enough typical jack plane and in any case chopping blocks are generally straight grained (cheaper, easier to make, work well).