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).

 

[RobNichols]

I'm very much enjoying the input from woodworkers who are far more experienced than me. However, one trivial comment to add:

Low angle planes really made me appreciate how great the lateral adjuster works in the Bailey design.

 

[Jacob]

I'm very much enjoying the input from woodworkers who are far more experienced than me. However, one trivial comment to add:

Low angle planes really made me appreciate how great the lateral adjuster works in the Bailey design.

Exactly. And vice versa, they made me realise how inadequate the Norris adjusters are on any plane. They look clever, neat, simple, but just don't work as well as the brilliant Bailey design.
The revival of back-catalogue retro designs could be seen as a speculative venture, but then they all were at some point.

 

[schnapps95]

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).

Using a butchers chopping block you would be chopping into the end grain of beech so it would'nt really matter about it being straight grained there is a reason why they use beech but i cannot remember it. The local butcher would bring his block to our workshop to have it made flat again he then brought a plastic one which we put through the thicknesser just before we were going to change the blades because it would have knackered the blades in the end he threw out the plastic and returned to use'ing beech