you may already have eyes trained for what looks right, but quartered wood for the wedge if you can manage (beech is much easier to find there than it is here. The *trees* aren't that hard to find here if you drive a little, but there's no organized market for them where I am).
I made a cocobolo 2 1/4" smoother a long time ago now (the second plane I made - not the prettiest, but it's functional). It was difficult to find a use for it as the iron is the oddball from i.sorby that's a bit soft. Uncommon enough that I put the plane aside (cocobolo has some unusual habits for a year or two in a plane, too).
Long story short, I found that a bigger coffin smoother is pretty nice going if set for a heavier shaving. Slightly thicker shaving and the iron is completely indifferent about being a click or two soft (But I've since figured out a way around even that - to get soft irons to plane really hard wood without getting their bleeding edge knocked about).
(sizing sticking to make mouldings here).
(and bare - never really surface finished the outside after trying the iron early on).
Long story short, if an immediate use doesn't present itself if it's a bit of a bull smoothing, hold on to it.
I do have a thickness planer, but barely use it. I recall setting this thing with the cap positioned to straighten about a five thousandth shaving and the ripples from the planer are gone in one set of overlapping passes. One light pass with stanley after that and the surface is bright and it's done.
If I were in the UK, I probably wouldn't have been able to turn down those planes at that price, just to knock together some planes quickly (no shortage of 2 1/2 inch double irons here - could be 20 of them floating around in drawers. )
