Rowed grain is perhaps consistantly difficult. You either A) know what you are getting into; or B) can take a different approach. Every knot has reversing grain around it that will test you as much as the worst reversing grain. Every burl, the same. It is the grain not the speecies. Of course some species have consistantly nasty grain - see it's circular!
I think any time one pits a plane against an ultimate result it's a contest type mentality. Like choosing your family car because it did well at the Indy 500.
It's not a burnish if it cuts. It's a burnish if you press down hard with a smooth object.
If you are planing your finished surfaces. Every one of them, moldings, raised panels, edges etc... to final with no paper, scrapers or finish to even out the results, then your stuff either looks very uneven, or you are really good. I frankly have never seen that done.
I have taken a cut or 4/10000" off dry pine, so that at a low angle one could clearly read the overhead lighbulb in the surface. But it is very difficult to get that surface over the whole piece, unless the pieces are all square as with shoji. Shoji wood is very highly culled. It is way better than aircraft grade, like one piece in 1000 for aircraft grade.
What diffs the process that can be used on a piece isn't just the tool or the craftsman, but mostly the grade off wood. The reason we moved on to planes and such from open knives is the decline in the average quality of wood. So often the claims for great performance are just an unwillingness to work in the wood of the day (and who can be blaimed for that if one can pull it off). There is so much free wood, one might as well be choosy. It's interesting that many modern craftsmen are moving backwards, I have often wondered what the big deal with sub-blades is. Well part of the reason is that while the average wood is worse, you can choose to work in only the best wood where a SB isn't even necesary. Like they say Tores never built a guitar with a soundboard as good as the factory rejects of today.
