David, to clarify a few points ...
The forum that spent a lot of time discussing the LN-WoodRiver issue was Knots, which was on Fine Woodworking. Off the top of my head, this was around 2007. FWW magazine ran a blog article in which measurements were taken of the WR, LN and a Stanley Bedrock, and this demonstrated that the WR was made from LN castings. It was a hugely controversial topic at the time on a couple of forums.
Regards from Perth
Derek
There was also some relatively lively discussion on sawmillcreek (well, as lively as it can be there - the lack of anyone from WC posting kept it tame compared to woodnet), and the discussions on woodnet were toxic and high energy. There may have been magazine-related commentary on knots, but I didn't post there. Several of the other boutique makers were still posting on woodnet, and they were friends of TLN - and highly biased regarding the whole situation. I was striped by several of them, and several times. I didn't like seeing planes that looked like LN planes, but also recognized that WC had a legitimate point in that they had invested in sticking with LN planes, which were quite popular, and shortly thereafter were left with nothing as far as legitimate planes, and given that the discussions of (speculating here) supply demands (Woodcraft wanting a guarantee that LN wouldn't leave them with bare shelves) was probably going on for quite some time before that. Those would've been joint discussions with LN.
Woodnet is the same site where one of the WC franchise employees suggested that LN may have been well aware of taking planes to China as an option (but franchise employees would've had about zero credibility, so recognizing that anything could've gone any way in the past, it's a possibility, but how likely? Maybe not so much). The part where the planes showed up on QS tool would've been well after this whole thing was developing, and the supply issues were before. Yes on QS tool knocking off more than just the LN planes, there was a whole page of tools that included LN-like items, and combined with them were listings for things like the $4 type (for the set) blister pack chisels. I can't remember if they also had some of the LV items that got knocked off, or if that was someone else. The website disappeared shortly after the public debate started.
Given how much was at stake for both businesses, I'm not sure I'd trust eithers' account of the situation alone. LN is full of nice folks, but even nice folks tend to tell stories how they like to remember them.
Jeff had mentioned (publicly) on woodnet, IIRC, that WC was trying to find domestic options for making planes, but as you're probably aware, there isn't much made here of relatively low value, and most US industry would see a relatively precisely made device that wholesales for $250 as being low value. I wasn't surprised to see nothing ever come of that.
At the same time all of this was going on, woodcraft was doing some back door marketing by handing out goods. This is something relatively common, but it was poo pooed because it was woodcraft. The boutique makers who were on woodnet pretty much viewed this as conclusions are often viewed in academia - "we believe this, so it's written. If you don't crap on woodcraft, you will be berated".
it's fair for me to say that I like lie nielsen more than woodcraft, it's just an opinion. But I don't much appreciate being told by biased advocates that I should have black and white thinking that matches theirs.
