Blimey peeps - there's some serious plane porn going on in this thread ! :shock:
Paul - welcome to the forum, and don't be put off is yours doesn't match up to the ones shown in the porn!
I started out with a mid-1980s Record low-angle block plane. Never really got on with it - sometimes it cut, sometimes it wouldn't, and in my supreme state of woodworking ignorance at the time, I didn't work out why. I still have the thing, and one of these days I must have another go at making a reasonable plane out of it.
A couple of years later. a chance purchase in a Chester antique shop of a vintage Preston bullnose shoulder plane gave me a plane that fitted my hand beautifully and cut like a dream, so it became my 'block plane'. Using a shoulder plane (albeit a short one) like this is all wrong, of course, but it just works for me.
Scroll on about a decade, and I invested in a Lie-Nielsen low-angle cast iron bodied block plane. It's a superb plane, and for two-handed use, works like a dream. However, I find it's a bit too heavy for comfortable single-handed use, so I still tend to reach for the old Preston.
