Thread: Woodriver vs Luban handplanes

I watched the video, I thought Rob was impartial, seeing he is a wood River Man. I am very happy with my Luban No4, bought in store from McJings in Sydney and have no regrets.As far as blade metallurgy, all i know is HSS takes longer to sharpen ,and PMV 11 holds an edge longer and any other steel I have used.I Have taken my No4 stanley made in Canada, sweetheart iron as far as i can , it is still a very good plane but the Luban is in another league, thanks Ross

There are many bench planes and other hand tools that for the prices will function good, better, best and excellent.
I'm from the USA and have purchased from 4 well known brands. I can easily get customer support and parts for them.
That is what influences my purchasing decisions more than anything else.
Product design and metals used for construction of the tool and cutters also influence my purchasing decisions.
I do my best to buy once cry once when I can afford do so. I have been skipping fast food and other bad habits and use the money for hand tools.

This has all been extensively discussed in this thread - Luban planes
Please don't get it all started up again here.

Originally Posted by aldav

This has all been extensively discussed in this thread - Luban planes
Please don't get it all started up again here.

hah! Probably castings made in the same place due to issues with copying LN (that aren't going to be defended outside of the US) - as in, if you have patterns to cast and a machining setup, you can just make different castings for different markets to avoid potential legal issues.

The original WR planes appear to have been made by a group called quangsheng tool. When QS made a bronze/brass capped block plane, it showed up in the UK quickly, but WR ended up going to a stanley 18 (knuckle) type plane instead. The 60 1/2 and 9 1/2 are better tools, but I'm guessing they wanted to avoid more conflict with LN and perhaps give the perception that they were differentiating themselves.

The LN/WC feud is long over here, though. WC redesigned one of the versions to get away from the LN-like elements (the machining inside the frog, etc) and that was the end of that.

Thomas Lie Nielsen had a good relationship with some of the actual store owners, though, so at the time, some of the WC stores retained the right to sell LN tools (they still might). Only a couple out of the entire system, though.

The shoulder plane I recently purchased has an attractive design. Best of all it works fine for my needs.
Live life to the fullest without going bankrupt.