david weaver
Warren, don't get so offended. I advocated the bailey plane because it's cheap and available, and it's known there will be no feeding problems.

Double iron planes I have gotten (wooden, and probably bailey era) have sometimes not been made properly, and will not feed with the second iron set close. Apparently in 125+ years of use for some of them, this didn't bother anyone, because the second iron wasn't in a condition to actually do anything, and nobody ever finished the job the planemaker didn't finish.

It is not a big deal to me to remove some wood so that they feed fine, but a beginner may not get along so well with home-shop wooden plane modification.

I back the mouth off some on the bailey planes, I've never put them that tight to begin with, because a tight mouthed plane at 45 degrees isn't something I'm a huge fan of (i consider 4 thousandths a tight mouth for a smoother).

What i definitely will always build a mouth to suit on is single iron infill planes. They work very well with a tight mouth and no second iron, but there is a considerable cost of time and money to build them above and beyond what it takes to find bailey planes, and quite often someone will say they can't plane

Warren, from time to time, I did think you were trolling a little because you wouldn't provide any detail, but I believed what you were saying enough to get quick with the adjustment(and the pictures are indisputable - not that a plane MUST have a second iron, but that when they do have one it can be made to do the job it's intended for).

I can get a better finish from a bench plane by a little bit vs. my infill (one coat of anything and the difference goes away), but if I wasn't fascinated with the novelty right now and money is no object, the infill is a bit nicer to use and it will still leave the user able to smooth something without being too ridiculous about the shaving thickness or doing any of these other goofy things that I see people doing on "Test boards" (boasting about no tearout with a .0005" shaving, etc, which isn't very practical on a large panel that still has jointer (hand plane, not power) marks on it).