barryvabeach
Brian, I own a Clifton 6, and had a Clifton 4 briefly. I own a LN low angle jack, but none of their smoothing planes. Clifton makes a very substantial and nice plane, and sometimes, probably depending on the exchange rate, you can get one much cheaper than the LN equivalent. The handles are bubinga, but, on the ones I have used, the rear of the handle has a much sharper edge to it - it isn't sharp, but not as rounded as the handle on the LN jack - which is one of my favorite handles. I don't think you can go wrong with either. You might end up having to scrape the rear of the Clifton if you don't like the fit. The big advantage is with LN, if you decide you don't like it, the have a very high resale value.