david weaver
..i found a second one in my drawer. I'm going to send it to you when I'm done. I think it's a great budget iron for a shaving lifter, but the test could still prove me wrong. It's also not particularly hard to sharpen (I have been using oilstones on it, just as I would with V11 or A2 - but I can sharpen anything on oilstones at this point, not to maximum achieved level, but good enough to use - just as the 3V showed up).

When i found a gray version the other day on aliexpress, I ordered two and then ordered two more green ones. The princely sum total for the order with shipping was something like $42 for the four irons.

I have been using the green one for a little bit. I don't do as much furniture building as you do, but if I am planing a surface (like the top of a spruce telecaster) and a mark occurs, I decide first if it's worth threatening the surface (you're right, hangar rash is the biggest surface threat that a lot of us face. When I do build furniture-like things, I often wonder how nobody ever talks about it and assume that I am just ham handed). If the object being planed is a shelf, the answer is usually no unless the mark is significant. Damage occurs before assembly for me usually - handling the parts and having one fall over or some such thing. If that's the case, I'll re-plane the area.

If assembly is done, I will try to scrape slowly with a dull scraper with the grain and burnish the area. if there is minor variation, I'll live with it. I also apply shellac and wax or shellac and crosslinked acrylic spray finish to just about everything I make, so my standard isn't like oil rubbed sheer finish.