Patrick Chase
At the time L-N started up the Western hand tool industry and market were basically at their nadir. You could be competitive then with far lower manufacturing standards than are needed today.

CNC wasn't as widely available or used then as now, and people certainly weren't doing things like using semiconductor-wafer-oriented lapping machines to flatten irons and plane soles. L-N's manufacturing processes back then wouldn't have been all that different from Stanley's in its heyday, so it's no surprise that their older planes would require similar fettling work.