David Weaver
..that I've seen is when you're doing something like making an infill plane.....so, I guess that means..

....this is starting to sound like majoring in integrative arts.

"job opportunities for integrative arts graduates are teaching at the college level, and......"

OK!! (I have actually seen an integrative arts graduate teaching roomba....

....or zoomba, or goomba)

If someone had a whole lot of fitting work to do with macassar ebony or wanted to plane really thin pieces of rosewood in a jig of some sort and you couldn't give a plane the little bump start (especially if the quality of wood wasn't that great), heavy planes are good at those things.

If you manage to find awful ash or cherry that's just running out into the face left and right, heavy planes are good at that. Cutting half blinds in it that don't fall apart will cure using it more than once, though.

But, it's a lot like the arguments that used to exist on woodnet and SMC - that if you don't get a plane capable of those things, then you'll be high and dry and need to get it later.

i've planed ebony, cocobolo rosewood, etc, from rough. I wonder how many other people have actually done that for more than curiosity. I certainly haven't planed a cases-worth of the stuff, either. Just plane bodies and guitar neck blanks. All of it planes nicely and saws reasonably well, but at greatly reduced speed of progress (thinner shavings).