David Weaver
...I wouldn't use an infill, either. Even in an even-up situation.

(separate and aside, your comment about cooperation between shops lends credence to the mennonite store owner suggesting that one guy was using a dovetail machine and making drawers or drawer boxes for some of his makers - maybe I shouldn't have been surprised by that).

At any rate, it reminds me of don felder (eagles guitarist), who had a favorite guitar that he refused to take on tour for a long time because he felt too much exposure and sooner or later it would get stolen. He was never satisfied with gibson's (judging by the way he manages to talk about how much more he likes his older guitar than their attempts at outfitting him with copies of the guitar made in their modern factory - in a promotional video for a music store to sell that modern copy, no less) attempts to make an equivalent guitar for him and now that he's older, he finally takes it out and leaves the copies in their cases.

I wouldn't be able to use my favorite infill plane (a norris 13) daily because it would get dropped sooner or later. I like it as much as a stanley and it's about as productive, but I'm sure I paid somewhere around $300 for it and once an infill plane's original wood is broken, that can never be changed. that doesn't make a lot of sense, but my relatives exhibit that behavior (and we have some amish bloodline from lancaster co - Habecker) - when you have something really nice, don't use it. Set it aside, stare at it, get something else to use.