David Weaver
.going through the scenario I mentioned earlier - someone who has several million in their 401k and just wants to start with planing stuff may not care about a couple of hundred dollars for a wooden plane.

i like a try plane around 7 1/2 or 8 pounds and a jack plane around ....(have to measure it...the last 17" jack plane that I made is the one that I use - 4 lbs 14 oz.) I am fatter than you, though ( a little over 200 pounds).

When thought about building planes, I bought about 20 wooden planes, maybe more than that.

The variance in weight was surprising. I found quickly that I didn't like most wooden jointer planes (too heavy - one early lamb plane from new england was well over 10 pounds) and if they weren't heavy, they were often rough to use. I didn't get along with try planes if they were under about 7 pounds (too much communication) and like the jacks that are slightly longer (like a pattern that matheison made a lot of)

Here's the weights of the planes that I actually use (the infills, I use on occasion, but they're not lowest effort and I don't have any of the smaller lighter ones left because of the stanley below).
* later stanley 4 - normal thickness iron - 3 lbs 10 oz
* greaves try plane, 22 inches - 2.5 wide - 7 lbs 14 oz
* my jack as mentioned above - 4 lbs 14, it's 2 1/8th width, 17" long - my favorite pattern of all that I've tried

I have two try planes left of my own make (you've mentioned they're long enough to be referred to as long planes - both just under 8 pounds, 24" long. I would use either or the greaves - just have 3)

I haven't yet found a coffin plane that I care for, so I don't use them. Too light for quick work and I think most professional users would replace them with a stanley plane if they work more than agreeable softwoods. it's misleading to say "yet". I don't like them, it's not going to change.

There's on exception to that, I have a house-made cocobolo smoothing coffin plane that's 2 1/4" for the iron and it's 4 pounds 4 oz. It is excellent for pre-final work or early work on sticking. I made it, didn't like it at first (the iron isn't really good enough for smoothing work, but it's fine for heavier work), and found a use for it later. It's dandy to set where most people would set a try plane (e.g., 5-6 thousandths on cherry) to run the ripples off of machine planed wood, too.

There is no need for all of these planes, but I have them, so I use them. I've made and refinished several beech coffin smoothers from around 1 3/4 to 2 1/4, they just don't quite have enough density to make up for their small size. I made another in purpleheart just under 2" and inentionally mortised the mouth so that it could get an insert (to have a negative wear), and it's better than a traditional design with a single wear and heavy enough to feel and work like a stanley 4, but there's no incentive for me to use it over a stanley 4 as it's only as good. I don't like the aesthetic of exotic smoothers, either - that's a personal bias, but making those planes confirmed what it is I don't like about beech smoothers.

I can refit just about any old plane in less than an hour, iron and all - but there's no incentive to do it. I have offered once in a while when someone says they want a turn key wooden plane, but people see old wooden planes for $50 and I guess they'd rather buy a fully made wooden plane for $450 than potentially spend $100 getting a wooden plane and sending it to me and paying to have it mailed back. I suppose there's some suspicion that an old plane could be as good as a new one if the fitting is done properly ...whatever, it's not really my concern when people don't think my advice is credible. it becomes a waste of time feeling out who is actually looking to woodwork and who is just looking to buy a plane that they fancy based on pictures online.