LN's desperate attempt to get more of my $$$

Re: LN's desperate attempt to get more of my $$$

david weaver

While I'm sitting here literally planing 6 miles or so, mostly with a bronze 4. All I can say is, it'll hit like babe ruth's bat when you use it....

...and paraffin wax every 20 strokes. You'll enjoy the break, and if you don't take it, the plane will be a brake. And you'll break.

If they made brake pads out of the same bronze. I might consider buying some, but perhaps the stopping power only works on wood.

Re: LN's desperate attempt to get more of my $$$

Kent B

I've got the bronze 3, the iron 4-1/2, and the list goes on and on.....

Back in the day I would have bit. Not anymore, but I can still imagine.

Maybe start selling off stuff?

It's not necessary, it's just cool.

Re: LN's desperate attempt to get more of my $$$

Joe shelton

AHH, but do you have it in York pitch, too?

Re: LN's desperate attempt to get more of my $$$

David Weaver

Certainly your wife has some nice things that you could sell??

I've got it!

John in NM

Give me your iron 4 1/2, then you have a gap to fill

Re: LN's desperate attempt to get more of my $$$

William Duffield

What do you need York pitch for? It's just hard to push all the time, not only when you really need it. Leonard Bailey never made a York pitch bench plane, at least not one that made it to market. Just figure out how to read your wood and set your chip breaker appropriately.

Re: LN's desperate attempt to get more of my $$$

Joe shelton

AHH! So that's what York pitch means...

LN #4 1/2 in bronze

Derek Cohen (in Perth, Australia)

Kent, it was my understanding that the #4 1/2 in bronze was to be a limited edition plane. Produced in 2006, I believe only 500 were made, and the moulds were to be destroyed. However, several surfaced in 2017, sold by LN. The current versions are likely more of the 2017 batch. The Anniversary planes are distinguished by distinctive engraved lever caps and were signed by Thomas Lie-Nielsen. They come with a certificate of authenticity.

I purchased one. It came with a 50 degree frog. Unfortunately - this was 2006, and long before I became familiar with using the chipbreaker - the cutting angle was too low to control tearout on my local woods, and so I later purchased a 55 degree frog. The combination of a heavy plane and a 55 degree frog was just too heavy and horrible to use, and the #4 1/2 wound up on my shelf.

A few years went by and I decided that a bronze LN #3 would be the go. Smaller plane, and it would make nice change from the BU planes I was using. I went straight to a 55 degree frog. It, too, was too tiring to use, and it simply did not control tearout. This plane, too, was put away. The high angled blades on Veritas BU planes ruled.

A few more years went by, and it was 2012. We began discussing the chipbreaker. The #3 came off the shelf and I began to learn to set it up, initially with the high angle frog, but then with a common angle (45 degrees) frog. As I became more proficient setting the chipbreaker, so the #3 was used more frequently. It is a sweet plane. Today it is used with a PM-V11 blade.

With this success, the #4 1/2 was given a common angle frog as well. Well, talk about transformed! Still a heavy plane, and more so than I prefer these days, it is a wonderful user on wide book-matched panels, especially when planing against the grain where the panels join. If you like a heavy smoother, this #4 1/2 is an excellent plane.

Regards from Perth

Derek

Re: LN #4 1/2 in bronze

david weaver

Am I correct that the originals were about $750 US or something like that? I think there may have been some white bronze planes in the past, too, or were these that? Those being $900 or something.

I'm never the buyer of those kinds of things and can't remember them, but it's interesting that they still had quantity later - presumably it's better to just pull stock than it is to lower the price on something "limited edition").

A 4 1/2 is a nice plane to use on wood that's already flat (e.g., if I actually had a good power planer that left a mostly good quality surface) and take overlapping smoothing shavings from left to right. Hopefully it's not over 6 pounds or so - at some point, planes become heavy enough that you can't feel tearout or surface issues occurring when you can feel them in another plane.

Cadillac over a turtle theory. If you run over a box turtle on a bicycle, you'll be keenly aware of it. If you do it with a cadillac, you'll perhaps say "what was that noise?", or maybe not even that.

Re: LN #4 1/2 in bronze

Derek Cohen (in Perth, Australia)

David, as I recall, the Anniversary #4 1/2 was $600.

There was an Anniversary #5 Junior (or something very similar) at one time. In white bronze. There is also a white bronze #102 available at this time.

When I purchased the #4 1/2, it was at a time when we looked at the Stanley #4 1/2 as a highly desired smoother. As Patrick Leach hypothesized, it was Stanley's competitor to the English infill planes. I do have a Type 11 #4 1/2, used with a PM-V11 blade, and it is really a wonderful plane. At the time the LN bronze version came out, it was seen to be the ultimate Bailey.

Regards from Perth

Derek

Re: LN #4 1/2 in bronze

david weaver

I well remember the 4 1/2 craze. I had an LN and several stanleys at one point. Tried record, Millers falls, too. Sold the last one that I had two weeks ago (a bedrock with a bite out of it).

The nice thing about their popularity is that I broke even over the entire group after netting out fees.

Patrick is right about the popularity of the 4 1/2 in the UK (whether or not he speculates the right reason, I don't know - but it may have been due to advertising). When the global shipping program opened up on ebay, I was able to get two older crisp record 4 1/2s for $30 plus $25 shipping to the US. When I tired of them, they paid the fees on the sales of the others.

Pricing of planes in different places is a strange thing. Record 8s of the older type are, I guess, not that common. I had to pay $240 to separate the English from one of their nice vintage Record 8s, and about the same to pry a Sorby 7 from English bidders.

(4 1/2s from stanley's english works and the record types are still very inexpensive. I also wanted to try the laminated irons in the record planes, as their ad copy was convincing about finer grain and much longer wearing. The ones I have actually don't wear as well as the better stanley irons, so that was a waste. But they look neat and have a good story).

Re: LN #4 1/2 in bronze

Kent B

On their web site at $750. Always wanted one simply because. I think it is a piece of art, actually.

I remember some years ago on a different site some guy had an unused pair, consecutively numbered, from the original release, thought he owned the Holy Grail and priced them accordingly. Dunno whatever happened there, but I wasn't that crazy.

Never got a 4 because I have a 3 [1-3/4"] , and the 4 [2"] seemed too close in width to make sense to me, so got a 4-1/2C [2-3/8"] at a very good price.

Plus I have a 62 which takes care of the 2" width, longer sole, shooting board, 2d base, left field - all 'round utility player.

But still............. running through stuff to see what I could sell off.

- 4-1/2C

- 2 sets unused Veritas drawbore pins

- Lightly used Hock narrow marking iron

- Unused large Blue Spruce marking knife

- Veritas smoothing plane really hasn't earned its keep - lightly used. Cards & Stanley #80 can haul that freight

- Keep the even fraction or odd fraction Matsumuras and sell the others. Maybe 4 of those

- 3 LN Mortise chisels

- Getting pretty close, IMO

Like Jimmy Johnson trading for Herschel Walker ...............

Nah.........

Re: LN #4 1/2 in bronze

david weaver

tracked it down since you said it's on the website.

6.6 pounds (!!!!!)

It's a very pretty plane. For the price, it deserved a tropical wood, though. It may be from their point of view going forward that they won't care for putting tropical woods on handles, even on a limited basis, due to potential problems with CITES.

But, gosh, that plane deserves the effort to find an employee not yet sensitized to cocobolo.

First LN I had was a 6 with cocobolo. It was a $25, and they really polished the handles back then. I don't have any reason to regret selling it, but I sort of do, just to look at those fantastic wooden parts.