You "done good"
Jim Stafford in GA
>I was advised by an old woodworker friend that if you could only buy one LN, go for the 60 1/2. I did and have never been sorry. That was before they had the "R" version. If it had been available, I would have gotten the "R".
Let me put it this way, I know of very few LN owners who do not have the 60 1/2 block plane among their other LNs.
It works pretty darn good right out of the box especially if you've never used a real sharp plane before. Like some of the other posts here, I use a variety of methods to sharpen. It would be handy and cheap for you to put a sheet of 600 grit paper on a $1.60 marble tile from HD to keep it sharp. And it really helps if you have a strop with some Chromium Oxide on it to top it off. I take it you live near a Woodcraft. They sell a stick of C/O for about 6 bux and it will be a lifetime supply unless you go into the sharpening business!
Try to find some leather to glue to a piece of plywood for the strop. I use the strop much more than the stones. WC's price for this piece of "leather on board" is enough to buy you a low end combi Japanese water stone with 800/4000 grit (which you'll eventually want). In fact, they sell a leather apron for $30 that is so long that I got a good strip about 3" wide across the bottom which made me 2 strops (and the apron is still plenty long)!
As to slippery slope, I now own 4 LN pieces. The 60.5, the scrub (40), the low angle smoother (62), and the DT saw (rip tooth).
I'd own the #4 bedrock if I didn't already have so many Baileys in that range. But as Curly said in City Slickers "Day ain't over yet!"
Ahhhh, the smell of the hand plane, the feel of the wood!
