LV BU Smoother rocks!
Jim in VA
>I've had the LV BU Smoother for a little while now, but I must admit that until today I had somewhat mixed feelings about the plane. I just was not sure I liked the upright tote. However, I had a lot of secondary drawer stock to finish plane and I decided to give the BU smoother a workout. I some time honing the iron on my Norton waterstones and then I went at it.
The knob to advance/retract the iron is very precise with little backlash. As a result, it was easy to obtain lacey, full width shavings that left the wood surface gleaming. Now, I realize that poplar is the most challenging to plane. But some of this stuff is soft and will fuzz or tear if the iron is not really sharp. As the photos show, however, this was not a problem with the BU smoother. I could plane in either direction with identical results.
I *really* like this plane (even the tote). It's a keeper. Thank you Rob Lee and crew! (I think I might just have to spring for the jointer now!)
Photos of the shavings are below. Thickness is well below 0.0005" (Not a typo on the number of zeros.)
