Folks,
With all the recent talk of the LV low-angle smoother, among other things, thought I'd toss this out. Kinda longish ..
I ordered some doo-dads, and gewgaws from LV a few weeks back. The doo- dads for me, the gewgaws for SWMBO. Among the doo-dads, the LV low angle block plane.
A week later, the box shows up; and in the distribution of the items, I notice the plane box is quite a bit bigger than I expected. Upon inspection, I see that LV shipped the LA smoother, not the block plane. I checked my order, and the invoice, they both show the block plane, and that's what I was charged for.
I called LV the next day; they apologized for the mixup, and said they'd ship the block plane out right away; then I could return the smoother, and they'd refund shipping. Fair enough, all the way around.
I confess; I did open the smoother box. A few days later:
SWMBO: "So can you use the plane they sent you by mistake?" Me: "Sure..." SWMBO: "Why don't you keep it then; makes no sense to send it back, only to just reorder it later" Me; "Ok, but I'll wait till the plane I actually ordered shows up, just to make sure that's really what I wanted" ...
The block plane showed up; I've actually used it; it's a really nice tool.
I called LV, and they were quite happy that I wanted to keep the smoother.
LV: "We should start sending out more items by mistake!" Me: "Yeah, you can call it your 'Planes on approval' program". LV: ...
I haven't had a chance to use the smoother yet, but boy is it nicely made. I'd concur that for someone just getting into neandering, these are really nice tools. I'm really impressed with the workmanship, and design of these two planes.
Regards,
JT (not affiliated with LV, other than as a very satisfied customer)