My newest toy is a "Hong Kong Style" plane (as named by Lee Valley,
though I got mine that looks identical on eBay). I didn't know how
much to expect, as it was <$20 shipped, but I had seen a review
somewhere online (sorry I don't remember where) that mentioned this
plane did very well on figured wood. The one I got is the same size
as the larger of the 2 LV versions, item #07P12.20.
(For reference, the planes I use most often are a Knight razee jack, a
low-angle LN block, and a LV med shoulder plane, and I also own an old
#4 w/ Veritas blade, a Knight pocket plane, and an old Craftsman block
plane.)
So after this little plane arrived, I looked it over - the body of the
plane was nicely polished, and the blade looked great, but the through-
handle and wedge were a little rough, though functional. The sole had
been finish sanded with something fairly coarse, as there were visible
scratches on the wood and on the brass wear plate. So I lapped a
little on some 400, then 600 grit sandpaper, and that smoothed it out
pretty nicely. That's all I did before trying it out. The blade fit
nicely in the body - tiny mouth opening (haven't measured with a
feeler, but the opening would be about as small as I can get it on my
LN LABP).
I found the blade and wedge somewhat difficult to adjust at first -
I'm used to the much larger blade and wedge on my Knight jack plane.
Also, the small size and mass of this new plane made it more difficult
to adjust with my normal plastic-head plane hammer. There just wasn't
much surface area to tap on, or much mass to absorb the tap.
Anyway, once I got the blade adjusted, I tried it on some fairly
normal white oak and some very curly maple. The different shape of
the plane, and the pull style, meant it took a few minutes before I
could plane without chatter - just needed to figure out where to apply
pressure at the beginning and end of the pull stroke to plane evenly,
and how to hold the plane in one hand, with my fingers around the
through-handle. As I started to figure that out, though, it planed
beautifully! Even the curly maple presented no problems, and NO
TEAROUT. Wow! And that's without even honing the blade (I was
impatient...). I expect I'll keep this plane within easy reach for
smoothing small spots of weird grain, and possibly for light
chamfering.
Overall, I'm very impressed with this little plane. I'm not going to
give up any of my existing "primary" planes, but my satisfaction per
dollar spent is probably higher than any of my other planes. Highly
recommended for figured woods, when you want to take off a little more
than you would with a scraper.
Just my thoughts, and I'm not affiliated with anyone mentioned above,
Andy