I'll attest to wanting to own a Steve Knight wooden plane. I have his
coffin smoother (and will be getting his scrub for Christmas). I was
a little nervous about how it would perform (only read reviews -- but
they were all positive) and very nervous about setting it up, it
looked like voodoo magic.

BUT, once I got it (I couldn't believe how little -- and I mean LITTLE
-- of the blade was sticking out the bottom) it was so slick to use
and in one complete pass of some semi rough wood I had laying around
(birch I think) the wood felt like glass!! I mean, I didn't get that
smooth on my last project without going through 2 grits on my ROS (for
about 30 min) and then fine sanding with 320 (end grain so it wouldn't
take as much stain). Holy cow!! I was converted instantly.

Now, what about adjusting the iron? Well, again I was a bit nervous.
So I bought a Veritas sharpening setup and did some Scary sharp on the
iron and got set to put it all back together. I followed Steve's
instructions and I would say it was about 30 minutes before I was
planing thin enough shavings. Hmmm...not as fast as I wanted, but
after about 3 days of practicing I was able to get the plane put back
together and plane fluffy shavings in about 3 minutes Yeah, baby,
yeah! So, don't worry, piece of cake once you get the hang of it.

Have fun,
Mike

Andy Dingley wrote in message . ..

[snip]

Then when you need a smoother, look at one of Steve Knight's wooden
planes. These are another excellent plane that works really well (if
you truly need a good bench smoother - don't keep them in the toolbag
for scraping paint). Woodies have a bad reputation for being awkward
to adjust, and Steve's are no different. However he also delivers them
sharp and ready-tuned, so you'll have at least one honing's worth of
experience with them running properly before you have to re-set them
yourself. And with Steve's irons, that's a long time. To re-set a
wooden plane, you need a small hammer (light taps are the trick) and
practice. FWW also did a useful article on Japanese wooden planes a
while back, which has some relevance.

[snip]