Brian is right on this one. I have a number of Lie-Nielsen planes. They are great. However, they cost half again as much as the comparable Veritas for at most a tiny increment in quality. I doubt you or I could feel the difference. I bought the Lie-Nielsens when I had a discount and have NO regrets. If I were buying today at normal consumer prices, I'd buy the Lee Valley.

I must say though, I've used really well tuned Record and recent Stanley planes against my Lie-Nielsen and Clifton planes (all well tuned and sharpened)and there is a world of difference. The better tools just worked better. That having been said, this was on hard woods. I doubt that the difference would be particularly noticable on the soft woods that most strip built boats are made from.

There is nothing wrong with buying high line tools, even if you are only going to use them to make boats. Realize that you are doing it because they are way cool, not because they are required. That realization made it a lot easier for me to shell out all that money. I grin every time I look in my tool cabinet and grin even more when I feel a good tool bite into wood.

Good luck and happy building.

Matthew

: Those were Lie-Nielsen bronze bodied planes and spokeshaves. Good stuff, but
: a bit pricey. For equally good stuff (but not bronze) at lower prices, go
: to www.leevalley.com and check out their Veritas line of planes,
: spokeshaves and other tools. I own one L-N plane, but if I had it to do
: over again, I'd buy Veritas. I have several of their tools and they're
: excellent.