I totally agree with the reviewer who said that if you are looking at this, it probably means you're not looking to drop $400+ for a jointer plane. After using this one a few times now, i'm not sure how much better the higher ends ones can really be. I guess, maybe, a nicer blade.

I did take some time to sharpen the blade before using it. The sole is totally flat. I mainly got it to flatten out the top of my workbench. The top was made of laminated 2x4s. It was really wavy. So wavy, I was considering cutting it into smaller strips and taking it to a jointer. Instead, I gave this plane a try. It took two ~10 minute sessions to get the top totally flat. I've since used it to join some rough sawn pecan boards. The results were fantastic.

Updating with a picture of shavings after flattening a cherry board. I do hone it before every use, but I don't use it that often. I'm still really pleased with the result to value ratio.

Let's be blunt for a moment. You even looking at this tool implies you're not capable or willing to drop 400$ on a "high quality" number 7 plane.

I bought this for straight joinery, nothing more.

Initial Impressions ->

Out of the box, the plane is covered in some oil substance more akin to cosmoline than I have ever seen on another tool. Good stuff for corrosion prevention, terrible stuff to get off. Soap and water typically works on most "oil coatings" I find, but this just laughed it off. Stepped up to windex, which still did nothing, so then I had to use lacquer thinner which finally did the trick. That not-withstanding, I did a full inspection of the tool, and heres what I found

- rosewood handles are finished poorly. That said, we're woodworkers right? easy fix. The shape is pleasing and large, and the wood was nice, so this wasn't entirely unexpected honestly.
- Using a 4" starrett engineers square, I checked for flatness. No visible light through any point of the sole. It is dead flat, as required.
- Using a 36" starrett machinist scale, I checked for cupping. Again, no visible light. Dead flat.
- Frog is finished poorly. The top looks ok, but the bottom looked awful. Not a deal breaker though.
- The black coating is thick... almost too thick. Long lasting protection I suppose?
- The weight is substantial (good for this kind of plane, mind you)

Lets talk about the blade for a moment. I am not a huge fan of this blade. Came out of factory with a very shallow angle, I did not use a protractor (sorry!), but when I set it for 30 degrees for what I was hoping a double angle, boy was I surprised when it was more shallow than 30. Appeared to be about 40 degrees! unacceptable! I spent a good hour rehoning the edge to 27 degree secondary with a 25 degree primary angle. Shavings were clean and crisp. I am unsure how long this blade will be "good" for, as the steel seemed to scratch easily (bad sign for edge retention).

I will udpate after some prolonged usage. Even WITH a replacement blade added into the cost (HOCK makes great blades for 20-40$), this appears to be a well made, solid piece for the money.

UPDATE ->

Dialed in the blade, got it set up perfectly. Went to some 1x4 pine to test the blade, and after a few strokes, the blade pulled a VERY large burr, which is unacceptable. This blade was not hardened at all, or was accidentally annealed during the tempering process. Useless blade, ordering a wood river V3 T-10 replacement blade.

Soba in India makes very decent planes, marketed under various names in the U.S.A. including Soba, Grizzly, Taytools, Faithful, Etc. with minor differences depending on what specs the distributors ask for. With a little work (no more than you would have to do to a vintage Stanley) they will perform flawlessly. I buy them and prepare them for use in a community workshop project.

The pic shows a couple of Lie-Nielsen planes and a Veritas plane on the right. The group of four planes on the left cost considerably less than the three planes on the right.

Grizzly #7 Jointer, Grizzly #5 Jack, Grizzly #4 Smooth, Taytools #4 Smooth planes on the left, for comparison. I apologize for the blurry pic... cheap camera. These are all recent purchases, I have a bunch more. Some I have put Hock irons/chipbreakers in them. I do that as I have the funds, the stock ones work well enough. I always save those for teaching folks how to sharpen plane irons.

These planes are great budget planes that do the job, and do it well. If you can't do good work with them, buying a $425 Lie-Nielsen or a $485 Clifton jointer isn't going to help you one bit. They will look a lot prettier sitting on a shelf, but they won't improve your work enough for anyone to notice.

The plane is much better than I expected for the price. The body casting is acceptable, if rough. The sole is of acceptable flatness. Even the cutting iron arrived better-ground than I expected; just honing required. Of course, I had to give the entire assembly a good bath to get the packing grease off, since everything made over there comes coated in a layer of that thick grimy grease. The main flaw was the cap iron. That cap iron required a complete overhaul to even be serviceable, but once I reworked it, the plane did very well. Not a bad value for the price, but if you buy it be prepared to work on it before you use it!

Caveat: I don't own any fancy bench planes for comparison. I have a #4 and #5 made by Calliastro, which I also purchased on amazon for about $45 and $55 each. This plane seems to be of higher quality than both of those. I have used this plane on hard maple, walnut, ash, and red oak.

The only setup I needed to do was to polish the contact point of the chip breaker with diamond stones so that it would make more even contact with the iron. This took about 10 minutes... and of course sharpen the iron. I also use cheap regular white candle wax to rub a little on the sole when planing for lubrication which makes a surprising difference in the force needed to plane.

The iron was easy to sharpen. In my opinion you should disregard any negative feedback regarding the iron not being sharp out of the box. Even if it were sharp enough to use immediately, you absolutely must learn how to sharpen plane irons (as well as all edge tools) if you're going to be using them for more than a short period of time. All tools will dull with use, and depending on how sharp you like them you will need to sharpen daily or even more. There are many youtube videos on sharpening and it's pretty easy to learn. Learning to sharpen is probably the single piece of knowledge that has helped me the most with woodworking. this plane iron is easy to sharpen and seems to hold an edge well.

This thing was covered in oil as someone else described. I wiped it off using a cloth, without any solvents.
The sole is flat. It is serrated, meaning there are grooves running the length of the sole except fom the area near the mouth. This is to decrease friction between the wood and the sole. I only mention this because I wasn't expecting it.

It comes with one iron, whereas the other two planes I bought came with two. A #7 iron is significantly larger, so if you want to buy an extra, make sure you buy the correct size.

I have a jointer fence for my router table that works well, but since I bought this plane I find myself jointing the edges of boards by hand because having a #7 makes it really easy, and I just don't feel like pulling out a machine and dealing with the noise and dust.
Using this tool is fun and I wish I bought it a long time ago. I think it's a great value for the price.