I'm not excited about it. It's kind of like buying a kit to build your own plane. Then finding it too light to treat it like you do your old one. Another reviewer said it makes a good second choice plane. I agree. I have a few #5 Stanleys and a Craftsman of the same size. My favorite is an old Stanley #5 with a broken tote (rear handle). It elegantly glides through the cut, while the 12-905 has to be forced. Lapping, sharpening, waxing, all of this does nothing to make up for lack of mass, slightly flexible plastic handles and lightweight engineering that leaves you with a plane that chatters across your work and is hard to control. It wants to follow the grain and run off on it's own direction. That makes me want to run it at a skew to the direction of travel. And that makes it less efficient to operate.

It does look nice sitting on the shelf though. It would be the perfect plane to learn to tune one to death. Or for the person who doesn't really need a handplane, but would like to have one to do a little fitting or just have one to look cool.
I'm not excited about it. It's kind of like buying a kit to build your own plane. Then finding it too light to treat it like you do your old one. Another reviewer said it makes a good second choice plane. I agree. I have a few #5 Stanleys and a Craftsman of the same size. My favorite is an old Stanley #5 with a broken tote (rear handle). It elegantly glides through the cut, while the 12-905 has to be forced. Lapping, sharpening, waxing, all of this does nothing to make up for lack of mass, slightly flexible plastic handles and lightweight engineering that leaves you with a plane that chatters across your work and is hard to control. It wants to follow the grain and run off on it's own direction. That makes me want to run it at a skew to the direction of travel. And that makes it less efficient to operate. It does look nice sitting on the shelf though. It would be the perfect plane to learn to tune one to death. Or for the person who doesn't really need a handplane, but would like to have one to do a little fitting or just have one to look cool.