I love the feeling of a sharp plane slicing through wood. Stanley has been making planes for a long time and they really know what they are doing.  You might veiw this as a plane kit. When you get it you will have some work to do on it. First you will probably need to lap the sole,and the back of the iron. This will remove the grinding marks from the factory. Then you will need to hone the bevel on the iron. Depending on the wood you are planing the angle might be right. Since this is a low angle plane 25 degrees is good for hard woods. You could even go as low as 15 degrees for soft woods. If you spend a little time tuning this somewhat rough tool up you will be rewarded by that feeling of slicing through the wood like it was butter. I prefer my Lie Nielson block planes over these. They are works of art and they perform like they are. But they cost several times more than these perfectly adequate stanleys.