Bought one of these ~ 3 yrs ago when I was just starting out with hand planes. About 30 wooden and iron planes later, I really like this one. It definitely requires tuning up properly, but once it's brought into shape it works very well. As a rookie this plane frustrated me, but as I learned what was important about tuning them, this plane performed better and better. The stock blade works just fine when properly sharpened, and the lateral adjustment works fine, as does the blade depth adjustment. I use this higher bedded (21) block on smaller edgee and faces to reduce tearout vs a 12 block for end grain.