>Hi Branson. I think our respective definitions of "complete" are a little different. Most #45 cutting irons aren't very difficult to find, nor are they real expensive, but in my book, they're a part of the plane.
I see what you mean. It's a bit of a conundrum. The combination planes lie in a sort of no man's land between planes and shapers or routers. If a plane doesn't have an iron, it's not complete. If a shaper is functional, it's complete even if it has no cutters. But 45s came with a set of irons, and two pair of arms.
The wooden plow planes present the same problem. Mine came with one iron. It would work. I thought of it as complete, more or less, and I've accumulated a full set of the irons at this point, though from different makers.
Speaking of plow planes, somebody wrote about having one, but not all the irons. I picked up three or four last summer that someone had handled up to make lathe tools. I have to take them apart to be sure, but except for a hole drilled through for a rivet, they might be serviceable.
