South Africa

These Lie-Nielsen look a likes have even popped in little South Africa.
Tool makers have for decades copied each other, Record for example built an industry around copying Stanley etc., even to the point of using the same numbering system with a 0 in front but at least they had the decency to wait for patents to expire & then copied them in an open transparent manner.
Currently all sorts of manufacturers copy existing tools, Kunz, Anant etc etc.
Even Lie-Nielsen themselves have never claimed to do anything other than to offer improved, superbly manufactured products based on other peoples originals.
But these planes are a direct rip off of Lie-Nielsen products, right down to the thickness of castings, thickness of blades, colour of the wood (thick coating trying to look like cherry) etc.
In my opinion, supporting this type of blatant plagiarism is exactly the same as buying pirated music, films etc. & should be treated by the law as such.
Why else would the people involved in copying Thomas Lie-Nielsen's products go to such extremes to get the look & feel of a Lie-Nielsen product than to profit from his reputation of excellence built up over 20 odd years of hard work.
I would not even bother to test this product as that would be giving those involved credibility they don't deserve.
Hey, thats only an Africans opinion, you Americans should be proud of the quality of your products

These Lie-Nielsen look a likes have even popped in little South Africa.
Tool makers have for decades copied each other, Record for example built an industry around copying Stanley etc., even to the point of using the same numbering system with a 0 in front but at least they had the decency to wait for patents to expire & then copied them in an open transparent manner.
Currently all sorts of manufacturers copy existing tools, Kunz, Anant etc etc.
Even Lie-Nielsen themselves have never claimed to do anything other than to offer improved, superbly manufactured products based on other peoples originals.
But these planes are a direct rip off of Lie-Nielsen products, right down to the thickness of castings, thickness of blades, colour of the wood (thick coating trying to look like cherry) etc.
In my opinion, supporting this type of blatant plagiarism is exactly the same as buying pirated music, films etc. & should be treated by the law as such.
Why else would the people involved in copying Thomas Lie-Nielsen's products go to such extremes to get the look & feel of a Lie-Nielsen product than to profit from their reputation of excellence built up over 20 odd years of hard work.
I would not even bother to test this product as that would be giving those involved credibility they don't deserve.

These Lie-Nielsen look a likes have even popped in little South Africa.
Tool makers have for decades copied each other, Record for example built an industry around copying Stanley etc., even to the point of using the same numbering system with a 0 in front but at least they had the decency to wait for patents to expire & then copied them in an open transparent manner.
Currently all sorts of manufacturers copy existing tools, Kunz, Anant etc etc.
Even Lie-Nielsen themselves have never claimed to do anything other than to offer improved, superbly manufactured products based on other peoples originals.
But these planes are a direct rip off of Lie-Nielsen products, right down to the thickness of castings, thickness of blades, colour of the wood (thick coating trying to look like cherry) etc.
In my opinion, supporting this type of blatant plagiarism is exactly the same as buying pirated music, films etc. & should be treated by the law as such.
Why else would the people involved in copying Thomas Lie-Nielsen's products go to such extremes to get the look & feel of a Lie-Nielsen product than to profit from their reputation of excellence built up over 20 odd years of hard work.
I would not even bother to test this product as that would be giving those involved credibility they don't deserve.