Scott asked,

>Just to muddy the waters a bit, how does a wooden smoother with a tight
>mouth and a thick iron compare?  It seems like it has three of the four
>elements you mention: solid bedding all the way to the bevel,  a tight mouth,
>and a thick iron.

I have a wooden smoother which was fitted with a fine steel sole by the
father of the retired old cabinetmaker I bought this plane from.  It is at
least 90 yrs old and was used by both of them solely for finish work on wild
grained hardwoods, one of the specialties of their custom cabinetmaking
workshop.  It has a superfineslit of a mouth, a razor sharp Ward blade (you
don't even need to wonder how I discovered this but I did clean the blood
off the sole and the blade), and it works WONDERFULLY.   But then I am also
lucky enough to have a Norris A5, but only a very late one, and that is very
nice to work with too.  I don't have a Bedrock, and in this part of the
world I doubt that I ever will.

Perhaps there is no "best" plane, or solution, just a variety of solutions
to the same problem which are easch the "best solution: depending on the
prevailing circumstances....

Regards to all

Tony B