: My bench is pretty well fixed with saws, and planes from the small and long
: ends of the spectrum, but I'm beginning to fill out the middle.  At this
: point I'm beginning a low key hunt for a decent smoother.

In my experience, there are a couple of non-obvious places to go for a
decent smoother.  The obvious places are Patrick & L-N.

	1. I have a John Gage smoother that I can sharpened with a slight
	   curve, such that when it is set fine it has less than an inch
	   of cutting area.  I can get stuff so fine that you can easily
	   read through it.

	2. I have a Stiletto brand #4 clone that has an old fashioned (thick
	   at the cutting end) blade.  That sucker is a great smoother, gives
	   my L-N #4 some serious competition (but doesn't have an adjustable
	   mouth type deal like the L-N).

The curved blade trick is key.  I think you can take any old junker plane that
has a reasonable frog - i.e., one that doesn't chatter, and curve the blade
until it works.  Try it.