Reply by Dan

#5’s are all over ebay and you can get them for cheaper then most of the other size bench planes.

The manufacture of the plane is not as important as the users ability to properly sharpen and tune the plane. If I was starting over I would pick up a #4, #5, #7 and a block plane and then spend some money on sharpening tools/supplies.

-- Dan - "Collector of Hand Planes"