Reply by Loren

I agree some Veritas stuff is unusual from a design point of view.

Lee Valley launched a series of hand planes in the 1970s
or early 80s and they failed. They were finer than the
Stanley and Record planes available at the time but the
appearance was traditional. I am sure they lost a lot of
money launching premium hand planes to a market that
wasn’t ready. Later, Lie Nielsen succeeded but the old
Lee Valley planes were ever re-released. The second
time they let L-N, Clifton, et al copy the old patterns
and introduced their own, love it or hate it style.

Shrewd move in my opinion. Many of the 1970s tool
companies failed yet Lee Valley has prospered and grown.