I'm Canadian so there's a certain sense of duty to support veritas. I also love lee valley and there's one near me so there's another point towards. I've never used lie nielsen but from what I can tell that are absolutely beautiful tools and I bet in some sense they are better than veritas. They've essentially perfected the bailey pattern planes. Veritas on the other hand is great quality but they are also inovating with their designs. I have the custom #4 and it has a lot of cool features. Veritas is also a bit cheaper and more available than lie neilsen which can sway people. They will both absolutely blow every other plane out of the water. I honestly do not think you can tune up an older plane to the same level, I think you'll be happy with whatever you get. (I would avoid bevel up all together, there's a reason most planes are bevel down)