He showed me how to put a cap iron in a vice with the curvy end sticking 
up, and then to tap it with a hammer to bend the curvy end down (toward 
the blade) a bit.

  If the cap iron has been damaged at all, you always have to do this to 
seat it well.
  Also, if switching between plane brands or time periods of the same 
brand its often the case you need to reshape it.

  With a cap iron setting you have to "Pay your money and make your 
choice" between throat size and cap iron setting.
  If you set the cap iron really close, and you can if you want,
it will hit the forward throat of the plane allowing no shaving at all 
if your mouth is very tight.
So you have to back off the frog and open the mouth some to accommodate 
a really close cap iron setting.

  If you want a really tight mouth, you have to raise the cap iron 
considerably.

Its kind of a push / pull.

  I like my cap irons a bit under 1/16, but close to that,
  and as close a mouth setting as that allows, for smoothing.

   I could set the mouth smaller with a higher cap iron setting but the 
compromise I settled on long ago seems to work for me.
   yours Scott

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*******************************
    Scott Grandstaff
    Box 409 Happy Camp, Ca  96039
    scottg@s...
    http://www.snowcrest.net/kitty/sgrandstaff/
    http://www.snowcrest.net/kitty/hpages/index.html

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