Regarding the excellent debate on rigidity of cast iron being 'fathered'
 by Doug Dawson.....

 
 > deflect the surface .003.
 ....
 >.. checked it out on a #8.  Sure enough!  .. I got .004" with 10
 >lbs.)

 > so I feel pretty safe here, pressure applied to the tote during
 > planing would present a downwards force virtually equidistant from
 >   both ends.  And that's only the vector component directly into > the
 wood

 Q1)        Can I take it that, when using a No 8, I can bend it by 3 - 4
            thou?  What happens when, at the final stroke, I let the plane
            caress the surface, doing my best to apply only forwards
            pressure.?

 Q2)        Can I scale the result down for shorter planes?  a No 4, for
            instance will apparently stay as near as dammit to being flat.
            Which is what I want my smoother to be.

 (Lumpy solers disregard last sentence)

 Richard Wilson
 who is lost in admiration at the content of this thread.