At 6:09 AM -0400 12/6/99, Paul Womack wrote:
        [snip of snips]
>If the side strips were critical, and performing important "work"
>surely they would wear. And being small, surely they would
>wear A LOT?

        Wull, lessee.  Since those "lateral margin" parts of the sole are
(nominally) co-planar with the rest of the sole, wouldn't they have to wear
down only as much as the rest of the sole?  I mean, I don't see how those
spots, in normal use in dimensioning and smoothing, could develop dimples
that would make them recessed from the rest of the sole.
        I've seen some iron bench planes that were used so much, over much
of a century and probably several (human) working lifetimes that the edges
all around were dubbed over from wear, but can't recall ever seeing the
side strips in question worn so much as to form a depression in the sole on
each side of the mouth--nor do I see how it could happen.
                Tom Holloway,
who will never be able to put than much wear on an iron plane, in this
lifetime.