Earlier Gene wrote,
 
> Richard W wrote:
  
> > 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.?

> A1) No. I'd be amazed if you have the weight to hold a #8 in the normal user
> way and produce 10# direct downward force at the mouth, while managing to
> move it in any other direction.  I can't.  Also, my number came from a setup
> that would simulate a sole so concave that only the extreme toe and heel are
> in contact with wood.  Not a real life situation.

   I seem to vaguely recall an article in American Woodworker ( was it? )
   in which they'd taken a variety of Jack planes and looked at their
   sole flatness on a surface plate, and shown photographs of the result.
   But I can't for the life of me find this issue, my library is such an
   amazing rat's-nest.  Does anyone have the exact reference?  Anyway, it
   was interesting to look at, as I recall, and is applicable here.

> A1.1) >What happens when, at the final stroke, I let the plane
> > caress the surface, doing my best to apply only forwards pressure.?

   Provided you've planed the _entire_ _board_ with this same plane,
   by the time you're eventually done and are taking the final stroke,
   the board will have been shaped to conform to the radius of the
   sole, _provided_ you were always planing in the same exact direction.
   Alas, if you switched planes you'd have to start all over again,
   over the whole surface of the board, to have this turn out okay
   reliably.  One doesn't necessarily want to have to go through that.

   Doug Dawson
   dawson@p...

   Just say, I'm too lazy to not care!, etc.