Thanks Tim!

Great suggestion!

Make sure you bring your straightedge if you do this though. Not all granite is flat. DAMHIK!

If you go to a countertop store, especially one that deals with stone countertops in particular, they will usually be willing to sell you cutt-off prices from things like sink installs. Sometimes you get it for free, they were just going to throw it out, or cheap. Make sure it is flat though! The other option, although will cost more, is to get some thick float glass as it is very flat just because of how it is made.

Vincent just wondering if you remeber with direction is to advance blade on Sargent transitional? My 26 is a later one and is right turn advance. Like the idea of more solid mount for frog on my foreplane.

Hi Jim, It was counter clockwise for a deeper cut. And I like how Sargent did it too, despite my original concern. It would make it way easier to make a new sole for it and have been looking for an unhandled smoothing one. My friend's is a stepped Razee shape.

I used spray adhesive. Some say 3M Spray 77 is the best, but it's quite expensive, I bought Mastons general spray adhesive, worked fine when I flattened my Stanley 4 and 5 and one small block plane.

It’s only about 80 lb.

@@BobRozaieskiFineWoodworking Looked a lot heaver! I often lift my smaller workshop anvil that is around 90 lbs on the bench. I have 2 type 11 no 5 1/2 planes that are in the restoration process. I know some use them as a large smoother. Should I flatten their sole if they are out by a few thou?

I probably wouldn’t bother. I don’t like long or wide smoothing planes.

Not at all. The iron and lever cap are not joined to the sole/main casting at all. They only attach to the frog. So they may put some minor flex in the frog but not the main casting. If the main casting is flexing when the iron is locked into the plane, that means the lever cap is so tight that it’s causing the frog to flex, which would be a tremendous feat. It would require the lever cap to be so tight you’d probably need two hands or a clamp to lock it down. That’s way too tight for the lever cap. The lever cap needs to be snug, not super tight. So if locking the lever cap down flexes the main casting, the lever cap is too tight. You need to loosen the lever cap not lap the plane’s sole. Now wooden planes are a whole different story, but this video isn’t about wooden planes.

@@BobRozaieskiFineWoodworking you sir explain things very well. Thanks, I entirely agree.

@@BobRozaieskiFineWoodworking As evident by shavings produced.

I was also wondering this..

He is talking about rounding the entire breadth of the sole, not the tiny little chamfer on the corners. You're thinking of the chamfers while he is only speaking of the sole.

If the tiny force of the screw was enough to distort the entire plane, then the power of your hands pushing the plane would be far more than needed to distort the entire plane. (you would never get it flat) Instead. the plane is so much stronger as to distort the blade.

My reasons are 1) Metal scraping takes time and skill (I scraped a #5-it was my only plane for a while), and 2) Sand paper on a "flat" reference surface is sufficient in nearly every case.

Most woodworkers don’t have the necessary tools to scrape. Lapping is easy and lets them use tools/materials they already have and are already familiar with.

@@BobRozaieskiFineWoodworking Metal scraping will takes a few minutes to get a plane's bottom flat, depending on the precision desired. Trying to flatten anything larger than a #4 will wear your ass flat out. You only need a tube of Dykem paste or any brand ($15 should last for ever) and a Dremel with a conical stone, a or a even old file with a profiled tip.

To each their own. I’ve done it and don’t find it any easier. It’s certainly way messier. And if so much metal needs to be removed that the sole can’t be lapped flat enough in 20-30 minutes, the plane isn’t worth the effort regardless of the method. As for lapping planes longer than a number 4 I don’t see a need to do so. None of them (at least the way I work) need to be as flat as a smoother as none of them will ever be set up to take a cut as fine as a smoother.

@@BobRozaieskiFineWoodworking Very true. LOL! A few years ago, around the time you released your first videos, flattening planes and chisels were all the rage on KZfaq and magazines. It left the impression that a hand plane is useless unless you flatten the hell out of it. I was one of the victims. I remember obsessing with a ruler after what seemed like hours of flattening. Every time I checked the sole against the ruler holding it up to the light, I noticed a pattern of light touching every so often across my ruler. I figured I still had more flattening to do and continued lapping away. Tired and frustrated, I finally gave up and I'm glad I did, or I would have ground away the entire bottom of my 607. After some research, I discovered the light pattern was due to the sandpaper's grit size! LOL! Thanks!

Two things with this, even though it isn't great for an old plane that is abused/rusty/worn would it still be better then it was before and good enough for woodworking, which doesn't need the same accuracy as metalwork? Second do you have videos or instructions on how to properly sand a plane bottom flat? I've heard that there are particular ways to sand/file items to make sure it is actually lapped/shaped correctly.

@@Swarm509 Easiest way I know of to get a flat plane without access to a machinist shop is to find a really flat lap (this is the hardest part) and use it very minimally. Get some blue layout ink, lap for a couple of seconds, check it, draw file the high spots and repeat the whole process while also checking with a straight edge. You basically want to avoid lapping as much as possible because sandpaper will always wear unevenly and will always give you a convex sole. Small imperfections do not matter, what you want to avoid is a convex sole. If you start with a concave sole it's pretty easy, but if you start with a convex sole it will be a lot harder, most likely you will have to selectively scrape (or sand with small block) until you get close to a flat or slightly concave sole then start the lapping/drawfiling process. Or just don't do it at all, get yourself a premium NR.5 to flatten wooden planes and forget about all this metal plane flattening work.