Flattening back of plane blade

[lowell holmes]

I have diamond hones to rub on. Try them, you will like them.

[steven c newman]

Rather hard to send back...when the Company no longer makes that iron.....

I don't worry about "belly in length" on chisels.....as I only USE the first inch or so....of course, any belly WOULD raise ones knuckles high enough not to scrape the wood...

Fancy stones are..ok..if all you do is sharpen edge tools all day......I prefer to get back to work as FAST as I can. One can polish a butter knife to a flat, mirror-like shine...and it would still barely cut cold butter.

Been rehabbing planes since before the 90s....soon found what works, and what is just..hype.

The hammer trick? Which would you prefer...3-5 whacks to get a bad iron close to flat, where sandpaper & stones can finish up, and be planing wood the same afternoon? Or...spend more money than the plane costs, on an iron they may not even fit, wait until it arrives by mail...and hope the depth adjust tab can even reach through the "new" iron to get to the chipbreaker?

I hold the iron onto the top of the bench's leg, so there is no bounce. I want to use only enough force to flatten the hump down, to where the rest of the sharpening can begin....
I also sight along the iron, to see if it is curved/bent...a few taps to correct that.

There was a name for workers that took hours to do a simple 10 minute job.....we called them "Milkmen" because they seemed to milk the time clock,....they usually were either shipped out to another job site..or..fired.