Round Two on the #5 Iron....
Results of follow-up planing, as promised:
After re-honing the iron to 8000 grit on water stones last night, I ran the plane back over the same pieces of red oak and maple used before. After a total of about 3 dozen passes on each, I examined the edge under 10X magnification. There were a handful (about 5 or 6) of much smaller deformations -- not sure that I would really call them "chips", almost more like tiny indentations -- randomly scattered along the edge. It (the iron) looked much better than on the previous night. The surface of the wood was also much cleaner looking and feeling.
My speculation -- and that's all this is -- is that the chipping was caused, at least in part, by the "spongy" layer of steel often left on the surface after heat treating. Once that is removed, you get to the "good stuff" and can put a good, resilient edge on the iron. [Those of you who have more extensive metallurgical knowledge/experience than my admitedly very limited bits and pieces, please feel free to correct anything I've gotten wrong here.] Regardless of whether I've gotten that part right, based on this very, very small sample, these appear to be reasonably good quality irons -- certainly no worse than currently-offered Stanley, etc., -- once they have been "broken-in."
To get the best-possible performance from this plane, one might consider replacing the iron (and perhaps the chip breaker) with an LN or a Hock, although I'm not sure that it would really be necessary for the jack plane, since it is normally used for rough or medium work. The cost of a replacement iron (and chip breaker) will certainly reduce the cost advantage over a premium plane, but would, IMO, still be a really good value, especially given the high quality of the machining on the casting and frog.
All in all, I like the plane and -- aside from the relatively minor problems previously mentioned -- am very impressed with its quality, fit & finish, and performance. As it stands, I would recommend it to customers, along with the caveats mentioned in previous postings. If Woodcraft fixes the problems previously mentioned, I would have no problem recommending the planes without reservation.
[I won't be doing any more testing on this plane, as I had to return it this afternoon. However, I will be happy to try to answer any questions anyone has about the results I got from the testing.]
James
"Uke is always right." (Attributed to Ueshiba Morihei)