Finally my plane blade made the back of my left hand hairless! I followed a modified Scary Sharp system down to 0.5 u paper on my Stanley Sweetheart blade. The method I used is described here
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was really cool to see the wire edge floating around in the baby oil.
With a sharp blade and after using a bit of candle wax on the sole of the plane I cannot believe how easily my run-of-the-mill stanley #5 plane slices though hard maple _against_ the grain!
Why is the sole just behind the blade turning yellow? Is this the patina I'be been reading about? Ever since I scraped the sole of my plane flat I've pretty much only planned natural hard maple.
Thanks, Peter