Quote Originally Posted by David Weaver View Post
(snip) I think LV is probably machining large areas because that's what people want to see, sort of as jewelry. I am sure they didn't overlook the functionality of the plane on the first go-around....

That is just my opinion, though.
Hi David -

You're close. The areas are machined to remove material that could interfere with proper seating of the blade (I'll get to that in a moment). Cast metal does strange things when it cools - any features you put into a casting cool differently from surrounding areas. Management of where material is drawn from when the metal shrinks when cooling, affects stability and porosity of the final casting. In some cases - metal can be in a specific location just to establish a desired center of gravity. And, machining is not always to to establish contact surfaces - it could be for the purpose of ensuring a known clearance...

As for blade bed.... well .... as I've written many times before (and it's often overlooked) we look for a blade/plane contact locus along the mouth of the plane, and a single area at the adjuster. We control the blade/bed contact areas precisely by design. Trying to do it by establishing two planes that contact each other fully is fraught with problems. In addition, loading the blade (or blade/cap iron combo) with the lever cap further ensures that we get the contact geometry we want.


Cheers -

Rob