My back has a belly

[Judson Green]

Out rust hunting last weekend and I got my first coffin smoother (yea!), but when flatting the back I discovered that it seems to have a slight convex to it. I tried to hammer (nylon tipped mallet) it out (thought I read a thread here about that a while back), but the thick tapered iron simply laughs at my love taps. Yes, sir! May I please have another, sir!

I'm afraid to try and proceed with back flattened as I feel that will exacerbate the problem.

What to do?

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Not sure this helps.

Its a double iron and wouldn't ya know it the cap iron is convexed too. I feel that's easier to deal with though.

[Jim Matthews]

I have three blades like this, and they are a pain to keep clear
on any size shaving. I can't get one beautiful, full length Sheffield blade
to fit the cap iron at all.

I believe that's why there's so much steel left on this hunnert year old blade.

Maddening, innit.

[Judson Green]

So are ya saying just go with it?

Or toss it the junk drawer?

Bye the bye here's more photos of the offending iron and the plane it goes to. New York Tool co. with a Thissal Brand iron, $6.

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[Charles Bjorgen]

Both woodies I picked up off the bay had that problem. Almost makes you wonder if they were deliberately made that way. On my second, a 22 incher, I spent time working over the cutter back on a bench grinder. I would mark the back with a black marker and tried to reduce the hump working only in the center part. I held the blade at right angles to the wheel while doing this and tested frequently with a straight edge. The cap iron needed work too and I accomplished this with diamond stones. It takes time.

[Winton Applegate]

I got one thing to say but since they have a minimum of verbiage that needs to be met before I can post it I am doing this . . .
But what I mean to say is . . .
this will make her hollow.

[Jim Matthews]

So are ya saying just go with it?

Or toss it the junk drawer?

I'm lean toward discarding any tool that takes longer to set up than the operation for which it was intended.

My experience with laminated steel started with the Japanese irons, which are already flat.
I never had the sort of shaving jam that my ineffective smoothers do worst.

I'm admittedly inexperienced, but reasonably handy.
If five hours of grinding (by hand) and hitting an iron with a hammer won't
get it to where I can at least get a linear edge, it's hopeless.

I'm no longer willing to give up shop time to tweak tools.

They work, or they're up for adoption.

[Judson Green]

this will make her hollow.

I've got one of them!

[Mike Holbrook]

Will Hock or Veritas irons or irons with chip breakers/cap irons fit these planes? I imagine the issue being the cost of a new iron & chip breaker/cap iron may exceed the value of the wooden plane. I use a couple HNT Gordon irons in a few of my wood planes that are metric and not exactly the size of the irons they were made to fit. I may put side blade holding screws in my hand made woodies to help with such issues. The Steve Knight planes I bought from a Creeker have these screws built into the wood bodies and they, with the assistance of a wedge, seem to hold blades in place.