To expedite the process of soliciting free woodworking advice, I decided to combine two questions into one post:
About hand planes ....
When I use my vintage Stanleys, if I ever back the iron off to take a lighter cut, I always turn the depth adjustment knob back in the "tighten direction" until all the slop is gone before I start planing again. I guess I've always felt like the little metal piece that fits into the opening in the iron to adjust it up and down (that's the technical term for it...) needed to be down against the bottom of the opening to prevent the iron from creeping back while in use. Does that make sense? Anyway, I don't know if this is necessary, and while watching a Paul Sellers video the other day, I saw him back off his iron and then go right back to work. He wasn't worried about the slop. I'll experiment with it, but I figured many of you here would already be prepared to weigh in.
About card scrapers ....
What kind of surface do you get on your work when you use a well-tuned card scraper? Or a cabinet scraper too? Reason I ask is I've been using both a little more lately, trying to make a point of mastering these tools in the process of building some small boxes. I can make pretty, wispy shavings with both, just like the experts say, but my wood surface never has that glassy look that I get from a sharp plane iron. It's more dull and definitely feels different to the touch. It's smooth, but not slick. Is that normal? Should the surface be just as smooth and glassy as it is off the plane?
Last night, I did a little experiment with my card scraper by turning a slightly lighter hook and a slightly heavier hook at a more abrupt angle (as compared to my "normal" hook). The former only created dust and made the wood feel slightly fuzzy. The latter cut a pretty substantial shaving and made the wood feel slightly fuzzy. I care not about shavings, but only about leaving a nice surface.
So basically, if you all are getting that glassy sheen, then I think it's time I revisit my texts and re-learn how to set up a card scraper.