I am flattening the cupped side of my work bench top. The other side is nearly where I want it. This is the bottom side so I am not planning on making it perfectly smooth but it's still decent practice for me. I have 4ft levels I am using for winding sticks and to check for flatness. The cup leaves both ends of the level about 1/8" off the table top. top is slightly under 4' wide and 7.5 ft long.
I am using a 5 1/2 with a fairly cambered blade and I think I am progressing nicely. I am thinking of cambering it more just to remove the material faster.
Is a longer plane better for hogging off material faster or do I just stick with the 5 1/2? I have a #8 coming in hopefully next week that I plan to use to flatten the top with.
In the heavy/medium/fine world, where does a #8 tend to be used? For a 4' wide top, would you have start with a bigger plane first and work your way smaller? or vice versa.
and in reference to the sacrilege post going on, I am using vintage although I was pretty clueless until I was able to use a LN and realize what sort of performance I should be shooting for.