Thanks for replying, RicodJour.
Lots of good ideas. Of course, the hardest is describing 'sharp'. I
sharpened to 1200 grit and stopped. That could very well be
where to start over.
The sole is reasonably flat (no light under a straigtedge), which is good
since as a family 'heirloom' I wouldn't pursue sanding it down.
Thanks for pointing out the Oct 96 AWW article. Good write-up.
With the frog loosened, I see how the blade retracts. I hadn't considered
this. If you have to loosen the frog to retract the blade just to go to
to lunch, you've lost any fine tuning done.
One more try sharpening before pulling out the catalog. Thought it
would be fun to use g-g-grandfather's plane for a little project, but have
learned a lot in the process.
Pictures will be posted shortly in a.b.pictures.woodworking. All file names
start with Stanley 129. I don't have the blade quite square in the pix.
Thanks again.
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Take some pictures of how you have it set up, from top and bottom, and
of the iron/chip breaker by itself, and post them on a free hosting
site and post the links back here.