Winston
> A buffer and wheel cost under $100 and should last indefinitely.

Or even less! I initially spent $10 on the buffing kit for my drill, which is not only cheap, but also doesn't require any additional bench space.

Now, if this can be made to work with plane blades, then it would greatly simply my sharpening setup. As I mentioned before, I got a very, very smooth surface with a buffed plane blade, but I didn't test it to see how much wood it could plane before having clearance issues. Even if that's the same or slightly worse than my normal sharpening, that's still very good, considering how simple and easy it is.