Sgian Dubh
>I take your points David. However, I do wonder if the steps of polishing, waxing, etc, makes up for the friction a smooth plane sole experiences.

Compare a flat and very smooth (highly polished even) sole to one that's also flat, dull looking and shows 40 or 60 grit striations. I wonder which one puts the most metal on the wood?

Surely more metal contact equals more friction? By that logic the sole with coarse striations might even encounter significantly less friction than a highly polished sole. And a bit of candle wax slathered on the 'furrowed' sole also has somewhere to lodge, unlike on a very smooth plane sole-- a bit like pigment stain on maple or sycamore compared to ash or oak.

Certainly I use recently flattened planes with coarse striations in the sole without any problem. Maybe one day I'll take one of my planes with an already more refined sole, eg, one of my Clifton planes, and work through the grits a bit more. Then I could try that chrome polishing malarkey to see if it makes any significant difference.

I've just never seen the need to go that far and spend the time required to do the job to that level. I mean I've seen people spend close to a whole day working on the sole of a jack plane. When they're done it's shiny enough to shave in, but that's six or eight hours furniture making time wasted, and I'm not much interested in looking in to the sole of a plane to shave, ha, ha. Slainte.