Patrick Chase
I know I've said this before, but: The geometries I'm playing with here have precedent.

Kato/Kawai's "best" configuration used 4 mils of setback on a 40 deg bed and 4 mil cut depth. We know from their results that that configuration works provided you can supply enough force to stay in the cut, and that's exactly what i saw. There is nothing new, strange, or unique here. It's nothing more than a validation of a previous, widely-accepted result.

Before you say "Kato/Kawai wasn't about hand-planing", bear in mind that my setup was (intentionally) more similar to theirs than to typical furniture work. Specifically the fact that I planed a narrow specimen such that I didn't have to worry about edge effects.