I spent about 7 hours yesterday and 10 hours today beveling strips (fishing trip got canceled) and for once kept track of how my planes were performing.

First, I have a .0015" x 1.250" groove in the sole of all of my planes. While beveling today, I got as many as 11 strips from one blade to as little as 5 strips. I beveled a total of 54 strips, and while I didn't count how many I got with 3 of my planes, I did all of these with my 6 planes and didn't have to stop to sharpen. (nice to have 6 planes). The last plane still had a nice edge on it when I finished the last strip. That is an average of 8.1 strips per blade. This number should not change on my steel planing form, because the grooved sole prevents the blade from ever coming in contact with the form. I probably will never try more than 6 strips per blade in the tapering process, but, on the average, at least, this little experiment proved to me that I am reasonably safe in assuming that I can count on one plane per rod section when final planing. The Grooved sole definitely makes a difference. (Bob Nunley)