.....and the Stayset two piece. I've got several of these, not essential but are handy.
What about the low angle bevel up planes? No cap irons, is this possible?
"Dimensioning" seems to mean different things:
1 sawing fresh cut wood to useful size before seasoning,
2 sawing sawn stuff to size to a project cutting list,
3 planing these pieces to finished size
4 in the case of timber yards, planing long lengths all 4 sides "planed all round" (PAR or mouldings) for retail trade. Sometimes sold as PSE (planed square edge)
If you google it seems to be very confusing with lots of bad advice for beginners!
The classic common novice mistake is to attempt to plane stock before it has been reduced to cutting list sizes.
Almost nobody who tries to teach dimensioning actually does it. Why they teach it, I don't know.
A stayset isn't very useful for someone using a cap iron like a cap iron, but if you're setting it off, I guess it's Ok. i've had two records with staysets but didn't care for either one. They're not as good when the cap is set close and it's not immediately apparent why. they will allow shavings under more easily than a well fitted stanley cap iron.
You'll have to excuse me for dismissing any statement about bevel up planes ever being a serious tool outside of a miter plane set with a 60 degree bevel to strike edges. Bevel up planes exist for one reason - because a beginner has little to learn to use them, but they will punish a serious user with slowness and awkwardness in setup and use (like how much camber they need and how much more often you have to go to the stones).
Block planes have nothing to do with dimensioning, and the oft-taught end grain cutting with them is a big detriment - hard on the hands and much slower than just using a bench plane, and you have the conundrum of figuring out whether you want to deal with tearout or resistance when you set the bevel.
I'm not sure why you keep repeating the comment about PAR and cutting things to size. Anyone who is dimensioning by hand will figure those things out quickly, along with joining most things before planing and not worrying about grain direction over aesthetics when joining panels. There are cases where you do want to size the wood first and then cut it - especially if you're going to strike a moulding.
This sticking isn't "test pieces", it's being dimensioned for use as trim.
Squareness is by feel, too - anyone who dimensions by hand will start to talk less about using straight edges and do little checking for squareness as you can feel it. The only thing that can be offputting is if grain direction creates an illusion and you question yourself.
[Imgur](https://i.imgur.com/MKvMRJE.jpg)
This is squareness right off of planing.
this is exactly the kind of work where the double iron excels, keeping the planing neat, steady, efficient and keeping the cut constant so that you can feel what's going on with the wood, feel square and not have uneven cut thickness.
it's a shame that this art is lost, because it's physically pleasing and freeing to be able to do it without being concerned about ruining wood or tedious arrangements of grain to try to make everything downgrain.
