Jacob
What goes around comes around.
A very short term advantage!Hi Jacob, you said in your original post
"Has there been any development or improvement at all in hand tools"
I pointed out the improvement in materials and engineering of Lie Nielsen and Veritas hand planes, out of the box they are superior to new and vintage planes.
Not if you actually use the plane.Sharpening and fettling are irrelevant.
What is superior about ductile iron? The only plane which I had with it was a Clifton and it was heavy and very prone to scratches. I sold it on.Even a tuned vintage plane won't be made of ductile iron.
There you go, two improvements, materials and engineering
Regards Mark
I also got the feeling that cast iron was somehow lower friction but it might have been just because they are lighter.