Less irking watching him pinch the shaving, rather than the bad habits I see elsewhere.
Agreed though, that there is a large sales pitch involved, and or two videos are a bit daft on the subject, however one of his old videos (omiting the scrub planing cross grain) is about as good as I've seen on the tube.
He loves to do that party trick, so much so, that I can only guess,
doesn't work as well if the cap iron has more influence, as I've quizzed him on the matter before, which he did mention he must try some time.
Rob's mentioned setting his cap to about 1/32" away from the edge for his no.5 1/2,
and makes no suggestion for either making the leading edge steeper, nor setting it closer, and instead has suggestions of back bevels and whatnot on other videos regarding planing troublesome grain.
Have a hard time believing that he hasn't tried honing the cap steeper on one iron, as he always has a few spare irons in the toolwell, plenty of Stanley's
and plenty a minion at hand, some of which do appear to have some chops.
Maybe its just a case of not needing more tools once you can make do with three planes, and nothing to do with the pinching of the shavings?
That I think? is the reasoning for not lifting the plane, and looks to me a good way of pulling your back out planing longer work.
On the other hand... some good habits to make note of, which he might be trying to convey here...
That there is no need to have a hand or weight down on the front of the plane.
Which demonstrates two things...
The somewhat influenced shaving will still have enough downforce in the cut compared to a non influenced shaving which might not work so well if that were attempted.
And good habit not to nose dive off the ends of the work.
Imagine getting asked the same question multiple times a day,
That might well be the reason that he decides to keep things the way they are.
I'll give him the benefit of the doubt that he will show this to the masses, eventually
but only when he sees a valid way of being able to keep the income the same, rather than selling fancy planes with flat soles which can guarantee a fine shaving,
which for a cap iron that's set for less influence,
makes for a time consuming and frustrating way to try and plane timber,
leaving one wanting more from the tool.
Plenty of other reasons one might want a more accurate unbreakable ductile iron Bailey,
but tearout isn't one of them.
Well, that's my 2 cents on the pinch and drag.
