There has been much discussion about the brass pads on my blade bed but the logic is quite simple. The blade is supported only where it counts i.e. along the bottom edge directly on the frog and at the rear where I have inserted the brass pads. Theoretically the three legged stool principle would be ideal. The idea of bedding a plane blade over the entire surface would only be possible if you were using some sort of bedding compound. But it is pointless anyway especially with a blade thickness of 3/16ths”. There is no way I want the blade touching the bed in the centre as I might be relieving some of the pressure at the front end where it counts and I could get a see-saw effect. This is eliminated by raising the contact points a small amount. There is also less chance of the blade coming to rest on any debris.
This picture of my A1 14 1/2″ dovetail infill plane shows the points I have just mentioned but with the brass pads waiting to be trimmed to level. To do this the whole plane body needs to be held so that the blade bed is truly level. Hence the DTI to confirm this.
Once the angle of the plane body – 50 deg in this case – has been adjusted so that the plane on the frog is level and checked with the DTI, then I only need to touch on to the frog with the cutting tool and zero and that will be my cutting line for the pads. This gives me a true plane for my blade. There will be no stress to the blade or plane body after clamping from the lever cap.