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I bought an approximately cheap small (1/2" width) shoulder plane from Dictum.

However I observed that only the toe of the lever cap presses on the blade (see picture above).

Should I tree to grind it to maximize the contact surface or it's no use to do that?

Andrei Rînea
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    Great photo showing what's going on! This is interesting. I don't know for sure how these are 'supposed' to be, i.e. how other brands have had theirs shaped since this design was introduced. The product photo shows clearly that this IS the way the Dictum one is supposed to be, but that doesn't mean it should remain that way (many users slightly modify the leading edge of bench plane lever caps). I think the bottom line is going to be though: how does it work now? If it works fine now it works fine, and that's all that matters regardless of theoretical advantages from a larger contact area. – Graphus Mar 17 '22 at 04:34
  • Thanks @Graphus! It seems to work fine, so I was just wondering if it would provide any benefit.

    As for the photo, I've shot it handheld with my old iphone (7) against the monitor with an white background, nothing fancy :-)

     – Andrei Rînea Mar 17 '22 at 16:53
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    You want the the force as far forward as possible to support the cutting edge. Grind this could very easily move the support further back. I think you WANT it this way. That little bit of space between the heel and the toe allows you to put pretty substantial pressure on the blade, relying on the ability of the cap foot bend elastically. – boatcoder Mar 17 '22 at 21:03

1 Answers1

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This is normal. Shoulder planes of this design always like this.

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Maybe best example:

L-N shoulder plane

Volfram K
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