Setting Up a Hand Plane for Work

As usual several topics covered this week but the one that I get asked a lot about is how to set your plane to get it cutting on that first cut.  Any time the blade is removed there is a bit of set up to go through to get the hand plane cutting nicely again.  In my experience most of us fiddle with the plane too much at this point, shooting for perfection.  In reality setting up a hand plane is much more eyeballing than anything else.  Using the shape and position of the shaving is what will really tell you if your plane is set up properly