The second photo shows the bottom of the PW level on top of my cast iron lap, the lap is hand scraped and hand flaked, which is the bottom, the upper surface is the level bottom or base, which a previous owner put a flake pattern on it, I wasn't showing the lap for any comparative reason I just happen to take the pictures with it present. I have not spotted the level yet but I'm sure it's not perfectly flat based on about an inch of the flake pattern missing from one end, if you hold it right in the light you can faintly see the flakes. There is a long scratch on the level base that I want gone as well as a bunch of other small scratches, I will probably end up fully restoring it, not totally original because I'm going to grind some surfaces to get rid of am engraving, all exposed surfaces will be ground instead of milled finish, the base will be pinpoint scraped. The paint is kind of an olive greenish gray, I will try and duplicate it as best I can, I thought about doing wrinkle paint but I think I will stick to original color.
Any thoughts on the plastic to use to make the new handles? I would like to be able to Polish it to shine like the originals
And yes the lapping plate edges were all scraped flat and then flaked for practice, the 3 feet on the lap base are also flat and flaked, purely decorative, plus I was honing a technique for half moons. The lap top is ground and my tool broke while cutting the pattern so I have to wait for the replacement to arrive then run the program again from line 330 lol
After the cross hatch is done it will get re-ground super flat, when I first started I ground both sides then rough scraped one side, and spotted it on a brand new grade A standridge plate, it hit on every unground spot, telling me my harig 612 is in great condition (factory scrape marks visable on all ways)