So I’m looking at getting into restoring machines as both an economical way to acquire equipment that can be made to work well, and to have a machining project I can do at home to some degree. One vid I watched on hand scraping recommended I made my own straight edge, which sounds like a way better way to get used to the technique than on the mill table I’d ultimately be working on. My questions are what grade(s) of cast iron is optimal for this purpose, and does the stock need any sort of annealing before scraping? If there’s a thread for this already I’d appreciate a link, first-time poster here