Hi Mb,
If it's become shorter is because someone has been grinding two surfaces and taken too much off the leading edge to try and true it up.
At this point I would simply put a new one on and then have it ground up.
Let your engineer do that part of the job as he may need to shim it or do other things to get it dead straight. Some Sole Plates have been known to develop a slight curve over many years or were not ground perfectly in the first instance.
While doing this get the reel done at the same time as you don't only do one half of the whole job. This way you'll have a good mating pair of scissor blades.
Cheers,
BB.
