The dependence of the Fermi surface electron wave functions in Na and K on (i) an L-dependent effective local cellular potential constructed to simulate Hartree-Fock theory and (ii) the inclusion of the Hartree field due to the conduction electrons in the cellular potential is investigated. All calculations are performed using the Wigner–Seitz spherical cellular approximation and the Schrödinger equation is solved by the Kohn variational method. It is found that to ensure a value of the Fermi surface electron density at the nucleus accurate to ~5%, it is necessary to use the L-dependent potential along with the Hartree field due to a realistic conduction electron density.