Back Bevel On Plane Iron

[Larry Rose]

I was working on two end tables this weekend that I'm building for the church. The legs are tapered on two sides and since they will be painted, I made them out of some soft maple that I had around. After cutting the tapers on the TS I took them to the bench to clean up with a plane. Every plane I used caused tear out in this maple. I used my 4 1/2 LN, LA smoother, and Stanleys. All caused some tear out. Then I remembered reading somewhere to hone a bevel on the back side(the side thats normaly flat). I dug into my parts drawer and found an old iron for a #4. After 5 minutes on the diamond stones I had a roughly 5 degree back bevel. I put it in an old Stanley #4 low and behold it worked. I finished the legs without having to resort to sanding (which I hate). I quess this is the same as a high angle frog. Has any body ever tried it?

 

[DavidF]

I was working on two end tables this weekend that I'm building for the church. The legs are tapered on two sides and since they will be painted, I made them out of some soft maple that I had around. After cutting the tapers on the tablesaw I took them to the bench to clean up with a plane. Every plane I used caused tear out in this maple. I used my 4 1/2 LN, LA smoother, and Stanleys. All caused some tear out. Then I remembered reading somewhere to hone a bevel on the back side(the side thats normaly flat). I dug into my parts drawer and found an old iron for a #4. After 5 minutes on the diamond stones I had a roughly 5 degree back bevel. I put it in an old Stanley #4 low and behold it worked. I finished the legs without having to resort to sanding (which I hate). I quess this is the same as a high angle frog. Has any body ever tried it?

That sounds like a good idea to have a blade hanging around with that mod Larry.

 

[jglord]

I have the high-angle frog on my LN 4 1/2 and really like the way it works, especially in hard and/or figured wood. Folks who've tried it agree, it makes a difference.
BTW - a recent article in Fine Woodworking says to use 50 degrees for woods like maple and cherry - so the high angle is not specialized, but for me, makes a great smoother, for all sorts of work.

 

[Travis Porter]

I remember reading that article in FWW as well. Higher angle equals cleaner cut, but what is the downside?

 

[Larry Rose]

The only down side I can see is that it should take a little more elbow grease to push it but I didn't notice much difference. Other than that, the edge might wear faster because its thinner. For a little honing on a spare iron it seemed to be a cheap fix.

 

[Deacon Shuster]

If anyone is interested the article is in the September/October 2006 issue of FWW, titled "Handplane blade angles" by Lyn J. Mangiameli on pages 96-100. It explains angles, skewing the plane, and how wood fibres shear differently, etc. Sorry, I don't have a link, just some pages I cut out.

Doug

 

[DavidF]

I remember reading that article in FWW as well. Higher angle equals cleaner cut, but what is the downside?

Not necessarily "Cleaner" the higher the angle the more of a scraping action and that doesn't produce a "clean" cut. The lower the angle the cleaner the cut, but it can get under the grain and lift it ahead of the blade; something we don't want. On end grain this can't happen hence the widespread use of low angle. The "normal" 45 deg pitch is a good compromise between the two extremes. A higher pitch is definitely better for those wild grain bits and a cabinet scraper is even better, just harder work.