Taming Tough Grain with a Bevel-Up Plane
See how Bob Van Dyke uses a 45º blade in his low-angle bevel-up planes to tame highly figured wood and to break hard edges without worrying about grain direction.
Low-angle bevel-up planes usually have a bedding angle of around 12° and a blade honed to 25°. This combination gives you an angle of attack of 37°.
For planing tough woods like tiger maple and quartersawn oak, Bob turns to a blade that he has honed to 45°, which in turn gives him an angle of attack to the wood of 57°. While it may make the plane harder to push through the cut, Bob has found that he rarely gets tearout with such a high angled blade in his low-angle jack.
Bob also has a similar blade honed for his low-angle block plane that he keeps handy for putting a slight chamfer on any hard edges that otherwise would be too sharp to leave on a piece.
More on Fine Woodworking:
- One Bench Plane Can Do It All – Stretch your tool budget by using different blades in one low-angle jack plane
- Handplaning with Precision
- A sunburst finish in figured maple – How to blend multiple colors for a striking effect
Comments
Great tip especially for curly maple.
So, you're not re-grinding the primary bevel to 45 degrees? How much of a micro bevel do you have? 1/16"? 1/32" Something different?
Recently in a podcast Mike brought up the idea of never regrinding the the primary bevel to the higher angle. Eventually the microbevel will become the primary bevel. His argument was that if you regrind the bevel it would be more work to get back to the original angle should you ever want to.
After 60 years of woodworking, this is a seriously new and useful technique for me that I will adopt, especially for a block plain.
I don't use micro bevels. I rehone with fine grit in my Worksharp.
Log in or create an account to post a comment.
Sign up Log in