Any dialogue of hand planes should lead with the essential reality that except the iron is extremely sharp, it should by no means work properly. Simply as essential because the diploma of sharpness, nevertheless, is the angle of assault of the leading edge into the wooden being planed.
For instance, when planing finish grain, a low angle of assault makes it simpler to push the airplane and depart a glasslike floor. Conversely, when planing face grain and edge grain, particularly in extremely figured woods the place the grain course is consistently switching, a better angle of assault is greatest as a result of it results in much less tearout. There’s a trade-off, nevertheless, since with the upper angle the airplane shall be tougher to push by the wooden.
Bevel down
The bevel of the iron in conventional bench planes faces down, which implies the angle of assault is solely a perform of the mattress or frog angle. Early airplane makers shortly decided that an angle of assault of 45° was an excellent center floor, being comparatively straightforward to push and in a position to produce a glass-smooth floor in most woods. For these harder-to-plane woods equivalent to extremely figured tiger maple or quartersawn white oak, bench planes with a better frog angle resulted in a {smooth}, tearout-free floor however had been tougher to push.
Traditionally, some bench planes had been made with the York pitch frog at 50°, the Center pitch frog at 55°, and even the “half pitch” or Cupboard pitch at 60° to accommodate furnishings makers who typically labored with hard-to-plane woods.
Most bevel-down bench planes have chipbreakers, which enhance their efficiency by serving to stabilize the iron and decrease tearout. Maybe most significantly, bench planes even have vital mass.
Bevel up
Not like on conventional bench planes, the bevel on a block airplane faces up. Which means that the airplane’s angle of assault might be managed by various the bevel angle, making it easy to vary the angle of assault from one excessive to the opposite.
The angle of assault on block planes is a mix of their mattress angle, which is usually 12° or 20°, and the iron’s bevel or microbevel angle. The standard microbevel of 30°, mixed with a 12° mattress, yields an angle of assault of 42°—which is fairly near the usual 45° of a bench airplane. I sharpen my “on a regular basis” block airplane like this, and it’s wonderful for small jobs like planing a fast chamfer or flushing a protruding joint.
A microbevel elevated to 45°, when mixed with the 12° mattress, produces an angle of assault of 57°. My second block airplane makes use of the 45° microbevel completely. This block airplane is ideal for conditions equivalent to chamfering an edge when the planing course is a greatest guess. Typically the grain course of 1 floor might be reverse the grain course of the intersecting floor.
The ultra-high bevel angle permits me to airplane with or in opposition to the grain safely, so I all the time get a clear, crisp chamfer. Moreover, I take advantage of this airplane for leveling any inlay or for performing every other small planing process the place I’m involved about tearout.
Tackling finish grain
Sharpening a block airplane iron at a low angle like 25° after which combining it with a 12° frog leads to an angle of assault of 37°, which is nice for planing finish grain however not so nice for planing most face grain.
The draw back of ordinary block planes is their small dimension and the resultant lack of mass. They do properly for very mild planing of finish grain in straightforward woods like pine or cherry. When confronted with planing numerous finish grain or any heavier-duty process like planing 8/4 or 12/4 maple or white oak, I flip to my heavyweight bevel-up planes.
Block airplane on steroids
Years in the past, Lie-Nielsen Toolworks and different corporations began manufacturing planes based mostly on the Stanley No. 62. Launched in 1916, this airplane was developed particularly for flattening end-grain butcher blocks. It has every little thing you want for that daunting process: a 12° frog, a heavy cast-iron physique, and a thicker-than-normal iron. At present there are any variety of bevel-up planes obtainable in varied sizes. All of them are basically massive block planes. These planes mix vital mass with the pliability to change bevel angles simply.
I can use a low-angle bevel for heavy end-grain work or, most significantly, with a microbevel angle of 45°, I can create an ultra-high angle of assault of 57° for working hard-to-plane woods equivalent to quartersawn white oak or crotch walnut.
I take advantage of these bevel-up planes, specifically my Lie-Nielsen low-angle smoother, once I’m planing swirly tearout-prone face grain or planing numerous finish grain. I’ve separate irons sharpened for every sort: 25° for end-grain jobs and 45° for hard-to-plane face-grain work.
The ultra-high-angle bevel on these huge planes has persistently given me outcomes much better than these I’ve gotten from my commonplace bench planes, together with my outdated No. 4-1/2 with the York pitch, a device particularly made to airplane troublesome wooden.
Bob Van Dyke is the founder and director of the Connecticut Valley Faculty of Woodworking in Manchester, Conn.
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