Just got a Lee Valley low angle block plane. Very nice plane. I am curious, however, if anyone has tried various angles other than the standard blade angles. I think Steve Knight has tested some non-standard angles. I wonder what he has found about the performance and characteristics of non-standard angles. Anyone else ever tested what a standard block plane can do that a low angle block plane cannot do?
I keep two low angled block planes on the bench. One is ground at 25 degrees, giving it an effective angle of 37 degrees for cutting end grain. It's also easier to push than one with a higher angle so I use it for cooperative straight grain. The other is ground at 38 degrees, giving a 50 degree angle which is nice for getting to small areas of squirrelly grain the smoother can't reach.
You could buy an extra iron and experiment.
I've a standard and a low. In my case, the standard is relegated to rougher work, as it seems better at breaking a chip running with the grain than the low angle.
I would imagine other angles have been tried in the evolution of the two varieties commonly available, and what is left has been deemed "the fittest."
"Non-standard" bedding angles have been used since wooden planes were first used. The higher the effective planing angle (read: the angle of the bevel plus the bedding angle on a bevel-up plane or simply the angle of bedding on a bevel-down plane), the more the plane approaches a scraping action. This can be very helpful for planing tricky grain without tearout.
I currently own two planes with high angles, a Clark & Williams coffin smoother at 55 degrees and a Knight coffin at 50 degrees. I also play around with my low-angle smoothers by putting a "macro-bevel" that's higher than the standard grind.
I own a couple of standard angle block planes, and find I don't reach for them very often. In theory, the higher angle should make them better on face grain, but since I don't use a block plane for smoothing, I don't find they offer any advantage. I'm more likely to use my block planes in endgrain, and that's where the lower angle is more effective.
But the cool thing about bevel-up planes is that all you have to do to test out how they perform at various angles is to grind the bevel higher or lower. You could even buy two irons for the same plane and swap them out for different types of planing.
Chuck Vance
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