High(er) Angle Plane

[Bryce Adams]

I've been working with quartersawn white oak, and having fairly substantial tear out with both a 45 degree Stanley #4 and a 45 degree Krenov style smoother (with a very tight mouth).

I'm considering building another wood plane with a higher bed angle to eliminate this tear out. I've seen planes at 50, 55, and 62 degrees and they are all set up to reduce tear out.

I'm fairly new to hand planes, and I understand the trade off to higher bed angles is more resistance in pushing the plane. What would be a good angle to make my new plane at?

Bryce

[David Keller NC]

That depends. There's more than just the extra effort required to push a higher-angle plane - the edge life from honing the iron also suffers a bit.

But for this particular project, you can test to see what angle you'd prefer. Take the iron out of your plane and hone a micro-bevel on the back side at 5 degrees - that will give you an effective planing angle of 50 degrees. If you still get tear-out, take the iron back out and hone the back with a micro-bevel of 10 degrees - which will give you an effective cutting angle of 55 degrees. And so on.

Also keep in mind that tear-out is also a function of the depth of cut, the iron's sharpness, and the mouth opening (as small as possible reduces tearout, but increases the chance of a clog).

[James Scheffler]

I've been working with quartersawn white oak, and having fairly substantial tear out with both a 45 degree Stanley #4 and a 45 degree Krenov style smoother (with a very tight mouth).

I'm considering building another wood plane with a higher bed angle to eliminate this tear out. I've seen planes at 50, 55, and 62 degrees and they are all set up to reduce tear out.

I'm fairly new to hand planes, and I understand the trade off to higher bed angles is more resistance in pushing the plane. What would be a good angle to make my new plane at?

Bryce

I'm certainly not the voice of experience, but I'm in the exact same place. I'm doing a project in quartersawn oak as well and plan to build a plane very soon. I just ordered one of the Lee Valley blades for wooden planes, 1.875" in A2 steel. I'm going to use the Krenov technique but make it more like one of the old coffin smoothers.

Anyway, based on some online research I did, I think 55 degrees is the way to go for oak. My Stanley No. 4 does fine with the grain on oak, but reversing grain will definitely be a problem.

Best of luck to you!

Jim S.

[Bryce Adams]

Honing different back bevels to see what angle eliminates tear out is a good idea. I hadn't thought of that.

I suspect a 55 degree plane will make a good addition to my plane lineup. Standard 45 for well-behaved woods and 55 for stuff more prone to tearing out.

At any rate, building Krenov type planes is pretty simple, and if I make them fit my existing 2" Hock iron, I can make 2 or 3 planes and swap the iron between them as the work dictates.

[Brian Kent]

My very favorite high angle plane - $55

http://japanwoodworker.com/product.asp?s=JapanWoodworker&pf_id=98%2E107%2E2155&dept_id=13602

63°

Brian

[Derek Cohen]

If you plan to build a Krenov-type plane, why not make it BU (with a 25 degree bed)? Then you can have a variety of high angle choices (from 50 - 60 degrees).

BU infill smoother from Stanley #3 ...

http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a262/Derek50/Planes/Stanley3infill1.jpg

Regards from Perth

Derek

[Brian Kent]

Derek, I think there is a strength problem with a bevel-up Krenov style plane. But I think your bevel up #3 infill is a great and doable idea.

[Casey Gooding]

I built one of my Krenov planes with a 55 degree bed. Solved the tearout issues in white oak. It's not much harder to push than my 45 degree Krenov. However, the 62 degree plane I made is significantly harder to push.