Cambering a Bevel Up Plane Blade

[Phil john williams]

Hi All,

I am considering purchasing a Veritas bevel up smoothing plane and was wondering about cambering the blade. Some I have read have said that it can be cambered the same way one would cambera blade for a bevel down plane, while others have said the bevel up design requires a different technique, without explainig what ths technique is. So my question is, for those of you using LV bevel up planes, do you camber your blades, and if so, how do you do it?

phil

[David Gendron]

In my experience, you can camber the iron the same way you would a devel down one, the only difference is in the amount of camber you have to do to get the same results. So for a smoother, you don't usualy need a lot of camber, maybe a 1/32 off each corners so just a few passes on your sharpening media, with more pressure on one side then the other, should do the trick! if you go there, this is Derrek's wed sit; http://www.inthewoodshop.com/WoodworkTechniques/TheSecretToCamberinBUPlaneBlades.html

You will find this and a lot more!!

[Bob Jones]

Also google brent beach. His sharpening website goes into detail on the subject. I have the lv bu smoother and I think its great.

[Mark Ketelsen]

BU irons need more camber because they are bedded at a significantly lower angle. Just think about the geometry of a blade projecing from the plane sole at a flat angle to understand why this is so.

Another issue that I think a lot of people don't understand about BU plane irons is that a wear bevel develops on the flat side of the iron. These people will find that they are not able to achieve the same sharpness that they could the first couple of times they sharpened.

To achieve a truly sharp iron, it is necessary to remove enough material from the bevel to completely eliminate the wear bevel on the flat side of the iron. An alternative, which is the way I do it, is to hone a slight back bevel using the "ruler trick" every time you sharpen.

[David Weaver]

This is one of the reasons I'd like to see LV make a 25 degree bed bevel up plane with a solid frog. I have the BU jack and had the BUS, but in the end, I just like maintaining cambered blades on a BD plane so much better.

[lowell holmes]

The ruler trick helps with this issue. I think eventually the back bevel, unintended or not, has to be removed.
That said, my bu smoother with the 50 degree iron is remarkable!

Also, I round the corners of the iron a bit and the plane leaves no tracks. I did this at the suggestion of somebody at Lee Valley. Just use a stone or hone vertical with the iron flat and stroke the corners, rotating the iron as you go. It relieves the iron to the point there are no visible tracks. I do this instead of cambering the iron.