Bevel angle for low-angle 60-1/2

[Tom Jones III]

I just got the LN low angle 60-1/2, my first plane that didn't come from the borg or made in my workshop. Wow, what a plane. I bought it to plane end grain on walnut stair treads. It was amazing right out of the box!

I'm about to hone the blade (it came pretty darn sharp and with a flat back right from the factory). Should I set the bevel at 20* or 25*?

[Fred Gross]

It should have come from LN with a 25 degree bevel. Alot of the time, they recommend a 1 or 2 degree secondary bevel. Hope this helps.

[Dick Aubochon]

It should have come from LN with a 25 degree bevel. Alot of the time, they recommend a 1 or 2 degree secondary bevel. Hope this helps.

You should call and speak with Ted at LN. I believe they put a 30 deg bevel when they sharpen them at the store for people.

[Fred Gross]

Thanks for the tip. I was just passing the info in the pamphlet that came with my LN block plane. Could be that is is just a cookie-cutter type pamphlet that they include with their block planes.

[Mike Henderson]

Normally, the blades of block planes are shaprened to 25*

For a low angle block plane, this gives you an effective angle of 37* for cutting. For a high angle, like the 9 1/2, this gives you a cutting angle of 45*

Mike

[Tom Jones III]

It came from LN with a 25* bevel. Garrett Hack in his Handplane Book suggests a bevel angle of 20* for a low angle block may work better for end grain. LN seems like they have put a lot of thought into their planes so unless people were very strongly in favor of a 20* angle in this application I'll just keep it at 25*.

[Ron Brese]

You'll find lots of other stuff to do with that plane besides just using it on end grain so I think you'd be smart to stay with the 25 deg. Given the thickness of the iron I don't think I'd worry about a micro-bevel.

Ron