Bevel up & Bevel down

[Jerry Thompson]

Why do some planes have the bevel up and some down? What are the advantages and disadvantages of each?
Thank you.
JT

[Pedro Reyes]

They each have their application and advantages, different planes for different functions.

Short version:

Bevel up planes usually have lower cutting angle which works better on endgrain.
Bevel down planes have higher cutting angles which work better on long grain.

The long version will have me speculating a little on why planes were most likely originally all bevel down, I would be happy to share my views I just don't want to bore anyone.

/p

[Bob Barkto]

There are as many plane designs as there are minds to think them up, so I'll restrict this to just the ubiquitous bevel down Stanley/Bailey bench plane design and the more recent Veritas and Lie-Nielsen type bevel up bench planes. But I think the essential differences should be easy to extrapolate to any other designs.


With a bevel down plane the cutting angle is set by the angle of the frog or blade seat. About 45 degrees for the Bailey. This pitch or angle is thought by many to be a good compromise for most face and edge grain work in most woods. This high angle does not usually work well for end grain, where a shallower angle usually performs better. Some think it is too low for difficult grain where a higher angle of attack is thought to reduce the chances of tearout.

Changing blade bevel angles does not affect the cutting angle nor the performance to any great extent, unless the bevel angle gets extreme. Too shallow and the blade chips or dulls easily, too steep and the blade won't cut. But there is a fairly wide margin of in between the two extremes where not much difference in performance will be noticed and which also eliminates a sometimes ornery process of shaping a bevel to a fairly precise angle.

Having an adjustable frog allows changing the throat or mouth opening at little cost. Useful to adjust for coarse or fine work.
Bevel down blade adjustment mechanics are fairly simple, well established and relatively easy to produce at fairly low cost. All in all a workable design that is easy to work with.


Bevel up planes set the cutting angle by adjusting the bevel angle of the blade. The down side is that your blade bevel angle is much more critical. Small changes can have a big impact. However, this can be used to advantage, steeper angles for attacking wild grain, shallow angles for end grain work, etc., all with one plane. But if the angle is not right for the work, the work will suffer.

Adjusting the throat or mouth opening on a bevel up has to be done differently since it is impractical to have an adjustable frog on such planes. The usual means is an adjustable sole in front of the blade like is commonly seen in some block planes.

Another difference in bevel up designs is greater support for the blade, right down to where it exits the mouth of the plane. Some feel this is a major advantage.
With a movable frog and a bevel down blade there is some amount of unsupported blade right where most of the cutting stress is.

I think those are probably the most notable functional differences in the two designs.

[Mark Roderick]

Please speculate, I'd like to hear.

[Eddie Darby]

If the job is smoothing, then I prefer to use a Bevel Down plane.

The blade advance is right at my index finger, so I can easily approach the shaving thickness I want quickly by just taking my finger and turning the knob a hair after each attempted pass, until I get a shaving. I don't have to put the plane down, or anything else. Quick and easy.