Stewie, teach me please because I missed something. Do you think his approach worked so well because he back bevelled the cutting iron, or because he rasped the surface before planing, or both?
Thank you.
Fred
"All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing."
“If you want to know what a man's like, take a good look at how he treats his inferiors, not his equals.”
Fred; its the use of a back bevel to increase the effective approach angle of the cutting edge (above that being governed by the blades bed).
Stevie, are the last two pictures of a (your?) bench top dressed with a toothed blade? The shavings look similar to those created when those tools are used.
Lee; yes its my work bench and toothing plane.
Backbevel achieved with David Charlesworth's "ruler trick"?
Worth having a spare blade or two to do that in Australia with all those wonderful hardwoods you get.
Lovely wooden plane collection Stewie and a nice flat bench to use them on!
You can do a lot with very little! You can do a little more with a lot!
In 1824 an Englishman named Williamson (1793-1881) claimed to have invented the back bevel. What is interesting about his claims is that the double iron was so universal at the time that apparently Williamson himself was unaware that there had ever been high angle bench planes. He got a prize for his invention.
The editor of the Franklin Institute Journal commented that the back bevel was just making the plane into a high angle plane and dismissed the invention as "of no importance whatever". The editor said the double iron had been in use for over forty years.
Put me in the camp using a toothed blade (on difficult woods) before final planing. I'm currently building a Moxon vise from white ash. That wood has so many grain reversals that the finish planing is much easier if preceded by the toothed blade I have in a No. 62 plane. Like Stewie, I tooth my bench top and leave it that way. It is also ash, by the way. I have not tried a back bevel but will give it a go. I have had good success with scrapers and scraper planes instead.
"All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing."
“If you want to know what a man's like, take a good look at how he treats his inferiors, not his equals.”
Hopefully Warren will reply later. One thought on this could be if one doesn't have a high angle plane, then a back bevel or a secondary high angle bevel on a bevel up plane might be better than rushing out and buying a high angle plane.
There are many approaches to planing difficult wood. Is any one of them better than all the others for every difficult piece of wood?
It might be better if one learns to use as many of the ways as can be found.
jtk
"A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty."
- Sir Winston Churchill (1874-1965)