Originally Posted by
Derek Cohen
The ramp does make a significant difference. I have demonstrated this many times. I do not see its primary benefit as spreading wear. The angle is simply too low. For spreading wear, I would stay with a flat board and what you could do is have a high fence, and then add a removable (series of) layers to the shooting board's platform (i.e. building it higher). Then the workpiece will be in line with an unused section of the plane blade.
I knew you'd comment on that...I've read all your stuff in detail. Hence my note that some would disagree with my assertion. Could just be that my blades are so sharp there's just no room for improvement.
In seriousness, I like my ramped shooting board, and am glad I made it. While I shouldn't say I don't think it does anything (sometimes things come out more black and white in when I write them then I intended), I haven't noticed a huge impact in ease of cut. For me, and I guess I should only speak for myself here..the difference is not all that significant. My mind may change someday...who knows... I have a good bit less experience with all this stuff than you.
It could just be another case of the woods we work being pretty different. Shooting end grain cherry and walnut or even hard maple isn't really all that difficult to begin with so the benefit may just be less noticeable for me. For that matter, I also don't find that a low angle of attack makes that much difference. Again, not saying it makes no difference, your tests and many people experience clearly demonstrate that it does. Its just that from my perspective the difference is not as huge in practice for me as many people say. I have some nasty something that I think is hickory in my shop...I should do some side by side playing with that on my straight and ramped boards. May highlight the extent to which the ramp is of benefit.
Of course, every little bit of improvement can add up to a big improvement, and I certainly wouldn't discourage people from using a ramped board and low angles.
You make a good point about it not spreading where all that much as I was thinking, especially on the stuff the size that gets shot typically. On wider boards the spread of wear is a little more significant since your using more of the slope. Your shim idea is an intriguing one, worth experimenting with. In fact, were I to make a shooting board again I'd almost be inclined to skip the trouble of making it sloped and just make a regular one and a stack of shims for it.
Last edited by Chris Griggs; 08-27-2013 at 11:33 AM.
Woodworking is terrific for keeping in shape, but it's also a deadly serious killing system...