Advice for bevel up smoother blade

[HomerLee]

I have purchased a Veritas bevel up smoother from a fellow woodnetter. It has a 38 degree blade. I want an extra blade I can have at a steeper angle. The 38 degree gives a total of 50 degrees with the 12 degree bed. Veritas has a 50 degree blade available for total of 62. It would seem I would never want to go any steeper so with that blade I will be stuck sharpening the whole face (no micro bevel). I can buy another 38 degree blade and add another 5 or 10 micro bevel for a total of 55 or 60. What I do not know is how well a bevel up works with a micro bevel since there is no chip breaker. Which way would you go?

[Rob Young]

HomerLee said:

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I have purchased a Veritas bevel up smoother from a fellow woodnetter. It has a 38 degree blade. I want an extra blade I can have at a steeper angle. The 38 degree gives a total of 50 degrees with the 12 degree bed. Veritas has a 50 degree blade available for total of 62. It would seem I would never want to go any steeper so with that blade I will be stuck sharpening the whole face (no micro bevel). I can buy another 38 degree blade and add another 5 or 10 micro bevel for a total of 55 or 60. What I do not know is how well a bevel up works with a micro bevel since there is no chip breaker. Which way would you go?

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38 degree and add whatever extra angle you want.

[cputnam]

Get the 25° blade and add a secondary bevel of whatever angle you like. Also easier to break the corners (for track dimenishment). You can do a complete camber if you want but so far I've done OK with just breaking the corners. From some time ago, I order any new blades at 25° and put a tiny (micro) bevel on at the angle I want. Easy peasy.

[HomerLee]

Thanks for the replies but looking at the Lee Valley catalog I see I failed to give adequate info; my apologies for that. This is the plane:

http://www.leevalley.com/US/wood/Page.as...&cat=1,41182,48944,51870

I am wondering what I would use a 25 degree blade for as this is a coffin shaped plane and can not be used as a shooter. I have gone "plane crazy" and have the Veritas LA Jack and Stanley 604 and 605 Bedrocks though no dedicated shooters. The Veritas LA Jack came with a 25 degree blade that will fit the subject smoother. I want to have two blades to smooth a bunch of very wild quilted maple and was thinking along the lines Rob suggested.

But if I take a 38 degree blade and add a 12 degree micro bevel, then just behind the micro bevel there will be a relieved area on the remaining bevel face. With a bevel down plane and a close set chip breaker the combination provides the opposite profile. With the 50 degree blade there will be no relieved area but then you are stuck sharpening the entire bevel face or else a micro bevel will result in an even steeper than a total 62 degrees angle. That seems like a lot for an old man to push.

Hope I'm making sense. Maybe I am way overthinking this.

[Derek Cohen]

HL, please read this article.

http://www.inthewoodshop.com/WoodworkTec...lades.html

I wrote it a good many years ago now, but it helps explain the most efficient way of honing a camber on a BU blade. Note that the advice is for a cambered edge - which is, I believe, absolutely essential for ALL bench planes. Do not be tempted to purchase the high angle blades. They are only for those who do not camber the edges.

Regards from Perth

Derek

[HomerLee]

Derek,

Thank you! The article was very helpful; I had never considered the camber issue.

Homer

[JustinTyson]

Derek Cohen said:

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Note that the advice is for a cambered edge - which is, I believe, absolutely essential for ALL bench planes.

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Not to get off track or anything, but why would you suggest that a cambered edge is essential for a jointer? This is the only bench plane that I sharpen straight across.

I've read justifications for using a slightly cambered blade in a jointer before (old Adam Cherubini article in PWW) but find a straight blade much more useful for planing edge joints.

[Joel Runyan]

To my knowledge, there is no reason to buy any blade other than 25 if you use micro-bevels in your sharpening. I'm not sure I understand your previous statement, but the micro-bevel on a bevel-up iron goes on the primary bevel side. This means that a 25 degree iron can--in conjunction with the 12 degree bed--be honed to angles from 37 up to whatever you want, with a bit less material removed in the process.

[KlausK.]

I second both of the pre posters. You don't want to go with a 50 deg. blade angle unless the wood is really nasty. The heavy and wide BUS is not easy to push with a 62 deg. angle. So a 25 or 38 deg. blade with a tiny micro bevel will be the better choice IMO. The angle can be lowered to about 55 deg. easily what's enough in most cases. Since you already have a 38 deg. blade, the spare blade will be right with 25 deg. The 38 blade for all higher angles, 25 for the lower ones.

Since there's some folks out there that replaced their A2 or O1 blades with PM-V 11 ones, it might be worth to go with a WTB on S&S ... as long as you don't want to have the spare blade of PM-V 11 yourself


Klaus

[AHill]

Get the 25 deg PM-V11 blade. Keep the 25 deg on the PM-V11 and use it for shooting end grain. Hone a secondary bevel on your 38 deg blade to give you around 62 deg for nasty stuff. The PM-V11 will amaze you, and it will give you glassy smooth end grain after shooting.