How to sharpen a bevel up blade?

[overland]

How do I sharpen my low-angle Lie-Nielsen block plane? I use a microbevel on my bevel-down irons. Do I use a micro-bevel on my bevel-up irons, too?

[Strokes77]

How do I sharpen my low-angle Lie-Nielsen block plane? I use a microbevel on my bevel-down irons. Do I use a micro-bevel on my bevel-up irons, too?

Yep.  I would.  The purpose of a microbevel is to make honing go faster.

The only difference "in sharpening" between a bevel up iron is that any angle you add, adds to the cutting angle... on a bevel down plane it is mostly irrelevant what angle you sharpen to you will still cut at 45degrees...   On a bevel up iron, the angle you sharpen to determines the angle you cut at.



Anyone who gets more complicated than this, likes being complicated more than they like working.

[AHill]

Yep.  I would.  The purpose of a microbevel is to make honing go faster.

The only difference "in sharpening" between a bevel up iron is that any angle you add, adds to the cutting angle... on a bevel down plane it is mostly irrelevant what angle you sharpen to you will still cut at 45degrees...   On a bevel up iron, the angle you sharpen to determines the angle you cut at.

Anyone who gets more complicated than this, likes being complicated more than they like working.

I agree - for a LN block plane, where the blade is 25 deg and the bedding angle is 12 deg, which brings the cutting angle to 37 deg.  As long as your microbevel is 2-3 deg, you're fine.  If you add a 5 deg or more bevel, then you're getting a cutting angle pretty close to 45 deg, and that defeats the purpose of buying a low angle block plane in the first place.  Without a honing guide, you're more likely to add a larger microbevel than intended.  A higher angle means more force to push the plane.  A block plane has no tote, so higher angled block planes might be more difficult to push given your grip is mostly on the sides of the plane, with your palm resting on the rounded portion of the cap.  

In the interest of keeping it simple, I'll forego any discussion of why you'd want a cutting angle like 55-60 deg, cuz that would be more complicated.