Thread: Bevel Up? Bevel Down?

All of those Stanley bench planes should be bevel down......buy a #220 or other sort of Stanley block plane and you will have a bevel up plane.

As far as I know (not being a plane expert) those should all be down. Mind you if you find they work better for what you are doing the other way I'd keep doing it.
Block planes are bevel up which is why if you look for the larger low angle planes like LN and LV you will usualy find them under block plane even though they have #4's, jacks, and jointers. Derek or TS will be of more help I'm sure.

That is right, all the planes Wongday listed are bevel down planes. You can however use them bevel up. You will end up with supper high angle plane, 45º for the frog plus 30º for the blade bevel, giving you a 75º effective cutting angle. The only problem is that the lateral adjuster will not work, so you will have to shift it manually.

Originally Posted by thumbsucker

.... The only problem is that the lateral adjuster will not work, so you will have to shift it manually.

?? Did you mean depth adjustor, TS? I can't see any reason why the lateral adjustor wouldn't work - you turn the blade over & the lateral adj. slot is still in exactly the same relative position. However, because you now have to set the cap-iron back behind the bevel, you might find you cannot get the depth adjustor cam to engage in the cap-iron. You may or may not, depending on the plane.

Whether bevels go up or down is a simple matter of blade bed-angle geometry, Wongdai. Block planes and some other planes in that family have blades bedded at a very low angle. If you tried to use a blade in one of these bevel down, the bevel would have to be less than the bed angle (i.e. < 12 degrees for very low angle ones like the 61 1/2) or it will simply rub on the wood & prevent the edge from cutting. Bevel angle of less than 12 degrees are quite impractical, so the problem is solved, simply by turning the blade bevel-up. Then the clearance angle becomes the same as the bed angle, and the bevel angle becomes the cutting angle. This even confers some advantages, because you can change the cutting angle easily, by changing the bevel angle. On bevel-down planes, the bed angle is the cutting angle (unless someone has put a non-parallel blade in it!), & the only way to change the cutting angle is to put a 'back bevel' on the blade. A lot of good people do this, but IMO, it's not the best solution - back-bevels are harder to do well, & harder to maintain accurately, plus there are issues setting the cap-iron. Far better to make or buy a high-angle plane, if you really need a high-angle cutter, or at least go for one of the new tribe of BU planes by L-N & LV and get a 'spare' blade with a high bevel angle. Any excuse to acquire another plane, eh?

My 2c,
Cheers,

What an excellent reply IanW. I now understand the whys and wherefors of bevel up versus bevel down, without having to know each model number.

I also understand more about how a plane works.

I found a low angle plane in my shed with the bevel down, and turning it around sure improved things.