Frank wrote:
>
> I have been thinking to build a miter plane for shooting (chuting).
Basically, a Krenovian plane with a thin side wall.... maybe a side wall of
aluminum or steel....the rest could be wood.
>
And Adam responded:
> I think they're in metal because a mitre plane is a low-angle, bevel-up plane,
> and the short grain in a wooden bed can't provide the support needed behind
> the blade. I have a wooden mitre plane, come to think of it, but the bed angle
> isn't as low as you can get with steel.
> Adam continued:
> I've made a couple of infill mitre planes, ...
They are beauties, too! I just went back to Adam's 2013 posting about one of his
and unfortunately the photo links in his post are no longer valid. Adam, maybe
you could re-post those photos?
> ....and they're pleasing to use, but a sharp blade does more for shooting
> than anything. This is good news if you want to make a Krenov plane with
> the blade bevel down, as it should work just fine. I've used a wooden jack,
> coffin smoother, and even a 60-1/2 on a shooting board successfully.
I certainly agree that the sharpness is hugely important.
One more point though: Everything else equal, the cutting angle determines how
the iron cuts. For a bevel-up plane, the cutting angle equals the bed angle of
the plane plus the bevel angle of the iron. Typical numbers for a cast-iron low-
angle bevel-up plane are a bed angle of 12 degrees and a bevel angle of 25
degrees, for a cutting angle of 37 degrees.
For a bevel-down plane, the bed angle and the cutting angle are the same. That
means you can build a bevel-down Krenov-style plane with a bed angle of 37
degrees and get the same 37-degree cutting angle that you get with a low-angle
bevel-up cast-iron plane. A 37-degree bed angle is certainly viable with a
wooden plane. Vic Tesolin's article in FWW #288 (Mar/Apr 2021) describes his
build of such a plane.
Note that a conventional bevel-down iron plane has a bed angle and a cutting
angle of 45 degrees, which isn't that different from the 37-degree cutting angle
of a bevel-up low angle plane. Hence we shouldn't be surprised at Adam's
statement that ordinary jack planes, smoothers, and even block planes work will
just fine with a shooting board, provided that their irons are sufficiently
sharp.
Cheers,
Chuck Taylor
north of Seattle USA
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