Low Angle Vs High Angle The Best Plane For You
Low Angle Vs High Angle The Best Plane For You
What is the Best plane to use? Bevel up or bevel down? Low angle or high angle? this is one of those questions that keeps coming up and I would like to address it today. is one hand plane better than the other hand plane? which plane is better in different circumstances, and what is the best plane for me to use. One of the great hand tool woodworking arguments.
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OK, I just watched a video by another guy who said “a low angle jack is the only plane you will ever need”. I thought, “Great! One and done.” Now I watched this and I’m back to analysis paralysis again. A low angle plane should reduce tear out, but it doesn’t. So a low angle plane is only be better for end grain?
In my limited experiments with a couple planes I got for free, I don’t get wispy thin shavings. I get thick slices (with some effort) or something resembling saw dust. I’ve spent many hours with diamond stones and a Veritas honing guide trying to get a razor sharp edge and they catch my finger nail, but don’t shave hair. At this point, would it be reasonable to conclude that I need to pry open my wallet and buy a better plane or should I be able to get even a no name, flee market mystery plane to work well?
You’re a man’s man; "Get both. You can never have too many tools." 💯👍
Just came here after watching Mr Sellers video about a similar topic. I must say that you have explained positives and negatives of both planes. Thanks brother.
Do they make low angle, bevel down planes? If so, what are they used best for? Thanks and great video!
need help justifying to my better half the amount of tools I need. how you guys did it?
Very good explanation. Thanks.
If anything, this illustrates the joy of tools. Get both and learn how to use either or.
I’ve been trying to become more proficient with hand planes. I have always used power tools for everything I have ever built. A chisel here and there. Someone gave me a Stanley no.4 and 5 so I decided to learn how to used them. I’ve watched dozens of videos on how to tune up planes, sharpen irons, set chip breakers.. you get the idea. But I still can’t get a smooth consistent finish on certain woods. It’s so frustrating. I watched this video hoping you would demonstrate how a low angle plane would produce a smoother finish but that’s not the case.
Great video. Again. I wondered about the difference and why. I have some small planes, I think they are called palm planes that are bevel up. While my larger planes are bevel down. I tend to use the palm plane for end grains, just because it seemed to work better. I never tried to use them for a whole cutting board. Now I understand the logic behind them. 🙂
I often "brag" that my Subaru Forester is better off-road than a Mazda Miata and corners nicer on twisty mountain highways than a Jeep Wrangler. My Veritas #62 1/2 is kind of a similar deal–it isn’t the best at anything, but it’s very good at a lot of things. And, like changing tires, changing irons is an easy way to bias the performance in one direction or another.
a little back bevel on the iron could do the same thing as a different bevel on the low angle device…
( don’t have a preference just learning from multiple youtube channels 😀 )
You do know you can adjust the mouth as well… see those leavers in metal on the bar knob
get a japanese kanna instead XD
i use my no62 as my rough plane, it handles all of the roughs task, i can set it up pretty easily to take deep easy cuts even if it leaves some track but it saves the time and money of having a scrub plane and it always shines on the end grain afterwards.
Great video I really appreciate the detailed explanation.
Same with guitars, most end up with more than one!
Well presented, good information and comparison that is useful, said in a straight forward manner that is very much appreciated.
Perhaps even more important is your philosophical statement to take the information and apply it to your own way of working and see if this is the tool for you. There is no one tool that is exactly right for everyone. It is up to each of us individually to discover with the tool in our own hands what works best for ourselves.
I thank you for that reminder, to me, it is that process of learning and discovery that is at the heart of woodworking and keeps us coming back.
For the price of those 2, you could have 6 japanese planes and a set of nice chisels.
Biggest example of this is the difference in planes anglo-saxon countries to european central countries. Here almost 99% of people use European style wooden planes. Metal planes are often frowned upon and considered bulky, heavy, complicated to use etc. Then add to that the Japanese style of having so many pull-direction tools that some might consider illogical. It’s all a matter of style and personal preference. Great video, with great explanations!
In the same way that the best Bible is the one you read, the best hand tool is the one you use.
Thank you. I was hasitating and i eared so many différent argues with tear out, Bevel down vs low angle 60 degree Bevel… You are the first to go on that way
Hi! Nice viedo though the opinions seems to differ very much on this topic your conclusion is full of wisdom. I` d like to ask about one important thing in from the standpoint of ingeneering and re- servicing the low angle jack. Are all the screws and dimensions metric or imperial? Regards!
Great answer. Too many reviews say there is no difference.
Watched Rob Cosmans take on bevel up vs bevel down after I watched this one and am as confused as ever. I’ll go with what you said, "you can’t have too many planes". More planes it is! Grilling, gas vs charcoal.
thank you . love the answer need more tools
Where does a cabinet scraper fit in to this discussion?
It always makes me laugh when people argue about woodworking methods when the masters get the same results using all the same methods. Its mostly the worker using the tool.
Thanks! Which three planes would you recommend for a new woodworker?
I now think the low angle bevel up wins every time because it takes much less effort to cut through the fibres.
out of all my planes my veritas bevel up jointer is my favorite, my no. 62 comes in second, then all my bevel down planes…
but I recommend having both. the low angle are great all around planes, they take on most woods with ease, but every now and then….
Another great straight forward video, well done.
That’s impressive, I like that veritas plane
I appreciate your balance
James: An excellent comparison! I’m just starting to mess with this style of tool and your discussion cuts right through the myths and the hype. What refreshing clarity.
There is the best answer to do anything in woodworking! Not exactly what you might think it would be but sure our ancestors knew it very well as the spent a lot of time doing it. The best answer is the one that makes you more productive or more efficient. Except that sometimes you don’t know how to use tools efficiently or what tool. And in hobby world everybody tends to not care about efficiency. And then there is a fact that function of chipbreaker was forgotten and rediscovered again in 2011-2013. But once you master it then you know what it is for. And yes, both are needed for different tasks. Heck, for that matter even machines are needed for best efficiency. But here it is – if you are more productive then you are doing it more right than you did before.
Very educational. I will be sharing in some FB carpenter groups. Maybe in a UK group also as there seems to be many more traditional carpenters and woodworkers than I encounter in USA groups. I’ll be searching your channel next for sharpening advice!
I am a serious hobbyist working with as little power tools as possible. I aim to go professional. I am currently planning the purchase of my first set of quality hand planes – I’m Canadian, so it’s easy for me to get Veritas products. This video has just helped me figure out what I actually need. Thank you very much for making this material available. Cheers!
I’m interested in the shavings themselves. I’m making small things from veneer, and it would be a nice touch to make the veneer from some meaningful piece of wood, even if I have to glue multiple bits together to get what I want.
Which tool would I use to get shavings of wood closer to veneer?
How come your chip breaker us flat and not a weird curved shape like a Stanley one?
I work on fairly standard wood/stock, and rarely have to plane end grain thicker than 3/4”, for which I find a freshly sharpened Stanley no4 iron works well, or no6 if I’m using a shooting board.
For smoothing awkward grain I have a spare Stanley no4 with an iron with a 5 degree back bevel, often called a York pitch, it’s surprising how much harder that 5 degrees makes it to push through the work, but it hasn’t failed me yet. I have a low angle apron plane but very rarely use it. I’m not against low angle bevel up planes, I just have no use for one. If I was going to spend my money on a new plane I’d probably just get a more modern Bailey pattern from one of the current manufacturers like LN, or Wood River, or whatever, probably not a Veritas plane, I just don’t like how they look, I prefer traditional designs if you hadn’t guessed.
Hello, new guy who is somewhat starting to use bench planes and looking into the histories and what not of the tools. In my personal opinion the high angle, bevel down design with early modern to today’s metal bench planes are like a legacy design. It does make sense during the time transitioning from wooden body/sole of a bench plane to a metal (bronze/cast iron,) body/sole. If it ain’t broke why fix it mentality when Stanley first started making metal bodies for the plane designs. Since most and probably all of the planes before Stanley’s Bailey design were made with a very hard and dense wood that can handle abuse pretty well. It was probably very difficult to try and either to mortise (cut out,) or a laminated style during the late Victorian time period to early modern period. There is also the chance with the wood too not being durable enough to handle abuse with how thin trying to make a low angle, bevel up design with just wood. Although I could be wrong about the wooden design.
Amazing video though, keep a good job making amazing content for wood working
So basically the low angle plane is a bigger version of the low angle block plane? 😬😶
Small bevel angle makes the blade edge easily damaged. Try planing with a razor. That’s really low angle. Probably 2 stokes, you need to change blade.
Love your work, James. I got a bout of buyers regret after I ordered a low angle jack plane. I already own a bevel down jack. Thank you so much for advising me that I really need both! Excellent explanation of the strong suits of each type. Keep up the good work.
I don’t think it’s a "vs" question, the answer is to ave both for specific situations.
Very informative. A subject I had little knowledge of before.
Great explanation, thanx!
Enough of these argument. Both are basically cutting at 45 degrees.
The chatter is caused by the unsupported portion of the bevel. And it is specially more pronounced with thinner blades.
Thanks, I am just learning about planes now. One interesting thing I would like to add is I saw Rob Cosman swap out a blade and chipbreaker on his jack plane. I hope I get the terms right here he had a blade and chipbreaker set up for smoothing and one another pair set up for hogging. This was a high angle 5 1/2 Woodriver plane. Typically I see woodworkers with two different planes perhaps of the same size. Starting out and being a bit miserly I think this is a great idea. Of course this could be done on a low angle plane as well. Thanks again for discussing the pros and cons of each.
Great video as always! I’ve been looking at the veritas custom planes recently. I have a low angle smoothing plane and jack and my fingers are long enough to adjust the norris adjuster more or less on the fly with them, however the bailey style is much easier and more comfortable to adjust – can you adjust on the fly with the veritas custom planes?