Michael Brady
Dennis has requested a clarification of my comment about a ramped board offsetting the benefits of a cutter skewed to the direction of cut. Look at the photo of ramped board in the "eagle has landed" post. If the skew was designed to cut optimally at say 20 degrees, ramping the board either up or down marginally changes the angle that the wood "sees" the cutter. This obviously changes the designed cutter skew angle relative to the direction of the end grain. If the skew angle is truly a calculated value determined by the tool's designers, than the maker of the shooting board has unwittingly discarded the intentions of that design by slanting the board and the workpiece. Also remember that a shooting board fails if it does not have a fence that fully supports the trailing side of the workpiece against spelching. The more slant and skew present at the point of exit of the cutter, the greater the chance for unsupported wood on the trailing side blowing out. DAMHIKT.

One thing I do like about ramped boards in that they may tend to help keep the plane perpendicular to the workpiece during the cutting stroke. In fact, I would say that is their only real virtue.

The value of spreading the blade wear over a slightly greater length of the cutting edge is negligible on typical 3/4" to 1" stock, a few inches wide, so why even bother with the ramp in the first place?