Small, Bevel Up, High Angle, Krenov-Style plane...
Jonathan Kaplan (OR)
>Recently, I ran into a wood that I just couldn't get a handle on. I decided to use "flame birch" for this cabinet I�ve been in the process of making for almost two years. I bought the wood well over two years ago now, milled it to rough size before I moved, and started working it to final dimensions last month.
My trustyLN #4 wasn�t working on it at all. I�d sharpen the blade, tune it as well as I could, and I�d get massive tear out. I�d think my sharpening skills must be off, and grab a scrap piece of purpleheart, or bloodwood, or cocobolo, etc., and the plane would leave a beautiful, shimmering surface. Back to the birch � a mess. Card scrapers worked OK, but were very slow.
So I figured it might be time to move to a high-angle plane. For the fun of it, I decided to make a high-angle, bevel-up plane. The blade (a Hock) came ground at around 25*, and I mounted it on a 30* bed, for a total angle of 55*. After messing around w/ various tricky ideas for making it adjustable that didn�t work, I gave up and made a straight-forward Krenov style plane.
The good news? It works! I�ve been able to plane the wood w/ minimal or no tear-out, and the surface it leaves is at least as good as that left by scrapers. The bad news? Well, it ain�t pretty, but...
Thanks for looking!
jk
