LN 102 bevel

Re: LN 102 bevel

Derek Cohen (in Perth, Australia)

>I have one of my standard angle block planes, a Stanley #18 Knucklejoint, set up with a 60 degree cutting angle (i.e. the blade has a 40 degree bevel overall). It is used as a mini smoother and works superbly in this capacity. The adjustable mouth is an important part of this success since it can create a very small mouth. The LN #103 (not the 102, which has a LA bed not a standard angle bed) is probably not ideal in this regard since it lacks either an adjustable mouth or a small mouth. I would prefer to keep it in original format for end grain and general trimming, both areas in which it excels (see my post a few items down the page).

Regards from Perth

Derek

Re: LN 102 bevel

gordon thomas

>Derek:

could you direct me to your post. I cannot seem to locate it.

Cheers mate,

Gordon In Calgary

Links

Derek Cohen (in Perth, Australia)

>Hi Gordon

Actually, there are three Links to look out for:

http://www.woodcentral.com/cgi-bin/handtools.pl?noframes;read=68287

http://www.woodcentral.com/cgi-bin/handtools.pl?noframes;read=68098 (and within this also look for Re: Wood structure?? by Lyn Mangiameli)

In a nutshell, a #102/103 lacks the small mouth capability to plane intelinked grain, and raising the cutting angle will not get past this issue. These are very versatile planes, superior performers overall, but not to be turned into high angle mini smoothers.

Regards from Perth

Derek

Re: bevel angle and mouth opening

William Duffield, on the Cohansey

>> raising the cutting angle will not get past this issue

It depends on how high you are willing to raise the bevel angle. If you wanted to get totally ridiculous, you could even grind the end of a blade square, turn a hook, and use the block plane as a scraping plane. In practice, this would make that particular blade of little use for most of what most people would want to use the block plane. Also, the design of a block plane does not provide good support for the blade to minimize chatter in scraping mode.

More to the point, when planing face grain, as you go to very high bevel angles, a tight mouth becomes less important. In practice, I prefer to optimize both the bevel angle and mouth opening to get the best surface. I also strongly prefer planes with adjustable mouths.

So, I'm not really arguing with your statement, just discussing the fine points of surface refinement and plane geometry.

Re: bevel angle and mouth opening

Derek Cohen (in Perth, Australia)

>Hi William

I agree with everything you say. I will even expand on this.

My understanding is that the size of the mouth becomes progressively less important as the cutting angle rises above 60 degrees. Of course, the ultimate extension of this principle is a scraping plane (my #112 has a gaping mouth). However, the mouth size is still one of the parts of the equation when smoothing very interlinked face grain.

It is neither practical nor desirable for a small block plane, such as the #102/3, to be set up as above. I do have a Stanley #18 set up with a 60 degree cutting angle, but this is a larger plane with better registration and an adjustable mouth. I do not use it on end grain, prefering it for camphers and as a mini-smoother on tricky face grain.

Regards from Perth

Derek