There's not much to be gained by back beveling an iron bedded
at 12 degrees. That's about as low as you can go. Consider that
with a standard bench plane you'd have to sharpen the iron
to 33 degrees to get the same effect. I'm sure some people
go that steep, but the standard tends to be in the 25 to 30
degree range. Wear can occur to the bottom of the bevel
and the closer it is to parallel with the sole, the faster this
wear progresses, creating a "wear bevel". This is actually an
issue of concern for me with low angle planes.
Technically I wouldn't recommend back-beveling a low angle
plane iron unless the back of the iron was in such bad shape
flattening it wasn't a viable option. Now you can put a sliver
of back bevel on there, but understand that that's going
to get the wear bevel on it as you use it. Furthermore,
keeping a bevel grind square is made more challenging if
you back bevel the iron. Standard bench planes have a
wide range of adjustment but low angle planes are rather
fussy in this respect. If you flatten the back to a mirror
polish and focus your future honing on the top bevel only,
you'll be in a position to maintain that square edge by just
working from one side, which is easier. The wear bevel
that forms is so narrow it's hard to see. You can remove
it by simply maintaining the top bevel in general, but if
the plane doesn't always cut as well as it has when you
first got the iron really sharp, look to grinding (or stoning)
the top bevel back by 1/100" or something to get rid
of the wear bevel and then you'll be back in business.
at 12 degrees. That's about as low as you can go. Consider that
with a standard bench plane you'd have to sharpen the iron
to 33 degrees to get the same effect. I'm sure some people
go that steep, but the standard tends to be in the 25 to 30
degree range. Wear can occur to the bottom of the bevel
and the closer it is to parallel with the sole, the faster this
wear progresses, creating a "wear bevel". This is actually an
issue of concern for me with low angle planes.
Technically I wouldn't recommend back-beveling a low angle
plane iron unless the back of the iron was in such bad shape
flattening it wasn't a viable option. Now you can put a sliver
of back bevel on there, but understand that that's going
to get the wear bevel on it as you use it. Furthermore,
keeping a bevel grind square is made more challenging if
you back bevel the iron. Standard bench planes have a
wide range of adjustment but low angle planes are rather
fussy in this respect. If you flatten the back to a mirror
polish and focus your future honing on the top bevel only,
you'll be in a position to maintain that square edge by just
working from one side, which is easier. The wear bevel
that forms is so narrow it's hard to see. You can remove
it by simply maintaining the top bevel in general, but if
the plane doesn't always cut as well as it has when you
first got the iron really sharp, look to grinding (or stoning)
the top bevel back by 1/100" or something to get rid
of the wear bevel and then you'll be back in business.
