Not my Cup of Tea

I have experimented with bevel up bench planes, and although they are preferred by many woodworkers these days, I have come to think of them as an odd choice. Historically, bevel up planes have been well suited to end grain (think shoulder planes). Nowadays there are popular, quality versions for use at the bench, made by reputable brands right up to Faberge standard collectors items.

I think they are attractive because they seem very simple and also perhaps familiar. Many woodworkers first dalliance with planes is a block plane, and after all Bevel up planes are in essence just overgrown block planes.

Another aspect people are perhaps drawn to is the novelty of an adjustable mouth. It seems so easy to set the mouth compared to the Bailey style, you can just dial in your perfect mouth size, whatever that is?. I'll be honest though, from my perspective this is a very overblown feature. To make any real difference in terms or dealing with nasty grain the mouth has to be crazy tight to exert pressure on the wood in advance of the cutting iron. And even then, metal still wears and that pressure is soon lost. The only time I notice an issue with a mouth is when using heavily worn wooden planes on edges, sometimes a corner of a workpiece can fall into the mouth. I've never had that issue with a Bailey style though, even when it's mouth is as open as much as possible.

Another celebrated feature of a bevel up plane is having different a selection of irons with different honing angles to allow a wide range of uses. Higher angle if dealing with bad face grain, lower if dealing with end grain. In my opinion this is as overblown as the different frog options that can be purchased for some modern bevel down planes. Sharp! That is is key, a sharp bevel down with a cap iron deals with just about everything.

I'll let you into a little secret. Don't worry about single iron planes regardless of them being bevel up or bevel down for normal normal work at the bench. Don't worry about high angle planing, back bevels or buying a different frog. Just get a bevel down plane with a cap iron and will do 99% of your planing tasks.

Even the Faberge grade bevel ups don't have the ability to adjust the depth of cut as you work or laterally adjust. You can do both of these with ease with a Bailey style regardless of it being a £20.00 car boot sale plane of a brand new £300.00+ bedrock version.

If you're happy with your workflow using a bevel up, or a single iron bevel down, great! Don't change because you've stumbled across this blog post. But if you're starting out it's good to know that a basic bailey bench plane with a cap iron will equal, if not out perform any other variant, period!