All language subtitles for Handplanes - Low Angle vs. High Angle

hello everybody today we're going to

talk about a few things that you should

consider when you're purchasing hand

planes and to do that we need to talk

about the difference between the two

major types of hand planes we have

low-angle block planes and high angle

planes we're not going to talk about

specialty planes like shoulder planes

and scraper planes today we'll get to

those in a future episode so let's take

a closer look so here we have a typical

high angle plane this happens to be a

number 7 jointer plane and here we have

a typical low angle plane this is a

number 62 low angle Jack plane on a high

angle plane the planes blade is bedded

at 45 degrees with the bevel facing down

and that's a critical difference between

high angle planes and low angle planes

won't get into that difference in a

little bit on a low angle plane the

blade is actually bedded at about 12

degrees with the bevel facing up now

let's take apart this plane you can see

on a high angle plane we have a cap iron

with a lever that actually locks all of

these layers together we have a blade

and chipbreaker assembly that is

disassembled with this slotted screw

here and finally we have a frog and

that's this entire assembly here that is

attached to the sole of the plane on the

Frog there's a lateral adjustment lever

and also there's a thumb screw for

adjusting the depth of cut

on a low-angle plane again you have a

cap this time it's tightened with a

thumb screw and you have a blade and

that's it so on a high angle plane you

have several more parts than you do on a

low angle plane and this can make

setting up a high angle plane to cut

properly a little bit more finicky than

sending a below angle plane but once you

get used to it it only takes a few

minutes to adjust the throat opening on

a high angle plane you actually move the

entire frog assembly forward and

backward which advances the blade

forward and backward the farther forward

the blade is the tighter the throat

opening becomes but this distance on the

sole between here and here is fixed so

it's controlled completely by the

placement of the frog in the bed of the

plane here and that's adjusted with some

adjustment screws in the back of the

Frog by contrast on a low angle plane

there's a lever underneath the knob on

the front of the plane that controls a

movable plate in the sole of the plane

so I can tighten the throat opening with

the lever or I can loosen it up for a

course or cut it's a very quick

adjustment and it makes a low angle

plane much easier to adjust for a course

cut and then immediately for a fine cut

whereas this takes several minutes to

adjust typically once you've set up a

high angle plane for a certain throat

opening you leave it there for the rest

of its life now each one of these plane

designs has certain advantages and

disadvantages on a high angle plane you

have additional parts which add

additional mass and that can be useful

in certain situations where you need the

plane to have a fair amount of Authority

in the cut if you're taking a heavy

shaving perhaps or you're actually doing

some of your dimensional milling with

hand planes instead of a joint

or in a planer sometimes having that

extra mass can really help push through

the cut at other times that extra mass

can just wear you out

so it's an advantage but it's also a

possible disadvantage another advantage

to a high angle plane over a low angle

plane is the position of the depth of

cut adjuster you can see here on the low

angle plane it actually sits very low in

the body of the plane and here on the

high angle plane you can see that

actually while I'm cutting I can adjust

the depth of cut with my finger the

wheel itself is larger and while you're

pushing through a cut you can actually

adjust the depth of cut in the middle of

your pass which can be very useful on

this plane there's actually no way to do

that I can reach it with my pinky but

the knob is so small it doesn't offer me

enough torque especially with my pinky

here to actually make any adjustment

during the cut so you have to stop pick

up the plane make your depth adjustment

try another cut usually I do that on a

little test piece that I'm sliding

underneath and I get it set up before I

ever take it to the workpiece but on a

plane like this if you decide mid cut

and you actually want a bit a bit deeper

cut you just swing the depth adjuster

forward a little bit and you're there so

organ amelie the depth adjuster is

definitely better on high angle planes

the advantages of a low angle plane get

back to this notion of the blade being

bedded in the plane with a bevel facing

up on a high angle plane with the bevel

facing down no matter what angle we

grind the blade the wood is going to see

the exact same angle of cut and that

means that changing the bevel angle

doesn't really change the performance of

the plane it might make your blades

sharpness last longer if you sharpen it

a steeper angle but in turn

of its performance in the cut it doesn't

change at all on a low angle plane by

contrast with the bevel facing up we can

actually change the angle of our grind

to change the performance of the plane

so for really tricky grain where you're

getting a lot of tear out a steeper

grind will eliminate that problem for

soft woods or for in grain a really

shallow grind will increase the

performance of the plane generally

speaking you're going to use some sort

of median grind and you can see on these

two plane blades that I have for the low

angle plane how much we've used over the

years this median grind compared to our

specialty grind here this is quite a bit

shorter this by the way represents eight

years of use with this plane blade so

you can see how long a single plane

blade is actually going to last and we

use this plane every day so this played

we have sharpened on its micro bevel to

a much steeper angle just in case we're

dealing with trickier green but

day-to-day we tend to use this blade

still that possibility of changing the

angle on your blade to change the

performance of the plane itself adds to

the versatility of low angle planes and

for that reason if you're just starting

out with hand planes I recommend getting

a low angle Jack plane like this because

you can use it for so many different

tasks it is incredibly versatile it's

great for smoothing it's great for work

on end grain it's great for work on edge

green and it's a really good shooting

plane when you start to get into

building your own shooting boards we'll

talk about that a future episode as well

additionally I would recommend getting a

low angle block plane for work where

you're having difficulty clamping the

piece or the piece is just really small

a low angle block plane is indispensable

after that you can start adding high

angle planes or additional low angle

planes to your collection to add to your

collections capabilities but to start

out with I would definitely go with the

low angle plane and this plane in

particular is the one that I tend to

grab more often than any other plane

there's something about the way that

feels in the hand and of course the size

of the plane that really make it the

workhorse in our shop when you're buying

hand planes I recommend buying the

highest quality hand planes that you can

afford you want thick blades in the case

of this block plane the blade is

actually 3/16 of an inch thick which

really helps to reduce chatter in the

cut on the case of this high angle plane

the blade is about an eighth of an inch

thick but when combined with the

chipbreaker it's over a quarter of an

inch thick as an assembly and chatter

really isn't an issue with these high

angle planes you'll also get precisely

milled Souls so you don't have to lap

your souls flat when you get them and

they're generally made of ductile cast

iron which is a very tough iron so if

you end up dropping the plane on the

floor usually you can pick it right up

again and keep using it one thing you

definitely want to watch out for if

you're buying a high angle plane is to

make sure that the chipbreaker and blade

assembly come together perfectly along

the width of the blade if there's any

gap between the chip breaker and the

blade you are guaranteed to get shaving

stuck between the chip breaker and the

blade during the cut and when you do

that there's really not much you can do

except for take the entire assembly

apart remove this thumb screw

take the offending shaving out put it

all back together again and readjust and

start over

and that's a real pain so if you do end

up with a gap here on a plane that

you've purchased take the time to mill

this chip breaker flat so that it meets

up perfectly with the blade and that

will help to alleviate any chips getting

caught between the two well hopefully

this does

question on low angle planes and high

angle planes will help you decide what

hand planes you need in your shop

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