Lie-Nielsen Block Planes
Block planes are the workhorses of the shop. Like the Low Angle Bench Planes, these planes all have the blade bevel up.
Low Angle Block planes have the blade bedded at 12°. We grind a 25° bevel on our block plane blades. This works well in low angle planes for end grain and general purpose work.Standard angle block planes have the blade bedded at 20°. The bedding angle, plus the bevel angle, equal 45°, which is the same cutting angle as a bench plane and gives a very good finish on flat and difficult grain.
Higher cutting angles will give excellent results in difficult or highly figured woods. A powerful technique for enhancing the performance of low angle planes is simply to hone an angle higher than 25º on the blade. For example, a 33º bevel makes an effective cutting angle of 45º, and a 38º bevel equals a 50º cutting angle. This is easily done by honing a small secondary bevel - no need to alter the entire bevel.
