Good advice!! I have never worried about bevel angles on my chisels as they seem to open my paint can lids just fine.

After all these years you've still got the best can koozie on the KZfaqs.

"You don't have to get carried away' - This is the best advice EVER. Thank you very much. Too many people go on stress drugs over their sharpening and angles. Whew!

Thank you James for creating these videos, if your video's are scripted it does not come across as so. You leave the impression that you are speaking from personal experience, which makes me and most others feel confident in your lesson. You are a great teacher, I wish I could have learned these lessons years ago. I have spent countless hours trying to get that perfect angle. Thanks again, hope you are doing well.

A clarification - bevel down planes can be adjusted at the blade by adding a very small "back bevel" on the flat surface of the iron. This effectively increases the angle at the cutting edge & can be useful for reducing tear out in highly figured wood. Certainly not needed for average use!

Another time, still again, all you need to know on a subject from James, thank you so much!

Thanks, Stumpy. I have been wondering this because my experience with chisels and planes (not extensive) has nudged me in the Doesn't-Matter camp for some time.

Finally someone talked about the clearance angle on the bevel down plane blade. 10 degree clearance angle has been been working fine with the experiments I have been doing for the past month on every piece of scrap wood I could find. The edge retention is better meaning less time to sharpen.

Great Advice!

Excellent advice, now standby for the onslaught of hate mail. Love the common sense approach of your channel and website.

Thank you! I have been confused by all the advice i have been getting without a good explanation of the physics behind bevel angles. Best explanation i have heard yet!

Excellent as usual James, simple, concise and accurate information presented without palaver or fanfare, yeah, y’ can ask the moustache about that phrase if you need lol, and that was “palaver” not our great Australian/New Zealand invention of pavlova. Tho we’re not sure who invented it first, us or our Kiwi brothers and sisters, we all agree it’s the best dessert on the planet lol. Have a great day mate and keep the pearls of wisdom coming and thank you for all the hard work and advise, it truly is appreciated.

Spot on James. I sharpen my chisels to 20’. Less wedging and sideways movement.

Much appreciated; happen to have two #4 I’ll use one for soft the other for hardwoods

THANK YOU for this. I thought i was going to lose my mind lately as I've been toiling over what angles to use for my planes and then considering after researching I might need more than one set of chisels....

Lots of great information as always James. Thanks for sharing your knowledge with us.

Thanks James - seriously useful stuff. Great use of diagrams to explain the why. Great for explaining why hardwood and softwood behave differently to the same chisel.As a novice - sharpening is the place I really want to get sorted first as dull tools are not going to cut it! I have ordered the book from your last review. Sharpening has to get to - ok it needs a touch up rather than oh shit. Many thanks.

Thanks a lot for this. Been trying to learn to sharpen for the past 30 years, still not an exact science or results for me. I will give the old hand plane another go and the chisels. Two thumbs up!

Eleven out of ten for usefulness. Thank you! The illustrations were very helpful indeed.

I completely agree, James, but a point you might emphasize just a bit: While the preferred angle is not so important, being consistent with the angle is. Maintaining the angle makes sharpening much easier and faster, and extends the life of the tool. Between your videos on number of chisels, angles, and sharpening 99 44/100% of us can consider or needs in this area met. Much appreciate your expertise and your willingness to share.

stumpy you always solve my problems just before I encounter them. Thanks for saving me hours at the grinder I just purchased

Very helpful James. Thanks.

Always wondered about this and those really expensive chisels, Mr. Sellers has used a well sharpened $10 set of chisels and an ebay Stanley no4 to do just about everything. Now I get why it works, Thx.

Excellent video and common sense advice as always James. Keep up the good work, I just can't believe that your channel doesn't have more subscribers, you certainly deserve it.

Thank you so much for the live sketch, made the understanding 10x easier, maybe even x20 :)

Nice, but you left out some significant things regarding planes, though. The angle also changes the stiffness of the edge. A higher sharpening angle helps to reduce chatter. (End grain, curly grain, yada yada). People want to sell you extra thick plane irons, but most of the flex is happening near the edge where the steel gets super thin, IMO. Also, the top angle can be changed on a bevel down plane without changing the frog... by grinding the other side of the blade. I put a tiny 10 degree back bevel on one of my blades for my only plane, a Bailey 4. (Well, I rarely use a small block plane, too). It works for me. Less chatter, less tearout, less blade damage/reshapening when hitting weird grain or knots. It might be my imagination, but I think I can set the cap closer to the edge without jamming it with wood fibers. (All about reducing flex/chatter). There may be a scosch more resistance planing with the grain of "easy" wood, but that isn't a big deal to me.* If I had only 1 blade, I'd probably do it up with the back bevel for my needs. *I'm not really a woodworker, but every time I watch a plane sharpening/angle video, dude demonstrates this over and over. Planing with the grain. Good job on not doing this, James! Now, I might be doing it wrong, but 90% of my elbow grease goes across the grain, sideways. Hogging down high spots or getting down to thickness. I only do a few finishing passes which go with the grain, with some exceptions like when shooting the edge of a board. So a plane's performance in this area is not a big deal for me. That's only the last 10 feet of a marathon. :) I'm not big into hand tools, but I get a lot of utility out of a plane, because I don't have a table saw. Planing bandsawed hardwood actually saves me a ton of time over using just the belt sander. It's amazing how small a piece of hardwood can be where an 80 grit belt hardly touches it as it approaches flat. Around 8 square inches of flat surface area and above, and my belt sander is almost useless.

Well done mate!

this is the most informative video on angles I've seen. Thanks

Top notch advice and explanation. Thank you.

"Bob's your uncle" That made a lot of sense , Thanks

Don't tell my wife I don't need all of my chisels... I have two good sets of Narex chisels... one of which I let feel the slight strike of a mallet. I have several old sets of chisels, some of which I would be willing to cut mortises in really hard wood. Then some spare sets... and then the ugly yellow plastic handle one that I have been known to lend to people because it doesnt matter what happens to it. That last one is the additional chisel that every wood worker needs!

great video, have a cold one my friend, you deserve it.

How are you ever going to start an internet woodworker war by teaching common sense?

Had to watch this one twice.I liked it.

Thanks, useful information, 👍

Great info. I always learn something from your videos. Thanks James.

"You would need hundreds of different chisels and planes..." Turn around and take a look, Stumpy! :)

I love when you draw.

All very good info... Balance between sharp and edge durability. Keep it sharp (hone often), and the angle does not matter so much. Please give my Regards to Moustache Mike.

Thanks, I was actually over thinking bevel angles. LOL

Thanks for the great advice James! For the average hobby Woodworker apply the "kiss" principle. - - Keep it simple stupid 😁

Excellent information

a 10 to15 degree back bevel on a bevel down, (45 degree frog) jack/smoothing plane will do wonders on highly figured, tear-out prone hardwoods.

I tend to stick with 35 degrees, just easier to maintain no matter what wood I am cutting a mortise in. Yes some woods take longer but, less time sharpening and more time actually working gets you there faster in my opinion. Especially if you hand sharpen like I do, no grinders or power sharpeners, just stones which takes longer than using powered methods but there's something satisfying about hand sharpening which I do not know why but I like it lol.

Great perspective! 30 degrees will lop off a finger just as well as 20 degrees. Just make sure its sharp, it hurts less!! Thanks for the common sense and making something simple that too many people want to overly complicate. I'm a carpenter/ woodworker who likes completing a project with precision and perfection , not a grad student at MIT searching and spending countless hours for the holy grail of type of metal and perfect polish and angle to cut a piece of wood. A little common sense and some experiance behind it and you can ignore a lot of things that turn out to be more hyperbole than practical in application.

Good advice! No buying more diamonds like that last video.

Brilliant Thanks

I feel kinda stupid admitting this, but I've always chiseled with the bevel down because I seem to be able to control the depth of the cut better. I only use bevel up when paring.

Once again Thanks James!!! Great advice and very helpfull.

thanks for the good knowledge! this will definantely be one to save!

So what brands would you recommend for a new wood worker who doesn’t have the money to buy a ton of stuff? Could you also do another video, if you haven’t already, on the different types of planers and what they are used for? Thanks.

Thank you.

good idea to shoot down so the so called experts on sharpening. when i did my training many years ago there were no jigs etc it was all done by eye and i still do it that way. mainly for the speed and because it has never affected my work. as i pretty much only work in hardwoods i tend to between 25 to 30 on chisels, but that is because as i said earlier i don't use jigs. i never have a problem with the tool giving me what i want in a cut. taking the time to free hand sharpen pays off as i can take a chisel to the stones and be back at work inside a minute. not the 5 to 10 it would take to set up a jig. cant make money standing at the stones. my biggest gripe is that most of the so called wood experts on youtube are amateurs and have learn't by watching other amateurs do it wrong and then pass on the same errors as gospel.

Thanks.. very logical From India 👍🏼

Oh Stompy, yer so spatial! - SNL "The Church Lady"

I am making an adapter for chisels and plane blades that will fit on my knife sharpener. I can sharpen really nice edges on knifes, I expect to do the same for my woodworking tools. I like to work in metals and wood.

Good drawing, but an absolutely great explanation!

Excellent video! I assume you meant Poplar was a Soft Wood, not a Softwood.

@0:52 "If you did that you would need a 100 planes and chisels" Me: looks at all the chisels and planes in the background.

Excellent information. Thanks

I concur.

Says the man with 1,000 planes behind him. LOL

well said stumpy

Thank you!!

Exceptional info, thank you!

Hey Stumpy, on a completely unrelated note -- how would you feel about doing a shootout review of the different products used to clean and prevent rust on cast iron tool surfaces? To date I've tried 3 in 1 oil, Boeshield, WD40, paste wax, and paraffin wax and I'm not entirely happy with any of these solutions.

a lot of clarity, thank you James.last question: how is a bevel up plane recognised/ different from a bevel down one?

Go Red Wings!

Thank you..

Gracias, siempre un video con contenido de calidad 👍🏻

Good stuff, nice work sir

Bloody brilliant 👍👍👍

Well done very informative

There are two horizontal shelves as a backdrop, what are the items on the lower shelf?

Excellent

I am new to woodworking and just received my first plane today. What about bevel-up planes?

Great advice.,

Finally! I hope this puts an end to all the malarkey.......but it won't....lol.

When the guy with 2000 planes and chisels says it doesn't matter, it probably doesn't!

What's all this I've read about a 30° bevel and then a 25° micro bevel for planes? I've got the 30° bevel but when I use the blade guide for the 25° micro bevel it's putting the micro bevel on the back side of the bevel and not at the edge. I've got it set in the plane to 38mm for a 30° bevel and 50mm for the 25° micro bevel.

What about end grain?

Ok....no I have a question. How do you know which way a plane blade goes...??? Bevel up or down...? I just got an old Sargent jack plane, and an old Stanley plane, not sure what model...

lol, so just sharpen and go 👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻 Um, what about back bevels ?

And hère i thought that all those planes behind you were to have each one to a different angle ;)

You just get a frogdog to change your attack.

Does anyone have an angle for making easy money ?

This is very helpful. Seriously. Go to woodcraft and talk to the guys - I know they mean well, but everything is "so critical".

0:57 Little stumpy nubs?

I use 30 degrees and don't think about.

Bevel up plane would be a different story

Poplar isnt a softwood. It's a soft wood.

Hi there Stump Nubs🕶️, I really like your channel and videos. Very educational and informative. And I like your improv jokes. Your work shop is very creative a lot of tools. You have alot of hand planners ,WOW. Do you give some away? Because, I could use one or two? I'm just starting in woodworking and I don't have alot of tools. I could really appreciate a donation to get me up and going in woodworking on a big budget (disability). If you would like to donate, please do. It could very helpful. But, I like your videos and news letter keep up the good work and keep the videos coming Mr. Stumpy Nubs.

I notice you don't get into whether to use or not to use secondary bevels. Although it is implied that you do always 'hone to' a secondary bevel. It's not clear from what you say though why one would 'hone to' a secondary bevel. I was taught in germany where, generally speaking everything is honed to the same angle that the tool is ground to. So there's no wobbling about as you learn to hone trying to get the correct secondary bevel....assuming you're working without a honing guide.

James, ya did it again. Simple. Keep it Simple, Sherlock! Leave the other stuff for those with more time than I have......

😎

I take this with a great grain of salt from a guy who has all those planes on shelves behind him. I still don't own a plane and want one.

Im a bit disappointed, i thought i could definitely find some idiot troll comments to laugh at....oh well, keep up the good work stumpy 👍

The single biggest mystery in the universe today is why you don't have 10x more subscribers.

wow bro you have to many tolls to don't know anything you wasted you money, let me tell you