You have a wonderful web site here with a wealth of information. I have been a woodworker for many years and I am just now finding your Blog. Thank you so much for making this available.

Eric

Rob

Here’s my intuitive explanation. Imagine you are trying to dull an edge by abrading it with sandpaper to the point where you can’t cut your finger with it. Which edge would become wide enough to get to this point sooner: a 25 deg bevel or a 45 deg bevel? They may start out equally sharp, i.e. a very narrow “nothing” edge, but the 45 deg bevel would widen (dull) faster.

The most succinct description of wear bevel issues that I’ve ever read was very recently, an article by Terry Gordon in Furniture and Cabinetmaking magazine, issue#276 (November 2018), pp. 48-51. There are long articles on Steve Elliot’s and Brent Beach’s sites but the article I cited explains it elegantly.

In practice, there’s no question for me – when I use I big fat bevel angle (e.g. 45 deg) in a bevel-up smoothing plane to reduce tearout, it dulls fast. It works great when it’s fresh but not for long. By the way, there’s another issue, which is the loss of clearance angle in that situation. Terry explains that beautifully as well.

This is one of those things that’s true in theory and true in the shop.

Rob