![\"hand](\"https:\/\/www.rpwoodwork.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/IMG_2434_edited-2.jpg\")
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With their new line of customizable hand planes<\/a>, Lee Valley\/Veritas continues their impressive record of innovation in woodworking tools. Within each plane size, you can choose<\/strong> the blade steel, the handles (thankfully), and the frog.<\/p>\n The most compelling option<\/strong>, in my view, is the choice of frogs, and particularly in a smoothing plane. This gives us yet another way to vary the\u00a0attack angle<\/strong>. This is simply how high is the angle (from horizontal) of the top surface of the blade at its very edge. In other words, it is the angle at which the blade meets the wood. This is one of several factors, a critical one, in reducing the dreaded tearout of hand planing.<\/p>\n Let’s look at the mainstream options for attack angle that we’ve had so far<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n In bevel-up bench planes,<\/strong> the blade is usually bedded at 12\u00b0, though I continue to assert<\/a> that 20\u00b0 – 22\u00b0 would be better. The attack angle<\/strong> is determined by the bed angle plus the sharpening angle of the most distal bevel, usually a secondary or micro bevel. For example, a blade with a 38\u00b0 secondary bevel sitting on a 12\u00b0 frog, gives a 50\u00b0 attack angle.<\/p>\n By maintaining multiple blades or re-honing a single blade,<\/strong> you have your choice of attack angles. By the way, because the wear occurs more on the bottom surface of the blade, the Charlesworth “ruler trick” is especially helpful when sharpening bevel-up blades.<\/p>\n In bevel-down planes,<\/strong> most are made with 45\u00b0 frogs but Lie-Nielsen offers a choice of 45\u00b0, 50\u00b0, and 55\u00b0 frogs<\/a> for most of their great bench planes<\/a>. I like the 50\u00b0 frog in my L-N #4 smoother. The attack angle<\/strong> in a bevel-down plane is usually determined simply by the bed angle. The nifty exception is the back bevel<\/strong>, which is a tiny bevel on the (otherwise) flat side of the blade. For example, in addition to conventionally sharpened blades for my #4, I keep one prepared with a 10\u00b0 back bevel to produce, with the 50\u00b0 frog, an attack angle of 60\u00b0.<\/p>\n