When does the bevel on a plane iron face up or down? – Chuck Googooian
Tim Inman: The only common plane I know of that has the bevel facing “up” is the block plane. The rest have the bevel facing down which allows close adjustment of the chip breaker to the cutting edge.
Chris Marshall: Extending from Tim’s comment, I was curious to see what all falls under the category of “block” plane, as I will guess most of us occasional handplane users think of a block plane as the short (under 6-in.) variety. But, Lie-Nielsen includes several longer planes in this group as well, which all have bevel-up irons. They include (among several other specialty planes) a low-angle smoothing plane, jack plane and jointer plane. These three are based on Stanley’s Number 164, 62 and 7 planes respectively.
