Quote Originally Posted by Chris Griggs View Post
The ramp of a shooting board doesn't skew the cut the same way a skewed blade does. The board holds the wood at a skew to the work allowing the blade to start the cut progressively, but it does not create a shearing cut and thus will not negate the shearing cut of a skewed blade regardless of the slopes direction. A skewed blade is skewed in relation to the motion of the plane so it does create a shearing cut throughout the entire stroke and lowers the effective angle of attack. Took me a while to wrap my head around the difference but skewing the work piece and skewing the blade in relation to the direction of the motion of the plane are not the same thing. Though you make a good point. I suppose that if the skew of the board was as such so that it negated the skew at the entry point it it could have some cancelling effect..as you say make it closer to perpendicular. Hope that makes sense....as I right this I'm realizing that I don't know what I';m talking about...I should just stop posting.

I'm not quite sure how/if a ramped board would benefit an already skewed blade anyway, but I believe Derek feels it does benefit the skewed bladed plane (not just the straight) and he obviously evaluates these things pretty thoroughly. Derek can probably explain it better.
Hrm. . .I just had the epiphany about this. The ramp just basically makes it like the blade is sliding down the board being cut.