Another thread about bevel geometry reminded me of a question that I've had for a long time but have never asked, probably because I was afraid of asking a stupid question. But stupid or not, here goes. The question applies to both chisels and plane blades, but for the sake of discussion, let's stick to bevel-down plane blades.
The question: After one has just put a primary bevel on a plane blade, say 25 degrees, why would one immediately add a secondary or microbevel? As I understand it, the benefit of a secondary bevel is to make subsequent sharpenings quicker. If it's bevel-down, the bevel angle doesn't (or theoretically shouldn't) have anything to do with how well or easily the blade cuts because the angle at which the blade attacks the wood is fixed by the angle of the frog, not the angle of the bevel. As I understand it, the idea is to make subsequent sharpenings quicker, but that doesn't apply when one has just put a fresh primary bevel on the blade, unless maybe the idea is to create the primary bevel with only a relatively coarse stone, limiting the use of finer stones to the narrow secondary bevel. But I've seen instructions that include the use of finer stones on the primary bevel as well (which is something else I've never quite understood -- why would one do that?). I understand that a higher angle bevel may last longer, or at least be less susceptible to nicks -- but that raises two other questions: (1) Why not just hone the primary bevel at the higher angle? (2) Some sources recommend secondary bevels that are only a few degrees higher than the primary bevel -- does the difference between 25 degrees and, say, 27 degrees really make that much difference?
I've taken to using only a primary bevel at whatever angle I want the final bevel to be -- usually 35 degrees -- especially when I'm using my Work Sharp 3000. I don't see that it it's any harder or more time-consuming (again, at least with the Work Sharp) to re-hone the primary bevel than it is to use a secondary bevel or that it uses up the blade any faster (because even with a secondary bevel, you eventually refresh the primary bevel anyway). What am I missing?