I have not read every word here, so I apologise if I appear to misunderstand something previously discussed.

If Brent calculates a 3 degree degree backbevel on a BU blade to be necessary to get past the wear bevel, then I am not going to argue at this point (I have only skimmed his article). I will say that a back bevel of this amount is not going to have a negative effect on performance - clearance needs to be about 7 degrees (according to Mr Lee snr), and the bed of most BU planes is 12 degrees.

However I must note that I do not experience a problem with wear bevels in practice. This is not to say that they do not occur on my blades, just that my blade maintenance method appears to circumvent their influence.

I once wrote that I used a micro-backbevel (ala David Charlesworth) to get past the wear bevel. I don't do this any more. Haven't for a long time. The reason is that I like to maintain an edge by stropping the blade as I feel performance dropping off, and a backbevel can get in the way.

I have not taken pictures of what occurs as I strop the back of the blade. All I know is that the blade remains sharp and cuts well.

There is no reason that one cannot strop a micro backbevel using the Ruler Trick if you want to go down this road (this blade is used on a BU woodie I built).



My method is to simply strop the flat behind the bevel.

Regards from Perth

Derek