Ok creakers, I have another question. I saw a post a long time ago that I can't find any more and was wondering if I could get some discusion around this topic. Does a blade in a standard angle plane with a bevel sharpened at 30 degrees with a back bevel at 10 degrees work the same as a high angle frog (at 55 degrees)? Which brings up the next part of the questions, how does this stack up against a low angle (LA) plane with a blade that has a bevel at 43 degrees?

Here's the reason I'm asking. I have LN planes (#4, #5, #7) that I use all the time, and for 99.9% of the time they work great. So it's hard for me to justify buying a dedicated HA plane for less then 1% of the work that I do. I do have an extra blade that will fit my LN #4 and #5 that I could put a back bevel on or I could spend the extra money on a LA Jack plane with two blades, one at a low angle and one high. Still a bit of a dedicated plane that isn't going to get that much use out of it, but at least it will have more than one function (easier to justify).

So are there any benifits of one over the other (besides cost)? I have never used a bevel up plane, but have heard good things about them, just not sure what I would use another jack plane for accept difficault grain.