Snipes Bill plane bed angle

[steve355]

Morning

Purely out of interest, I’ve seen a few snipes bill planes recently with an extremely high bed angle, often vertical. Why would this be? Surely it would scrape rather than cut.

Steve

 

[Trafalgar]

Yes. Scraping gets a bad rap. I don't own one, but I do have other hollows and rounds. My impression of the task a snipe's bill is supposed to accomplish leads me to believe that lifting a chip and having it run is the last thing you'd want it to do as this would have the potential to ruin a whole, whole lot of work that came before. Lousy two cents. I'm no moulding plane expert.

 

[steve355]

Interesting… Old Street Tools website says theirs are 55deg. And Matt Bickford‘s video shows their use in widening gauge lines prior to a rebate plane being used, which is definitely a cutting rather than scraping operation. So I guess it’s all a compromise, best bed angle for a snipes bill is steeper than a standard moulding plane but less than vertical.

never mind, it’s all just for interest

 

[Adam W.]

Looks like a side snipe, does the iron cut from the other side?