Could we play this trick? For an normal 45 degree bed angle plane, can
we put a 5 degree back bevel on the blade to make the cutting angle a
total of 50 degrees? Is there loss of performance with this set-up?

Allow me to recommend Brian Burns' _Double Bevel Sharpening_ available

from LMII and, I believe, Japan WW'r.

Out of curiosity, do you put any double bevels on your products, Ron?


No we don't. I think that's best left to the user. I've read Burns' book
(and he's a friend) and I think he makes sense and his methods are well
thought out, thoroughly researched and extensively tested. DB sharpening
on a bevel-down blade allows infinitely adjustable angle of attack and
can tame the wildest grain. The only problem I have with DB sharpening
is that, if you want to go back, you must take off a lot of blade
length. So I'll leave that modification to you.

--
Ron Hock
HOCK TOOLS www.hocktools.com