What sort of block plane do you have? eg low angle bed 12 deg, or a normal angle 20 deg bed. Some people call any hand held plane a block plane. On block planes you can see the bevel of the blade, ie bevel up. Bevel down blades are regular handplanes.
Say you have a low angle plane, with a 30 deg bevel on the blade, you effectively have a plane that attacks the wood at 42 deg(30+ 12).
This is a good for straight grained softwoods or end grain, not so good for hardwood or spots of swirling grain or knots.
A normal angle block plane, with a 30 deg bevel on the blade, you have a plane the attacks the wood at 50 deg. This is better for hardwoods. Even so 50 deg may not be enough in some woods to stop tear out. You could increase the bevel to 35 deg, which gives your plane 55 deg, which can deal with tricky wood even better.
60 deg is probably the best angle of attack for a plane, for tricky wood. Higher than that, up to 90 deg are usually termed scraper planes.
To get 60 deg or higher angle with a block plane you have to put a back bevel on the blade(the side of the blade against the plane's bed).
eg normal angle block plane 20 deg bed, 35deg primary bevel, 5 deg back bevel. 60 deg total angle.
low angle block plane 12 deg bed angle, 35 deg primary bevel, 10 deg back bevel 57 deg total angle.
" " " " " " " " " " " " , 15 deg back bevel 63 deg total angle.
If you have a plane with an adjustable throat, you can reduce tear out by closing it down as much as possible, and only taking a shallow shaving.
