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A 'plane' is a tool for shaping wood. Planes are used to flatten, reduce the thickness of, and impart a smooth surface to a rough piece of lumber. Special types of planes are designed to cut joints or decorative mouldings.
Hand planes are generally the combination of a cutting edge, such as a sharpened metal plate, attached to a firm body, that when moved over a wood surface, take up relatively uniform shavings, by nature of the body riding on the 'high spots' in the wood, and also by providing a relatively constant angle to the cutting edge, render the planed surface very smooth. A cutter which extends below the bottom surface, or 'sole', of the plane slices off shavings of wood. A large, flat sole on a plane guides the cutter to remove only the highest parts of an imperfect surface, until, after several passes, the surface is flat and smooth.
Hand planes are ancient, originating thousands of years ago. Early planes were made from wood with a rectangular slot or mortise cut across the center of the body. The cutting blade or iron was held in place with a wooden wedge. The wedge was tapped into the mortise and adjusted with a small mallet, a piece of scrap wood or with the heel of the users hand. Planes of this type have been found in excavations of old sites as well as drawings of woodworking from medieval Europe and Asia. Roman planes found at Pompeii are largely similar to planes in use today. In fact wooden planes can still be bought from modern plane makers. As time went on, though, some people began to make plane bodies out of cast iron or even bronze.
Though most planes are pushed across a piece of wood, holding it with one or both hands, Japanese planes are pulled toward the body, not pushed away.
Woodworking machinery that perform the same function as hand planes include the jointer and the thicknesser or thickness planer.

Contents

Parts of a Plane

Types of Planes

Planing With the Grain

Planing Against the Grain

Stanley Planes

See also

References

External links

Parts of a Plane

Two styles of plane are shown with some parts labeled. The top of the image is a bench plane; the bottom is a block plane.

★ A: The 'Mouth' is an opening in the bottom of the plane down through which the blade extends, and up through which wood shavings pass.

★ B: The 'Iron' is a plate of steel with a sharpened edge which cuts the wood.

★ C: The 'Lever cap' holds the blade down firmly to the body of the plane.

★ D: The 'Depth adjustment knob' controls how far the blade extends through the mouth.

★ E: The 'Knob' is a handle on the front of the plane.

★ F: The 'Chipbreaker' or 'Cap iron' serves to make the blade more rigid and to curl and break apart wood shavings as they pass through the mouth.

★ G: The 'Lateral adjustment lever' is used to adjust the iron so that the depth of cut is uniform across the mouth.

★ H: The 'Tote' is a handle on the rear of the plane.

★ I: The 'Finger rest knob' Block planes are held in the palm of the hand the tip of the user's index finger rests in the indentation on top of the knob.

★ J: The 'Frog' is a sliding iron wedge that holds the plane Iron at the proper angle. It slides to adjust the gap between the cutting edge and the front of the mouth. The frog is screwed down to the inside of the sole through two parallel slots and on many planes is only adjustable with a screwdriver when the plane iron is removed. Some planes, such as the Stanley Bedrock line and the bench planes made by Lie-Nielsen have a screw mechanism that allows the frog to be adjusted without removing the blade.

Types of Planes

Planes are sometimes categorized as 'bench planes' or block planes.
Bench planes are characterized by a cutting iron bedded with the bevel facing
down, attached to a chipbreaker. Block planes are characterized by a cutting
iron bedded with the bevel up, and the absence of a chipbreaker. The block plane can be held with one hand and is used for general purpose work such as taking down a knot in the wood, smoothing up small pieces, making the end of a sawed board square and smooth, etc.



Different types of bench planes are designed to perform different tasks, with the name and size of the plane being defined by the use. They are designed to be used in order:

★ A 'scrub plane', which removes large amounts of wood quickly, is typically around 9 inches (230 mm) in length, but narrower than a smoothing plane, and has an iron with a curved cutting edge.

★ A 'jack plane' is around 14 inches (350 mm) long, continues the job of roughing out, but with more accuracy than the scrub.

★ A 'jointer plane' (including the smaller 'fore plane') is between 18 to 24 inches (450-600 mm) long, and is used for jointing and final flattening out of boards.

★ A 'smoothing plane', up to 10 inches (250 mm) long, is used to begin preparing the surface for finishing.
Planes may also be classified by the material of which they are constructed:

★ A 'wooden plane' is entirely wood except for the blade. The iron is held into the plane with a wooden wedge, and is adjusted by striking the plane with a hammer.

★ A 'transitional plane' has a wooden body with a metal casting set in it to hold and adjust the blade.

★ A 'metal plane' is largely constructed of metal, except, perhaps, for the handles. The planes in the image are metal planes.

★ An 'infill plane' has a body of metal filled with very dense and hard wood on which the blade rests and the handles are formed. They are typically of English or Scottish manufacture. They are prized for their ability to smooth difficult grained woods when set very finely.

Some special types of planes include:

★ The 'shoulder plane', which trims tenons and other joints.

★ The 'moulding plane', which is used to cut mouldings along the edge of a board

★ The 'rabbet plane', also known as a rebate or openside plane, which cuts rabbets (rebates) i.e. shoulders, or steps.

★ The 'plow plane', which cuts grooves and dadoes (trenches).

★ The 'router plane', which cleans up the bottom of recesses such as shallow mortises.

★ The 'chisel plane', which removes wood up to a perpendicular surface such as from the bottom inside of a box.

★ The 'finger plane', which is used for smoothing very small pieces such as toy parts, very thin strips of wood, etc. The very small curved bottom variates are known as violin makers planes and are used in making stringed instruments.

★ The 'bullnose plane', which has a very short 'front' to its body, and so can be used in tight spaces. Most commonly of the shoulder and rabbet variety.

★ The 'combination plane', which combines the function of a moulding and rabbet planes, having different cutters and adjustments

★ The 'circular or compass plane', which utilizes an adjustment system to control the flex on a steel sheet sole and create a uniform curve. A concave setting permits great control for planing large curves, like table sides or chair arms, and the convex works well for chair arms, legs and backs, and other applications.

Planing With the Grain

Planing wood should result in thin shavings rising above the surface of the wood as the edge of the plan iron is pushed forward, leaving a smooth surface. But sometimes splintering occurs. This is largely a matter of cutting ''with the grain'' or ''against the grain'', respectively. The ''grain'' referred to in these phrases is the side grain of the piece of wood being worked.
The grain direction can be determined by looking at the edge or side of the work piece. Wood fibers can be seen running out to the surface that is being planed. When the fibers meet the work surface it looks like the point of an arrow that indicates the direction. With some very figured and difficult woods the grain runs in many directions and therefore working against the grain is inevitable. A very sharp and finely set blade is required.

Planing Against the Grain

When planing ''against the grain'', the wood fibers are lifted by the plane iron, resulting in a jagged finish, called 'tearout'.
Note that these diagrams and phrases apply to planing the wide face (flat grain) and/or long side (side grain) of a typical piece of lumber, which is cut so its wide face is ''along the grain''. In other words, as part of the tree, the wide face was parallel to the pith and thus ''along'' (or parallel to) the direction of the dominant cells, or ''grain''. Because of the nature of wood, planing the end grain of the board is physically different from planing the wide face or the long side.

Stanley Planes

One of the most successful manufacturers of planes is The Stanley Works of New Britain, Connecticut, USA. In 1843 Frederick Trent Stanley established Stanley's Bolt Manufactory in New Britain to manufacture door bolts and other hardware from wrought iron. Then in 1857 Frederick's cousin Henry Stanley followed his example and founded The Stanley Rule and Level Company of New Britain. The two companies merged in 1920, and the Stanley Rule and Level Company became the Hand Tools Division of Stanley Works.
Since 1870 Stanley has sold millions of cast iron hand planes, many based on patents purchased from Leonard Bailey of Boston, Massachusetts. Over the years Stanley purchased many other patents and entire plane manufacturing companies, and continued to improve the design of its planes through the first half of the 20th century.
For descriptions of all plane models made by Stanley, see Patrick's Stanley Blood and Gore.
Due to the gap created by Stanley when the discontinued so many needed plane models which are necessary for traditional woodworkers, Lie-Nielson has revived many of the old Stanley models and improved on their design and in many ways.
Also, there is a company called E.C.E. planes which makes just about every conceivable plane out of wood instead of steel or bronze.

See also

★ Shooting board

★ Spokeshave

References

★ Hack, Garrett (1997) ''The Handplane Book.'' ISBN 1-56158-155-0

★ Watson, Aldren A. (1982) ''Hand Tools: Their Ways and Workings.'' ISBN 1-55821-224-8

★ Hoadley, R. Bruce. (2000) ''Understanding Wood: A Craftsman’s Guide to Wood Technology.'' ISBN 1-56158-358-8

★ Salaman, R. A. (1989) ''Dictionary of woodworking Tools.'' ISBN 0-04-440256-2

★ Greber, Josef M: ''Die Geschichte des Hobels'', Zürich 1956

External links

★ Handplane Central A valuable source of information for all types of hand planes, including wooden planes, infill planes and Stanley type planes. Also information on how to make hand planes.

★ Getting a Hand Plane Ready for Use Instructions for lapping and sharpening a hand plane using a stationary belt sander

★ Cataloque of American Patented Antique Tools A pictorial collection of antique planes and other tools showing some of the variety in styles.

★ The Superior Works: Patrick's Blood and Gore A description and classification of Stanley planes, by the numbers.