![Plane Tool](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/cc/Plane_Tool.jpg)
A hand plane is a
tool
A tool is an object that can extend an individual's ability to modify features of the surrounding environment or help them accomplish a particular task. Although many animals use simple tools, only human beings, whose use of stone tools dates ba ...
for shaping
wood
Wood is a porous and fibrous structural tissue found in the stems and roots of trees and other woody plants. It is an organic materiala natural composite of cellulose fibers that are strong in tension and embedded in a matrix of lignin th ...
using
muscle power
A working animal is an animal, usually domesticated, that is kept by humans and trained to perform tasks instead of being slaughtered to harvest animal products. Some are used for their physical strength (e.g. oxen and draft horses) or for t ...
to force the cutting blade over the wood surface. Some rotary power planers are motorized
power tools
A power tool is a tool that is actuated by an additional power source and mechanism other than the solely manual labor used with hand tools. The most common types of power tools use electric motors. Internal combustion engines and compressed air ...
used for the same types of larger tasks, but are unsuitable for fine-scale planing, where a miniature hand plane is used.
Generally, all planes are used to flatten, reduce the thickness of, and impart a smooth surface to a rough piece of
lumber
Lumber is wood that has been processed into dimensional lumber, including beams and planks or boards, a stage in the process of wood production. Lumber is mainly used for construction framing, as well as finishing (floors, wall panels, wi ...
or timber. Planing is also used to produce horizontal, vertical, or inclined flat surfaces on workpieces usually too large for shaping, where the integrity of the whole requires the same smooth surface. Special types of planes are designed to cut
joints
A joint or articulation (or articular surface) is the connection made between bones, ossicles, or other hard structures in the body which link an animal's skeletal system into a functional whole.Saladin, Ken. Anatomy & Physiology. 7th ed. McGraw- ...
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 that 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. When used for flattening, bench planes with longer soles are preferred for boards with longer longitudinal dimensions. A longer sole registers against a greater portion of the board's face or edge surface which leads to a more consistently flat surface or straighter edge. Conversely, using a smaller plane allows for more localized low or high spots to remain.
Though most planes are pushed across a piece of wood, holding it with one or both hands,
Japanese plane
The Japanese plane or is a Plane (tool), plane pulled towards the user rather than pushed in the manner of western style planes. They are made of hardwood, usually Japanese white or red oak. The laminated steel and iron blade is stout compared t ...
s are pulled toward the body, not pushed away.
Woodworking machinery that perform a similar function as hand planes include the
jointer
A jointer or in some configurations, a jointer-planer (also known in the UK and Australia as a planer or surface planer, and sometimes also as a buzzer or flat top) is a woodworking machine used to produce a flat surface along a board's length. ...
and the
thickness planer
A thickness planer (also known in the UK and Australia as a thicknesser or in North America as a planer) is a woodworking machine to trim boards to a consistent thickness throughout their length.
This machine transcribes the desired thickness us ...
, also called a thicknesser; the job these specialty power tools can still be done by hand planers and skilled manual labor as it was for many centuries. When
rough lumber is reduced to
dimensional lumber
Lumber is wood that has been processed into dimensional lumber, including beams and planks or boards, a stage in the process of wood production. Lumber is mainly used for construction framing, as well as finishing (floors, wall panels, wi ...
, a large
electric motor
An electric motor is an Electric machine, electrical machine that converts electrical energy into mechanical energy. Most electric motors operate through the interaction between the motor's magnetic field and electric current in a Electromagneti ...
or
internal combustion engine
An internal combustion engine (ICE or IC engine) is a heat engine in which the combustion of a fuel occurs with an oxidizer (usually air) in a combustion chamber that is an integral part of the working fluid flow circuit. In an internal combus ...
will drive a thickness planer that removes a certain percentage of excess wood to create a uniform, smooth surface on all four sides of the board and in specialty woods, may also plane the cut edges.
History
![Planes tools roman](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f5/Planes_tools_roman.jpg)
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 mallet is a tool used for imparting force on another object, often made of rubber or sometimes wood, that is smaller than a maul or beetle, and usually has a relatively large head. The term is descriptive of the overall size and proport ...
, a piece of scrap wood or with the heel of the user's hand. Planes of this type have been found in excavations of old sites as well as drawings of woodworking from medieval Europe and Asia. The earliest known examples of the woodworking plane have been found in
Pompeii
Pompeii (, ) was an ancient city located in what is now the ''comune'' of Pompei near Naples in the Campania region of Italy. Pompeii, along with Herculaneum and many villas in the surrounding area (e.g. at Boscoreale, Stabiae), was buried ...
although other
Roman
Roman or Romans most often refers to:
*Rome, the capital city of Italy
*Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD
*Roman people, the people of ancient Rome
*''Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a letter ...
examples have been unearthed in
Britain
Britain most often refers to:
* The United Kingdom, a sovereign state in Europe comprising the island of Great Britain, the north-eastern part of the island of Ireland and many smaller islands
* Great Britain, the largest island in the United King ...
and
Germany
Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...
. The Roman planes resemble modern planes in essential function, most having
iron
Iron () is a chemical element with symbol Fe (from la, ferrum) and atomic number 26. It is a metal that belongs to the first transition series and group 8 of the periodic table. It is, by mass, the most common element on Earth, right in f ...
wrapping a wooden core top, bottom, front and rear, and an iron
blade
A blade is the portion of a tool, weapon, or machine with an edge that is designed to puncture, chop, slice or scrape surfaces or materials. Blades are typically made from materials that are harder than those they are to be used on. Historic ...
secured with a
wedge
A wedge is a triangular shaped tool, and is a portable inclined plane, and one of the six simple machines. It can be used to separate two objects or portions of an object, lift up an object, or hold an object in place. It functions by converti ...
. One example found in
Cologne
Cologne ( ; german: Köln ; ksh, Kölle ) is the largest city of the German western States of Germany, state of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) and the List of cities in Germany by population, fourth-most populous city of Germany with 1.1 m ...
has a body made entirely of
bronze
Bronze is an alloy consisting primarily of copper, commonly with about 12–12.5% tin and often with the addition of other metals (including aluminium, manganese, nickel, or zinc) and sometimes non-metals, such as phosphorus, or metalloids such ...
without a wooden core. A Roman plane iron used for cutting
moldings was found in
Newstead, England. Histories prior to these examples are not clear although furniture pieces and other woodwork found in
Egypt
Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a transcontinental country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia via a land bridge formed by the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediter ...
ian tombs show surfaces carefully smoothed with some manner of cutting edge or scraping tool. There are suggestions that the earliest planes were simply wooden blocks fastened to the soles of
adze
An adze (; alternative spelling: adz) is an ancient and versatile cutting tool similar to an axe but with the cutting edge perpendicular to the handle rather than parallel. Adzes have been used since the Stone Age. They are used for smoothing ...
s to effect greater control of the cutting action.
In the mid-1860s,
Leonard Bailey began producing a line of cast iron-bodied hand planes, the patents for which were later purchased by Stanley Rule & Level, now
Stanley Works
Stanley Black & Decker, Inc., formerly known as The Stanley Works, is a Fortune 500 American manufacturer of industrial tools and household hardware and provider of security products. Headquartered in the greater Hartford city of New Britain, ...
. The original
Bailey designs were further evolved and added to by
Justus Traut
Justus (died on 10 November between 627 and 631) was the fourth Archbishop of Canterbury. He was sent from Italy to England by Pope Gregory the Great, on a mission to Christianize the Anglo-Saxons from their native paganism, probably arrivin ...
and others at Stanley Rule & Level. The Bailey and
Bedrock
In geology, bedrock is solid Rock (geology), rock that lies under loose material (regolith) within the crust (geology), crust of Earth or another terrestrial planet.
Definition
Bedrock is the solid rock that underlies looser surface mater ...
designs became the basis for most modern metal hand plane designs manufactured today. The Bailey design is still manufactured by Stanley Works.
In 1918 an air-powered handheld planing tool was developed to reduce shipbuilding labor during World War I. The air-driven cutter spun at 8000 to 15000 rpm and allowed one man to do the planing work of up to fifteen men who used manual tools.
Modern hand planes are made from wood,
ductile iron
Ductile iron, also known as ductile cast iron, nodular cast iron, spheroidal graphite iron, spheroidal graphite cast iron and SG iron, is a type of graphite-rich cast iron discovered in 1943 by Keith Millis. While most varieties of cast iron ar ...
or
bronze
Bronze is an alloy consisting primarily of copper, commonly with about 12–12.5% tin and often with the addition of other metals (including aluminium, manganese, nickel, or zinc) and sometimes non-metals, such as phosphorus, or metalloids such ...
which produces a tool that is heavier and will not rust.
Parts
![Bench plane iron](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/44/Bench_plane_iron.jpg)
The standard components of a hand plane include:
* A: mouth; an opening in the sole of the plane through which the blade extends, and through which wood shavings rise.
* B: iron; a steel blade which cuts the wood.
* C: lever cap; secures the cap iron and iron firmly to the frog.
* D: depth adjustment knob; controls the cutting depth of the iron.
* E: knob; allows a second hand to guide the plane.
* F: cap iron or chipbreaker; reinforces the iron and curls and breaks apart wood shavings as they pass through the mouth.
* G: lateral adjustment lever; skews the iron so that the depth of cut is uniform across the mouth.
* H: tote; the principal handle for gripping the plane.
* I: cam lever; which pivots a sliding section of the forward end of the sole to adjust the gap in the plane's mouth. It is anchored to the threaded post of the knob and secured by tightening the knob.
* J: frog ; an adjustable iron wedge that holds the plane iron at the proper angle and allows it to be varied in depth relative to the sole. 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
Stanley may refer to:
Arts and entertainment
Film and television
* ''Stanley'' (1972 film), an American horror film
* ''Stanley'' (1984 film), an Australian comedy
* ''Stanley'' (1999 film), an animated short
* ''Stanley'' (1956 TV series) ...
Bedrock
In geology, bedrock is solid Rock (geology), rock that lies under loose material (regolith) within the crust (geology), crust of Earth or another terrestrial planet.
Definition
Bedrock is the solid rock that underlies looser surface mater ...
line and bench planes made by
Lie-Nielsen and WoodRiver/
Woodcraft
The term woodcraft — or woodlore — denotes bushcraft skills and experience in matters relating to living and thriving in the woods—such as hunting, fishing, and camping—whether on a short- or long-term basis. Traditionally, woodcraft per ...
have a screw mechanism that allows the frog to be adjusted without removing the blade.
* sole; the bottom face of the plane.
Types
![Veritas router plane](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e7/Veritas_router_plane.jpg)
Most planes fall within the categories (by size) of
block plane
A block plane is a small metal-bodied woodworking hand plane which typically has the blade bedded at a lower angle than other planes, with the bevel up. It is designed to cut end grain and do touchup or finish work. It is typically small enough t ...
, smoothing plane, and jointing plane. Specialty planes include the
shoulder plane
The shoulder plane (also bullnose plane) is a plane tool with a blade flush with the edges of the plane, allowing trimming right up to the edge of a workpiece. Like a rebate plane, the shoulder plane's blade extends, therefore cuts, to the full w ...
,
router plane
A router plane is a hand plane used in woodworking for smoothing out sunken panels, and more generally for all depressions below the general surface of the pattern.
It planes the bottoms of recesses to a uniform depth and can work into corners th ...
,
bullnose plane
The shoulder plane (also bullnose plane) is a plane tool with a blade flush with the edges of the plane, allowing trimming right up to the edge of a workpiece. Like a rebate plane, the shoulder plane's blade extends, therefore cuts, to the full w ...
, and
chisel plane
A chisel is a tool with a characteristically shaped cutting edge (such that wood chisels have lent part of their name to a particular Grind#Typical grinds, grind) of blade on its end, for carving or cutting a hard material such as wood, Rock (g ...
, among others.
Electrically powered hand planers (loosely referred to as power planes) have joined the hand-held plane family.
"Bench planes" are characterized by having their cutting bevel facing down and attached to a chipbreaker. Most metal bench planes, and some larger wooden ones, are designed with a rear handle known as a tote. "Block planes" are characterized by the absence of a chipbreaker and the cutting iron bedded with the bevel up. The block plane is a smaller tool that can be held with one hand which excels at working against the grain on a cut end of a board. It is also good for general purpose work such as taking down a knot in the wood, smoothing small pieces, and
chamfer
A chamfer or is a transitional edge between two faces of an object. Sometimes defined as a form of bevel, it is often created at a 45° angle between two adjoining right-angled faces.
Chamfers are frequently used in machining, carpentry, fu ...
ing edges.
Different types of bench planes are designed to perform different tasks, with the name and size of the plane being defined by the use. Bailey iron bench planes were designated by number respective to the length of the plane. This has carried over through the type, regardless of manufacturer. A No. 1 plane is but little more than five inches long. A typical smoothing plane (approx. nine inches) is usually a No. 4, jack planes at about fourteen inches are No. 5, an eighteen-inch
fore plane
The fore plane is a type of woodworking bench plane typically used for preparing and flattening rough workpieces before using other planes, such as the jointer plane and the smoothing plane. The name fore plane is sometimes used synonymously wi ...
will be a No. 6, and the jointer planes at twenty-two to twenty-four inches in length are No. 7 or 8 respectively. A designation, such as No. 4½ indicates a plane of No. 4 length but slightly wider. A designation, such as 5-1/2 indicates the length of a No. 5 but slightly wider (actually, the width of a No. 6 or a No. 7), while a designation, such as 5-1/4 indicates the length of a No. 5 but slightly narrower (actually, the width of a No. 3). "Bedrock" versions of the above are simply 600 added to the base number (although no "601" was ever produced, such plane is indeed available from specialist dealers; 602 through 608, including all the fractionals, were made).
Order of use
![Kanna2](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e3/Kanna2.gif)
A typical order of use in flattening, truing, and smoothing a rough sawn board might be:
* A
scrub plane
The scrub plane is a type of plane used to remove large amounts of wood from the surface of lumber, such as when eliminating cup or twist in the first stages of preparing rough stock, or when reducing the thickness of a board significantly. Scrub ...
, which removes large amounts of wood quickly, is typically around long, but narrower than a smoothing plane, has an iron with a convex cutting edge and has a wider mouth opening to accommodate the ejection of thicker shavings/chips.
* A
jack plane
A jack plane is a general-purpose woodworking bench plane, used for dressing timber down to size in preparation for truing and/or edge jointing. It is usually the first plane used on rough stock, but for rougher work it can be preceded by the sc ...
is up to long, continues the job of roughing out, but with more accuracy and flattening capability than the scrub.
* A
jointer plane
The jointer plane, also known as the try plane or trying plane, is a type of hand plane used in woodworking to straighten the edges of boards in the process known as jointing, and to flatten the faces of larger boards. Its long length is designed ...
(including the smaller
fore plane
The fore plane is a type of woodworking bench plane typically used for preparing and flattening rough workpieces before using other planes, such as the jointer plane and the smoothing plane. The name fore plane is sometimes used synonymously wi ...
) is between
[ long, and is used for jointing and final flattening out of boards.
* A ]smoothing plane
A smoothing plane or smooth plane is a type of bench plane used in woodworking. The smoothing plane is typically the last plane used on a wood surface, removing very fine shavings to leave a smooth finish. When used effectively it quickly produce ...
, up to long, is used to begin preparing the surface for finishing.
* A polishing plane ('' kanna'') is a traditional Japanese plane designed to take a smaller shaving than a Western smoothing plane to create an extremely smooth surface. Polishing planes are the same length as western smoothing planes, and unlike Western planes, which are pushed across a board, is pulled with both hands towards the user.
Material
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.
* An infill plane has a body of metal filled with very dense and hardwood 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.
* A side-escapement plane has a tall, narrow, wooden body with an iron held in place by a wedge. They are characterized by the method of shaving ejection. Instead of being expelled from the center of the plane and exiting from the top, these planes have a slit in the side by which the shaving is ejected. On some variations, the slit is accompanied by a circular bevel cut in the side of the plane.
Special purposes
Some special types of planes include:
* The rabbet plane
The rebate plane (British English) or rabbet plane (American English) is a hand plane designed for cutting rebates/rabbets in wood. It's a simple tool used in many Western countries with hundreds of years of history. It was in use in England at ...
, also known as a rebate or openside plane, which cuts rabbets (rebates) i.e. shoulders, or steps.
* The shoulder plane
The shoulder plane (also bullnose plane) is a plane tool with a blade flush with the edges of the plane, allowing trimming right up to the edge of a workpiece. Like a rebate plane, the shoulder plane's blade extends, therefore cuts, to the full w ...
, is characterized by a cutter that is flush with the edges of the plane, allowing trimming right up to the edge of a workpiece. It is commonly used to clean up dadoes (housings) and tenons for joinery.
* The fillister plane, similar to a rabbet plane, with a fence that registers on the board's edge to cut rabbets with an accurate width.
* The moulding plane
In woodworking, a moulding plane (molding plane in US spelling) is a specialised plane used for making the complex shapes found in wooden mouldings.
Traditionally, moulding planes were blocks of wear resistant hardwood, often beech or maple, ...
, which is used to cut mouldings along the edge of a board.
* The grooving plane
A grooving plane, plow plane, or plough plane is a plane used in woodworking to make grooves and (with some of the metal versions) small rabbet
A rabbet (American English) or rebate (British English) is a recess or groove cut into the e ...
which is used to cut grooves along the edge of a board for joining. Grooves are the same as dadoes/housings but are being distinguished by running with the grain.
* The plow/plough plane, which cuts grooves and dadoes (housings) not in direct contact with the edge of the board.
* The router plane
A router plane is a hand plane used in woodworking for smoothing out sunken panels, and more generally for all depressions below the general surface of the pattern.
It planes the bottoms of recesses to a uniform depth and can work into corners th ...
, which cleans up the bottom of recesses such as shallow mortises, grooves, and dadoes (housings). Router planes come in several sizes and can also be pressed into service to thickness the cheeks of tenons so that they are parallel to the face of the board.
* The chisel plane
A chisel is a tool with a characteristically shaped cutting edge (such that wood chisels have lent part of their name to a particular Grind#Typical grinds, grind) of blade on its end, for carving or cutting a hard material such as wood, Rock (g ...
, similar to a bullnose plane, but with an exposed blade which allows it to remove wood up to a perpendicular surface such as from the bottom inside of a box.
* The finger plane
A finger plane is a small plane, typically with a brass body, used by luthiers (violin and guitar makers). Mameganna, or its transliteration, bean plane, may be used, especially for Japanese-style planes.
Finger planes are used for final trimmin ...
, which is used for smoothing very small pieces such as toy parts, very thin strips of wood, etc. The very small curved bottom varieties are known as violin makers planes and are used in making stringed instruments.
* The bullnose plane
The shoulder plane (also bullnose plane) is a plane tool with a blade flush with the edges of the plane, allowing trimming right up to the edge of a workpiece. Like a rebate plane, the shoulder plane's blade extends, therefore cuts, to the full w ...
has a very short leading edge, or "toe", to its body, and so can be used in tight spaces; most commonly of the shoulder and rabbet variety. Some bullnose planes have a removable toe so that they can pull double duty as a chisel plane.
* The combination plane, which combines the function of moulding and rabbet planes, which has 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.
* The toothed plane
A tooth ( : teeth) is a hard, calcified structure found in the jaws (or mouths) of many vertebrates and used to break down food. Some animals, particularly carnivores and omnivores, also use teeth to help with capturing or wounding prey, tear ...
, which is used for smoothing wood with irregular grain. and for preparing stock for traditional hammer veneering applications.
* The spill plane
A spill plane is a device which creates long, spiraling wood shavings or tapers which are used to move fire from one place to another. They were most common in the era before matches
A match is a tool for starting a fire. Typically, matches ...
which creates long, spiraling wood shavings or tapers
* The spar plane, which is used for smoothing round shapes, like boat masts and chair legs.
* The match plane
A match is a tool for starting a fire. Typically, matches are made of small wooden sticks or stiff paper. One end is coated with a material that can be ignited by friction generated by striking the match against a suitable surface. Wooden matc ...
, which is used for making tongue and groove boards.
* Hollows and Rounds are similar to moulding planes, but lack a specific moulding profile. Instead, they cut either a simple concave or convex shape on the face or edge of a board to create a single element of a complex-profile moulding. They are used in pairs or sets of various sizes to create moulding profile elements such as fillets, coves, bullnoses, thumbnails ovolos, ogees, etc. When making mouldings, hollows and rounds must be used together to create the several shapes of the profile. However, they may be used as a single plane to create a simple decorative cove or round-over on the edge of a board. Many of these hollows and rounds can be classified in the category of side-escapement planes.
* The compass plane, which has a flexible sole with an adjustable curve and is used to plane concave and convex surfaces. Typically used in wooden boat building.
Use
Planing wood
Wood is a porous and fibrous structural tissue found in the stems and roots of trees and other woody plants. It is an organic materiala natural composite of cellulose fibers that are strong in tension and embedded in a matrix of lignin th ...
along its side grain
A grain is a small, hard, dry fruit (caryopsis) – with or without an attached hull layer – harvested for human or animal consumption. A grain crop is a grain-producing plant. The two main types of commercial grain crops are cereals and legum ...
should result in thin shavings rising above the surface of the wood as the edge of the plane 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, referring to 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. In this case, a very sharp and finely-set blade is required.
When planing ''against the grain'', the wood fibers are lifted by the plane iron, resulting in a jagged finish, called tearout.
Planing across the grain is sometimes called "traverse" or "transverse" planing.
Planing the end grain of the board involves different techniques and frequently different planes designed for working end grain. Block planes and other bevel-up planes are often effective in planing the difficult nature of end grain. These planes are usually designed to use an iron bedded at a "low angle," typically about 12 degrees.
See also
* Card scraper
A card scraper or cabinet scraper is a woodworking shaping and finishing tool. It is used to manually remove small amounts of material and excels in tricky grain areas where hand planes would cause tear out. Card scrapers are most suitable for ...
* Cheese slicer
A cheese knife is a type of kitchen knife specialized for the cutting of cheese. Different cheeses require different knives, according primarily to hardness. There are also a number of other kitchen tools designed for cutting or slicing cheese ...
, a culinary plane-like tool
* Planer (disambiguation) The term planer may refer to several types of carpentry, carpentry tools, woodworking machines or metalworking machine tools.
*Plane (tool), a hand tool used to produce flat surfaces by shaving the surface of the wood
*Thickness planer (North Ameri ...
for other types of planing tools and machines
* Shooting board
A shooting board is a jig for woodworking which is used in combination with a hand plane to trim and square up the edges and ends of boards. It would typically be used on a workbench. A plank or board with edges planed flat is called a shot edg ...
* Spokeshave
A spokeshave is a hand tool used to shape and smooth woods in woodworking jobs such as making cart wheel spokes, chair legs, paddles, bows, and arrows. The tool consists of a blade fixed into the body of the tool, which has a handle for each han ...
Plane-makers
* Alexander Mathieson & Sons, a Scottish plane manufacturer
* Cesar Chelor
Cesar Chelor (born in Wrentham, Massachusetts) was an African-American woodworker, toolmaker, plane-maker and was enslaved by the colonial entrepreneur and the earliest documented American plane maker Francis Nicholson (1683-1753). Chelor is the ...
, earliest documented plane-maker from North America.
* Holtzapffel
The Holtzapffel dynasty of tool and lathe makers was founded in Long Acre, London by a Strasbourg-born turner, Jean-Jacques Holtzapffel, in 1794. The firm specialized in lathes for ornamental turning but also made a name for its high-quality edge ...
, a London plane manufacturer
* Lie-Nielsen Toolworks Lie-Nielsen Toolworks, Inc. is a family-owned business, established in 1981 and based in Warren, Maine. It manufactures a range of high quality hand tools, primarily for woodworking, based on traditional designs.Garrett Hack and John S. Sheldon. The ...
, a U.S. maker of artisan tools
* Millers Falls Company
Millers Falls Co. is a tool manufacturing company originally based in Millers Falls, Massachusetts.
It was established in Greenfield, Massachusetts in 1868 as Gunn & Amidon by Levi J. Gunn and Charles H. Amidon. Gunn and Amidon, along with a ...
, plane-maker
* T. Norris & Son, a London plane-maker
* Edward Preston & Sons, a plane manufacturer
* Stanley Works
Stanley Black & Decker, Inc., formerly known as The Stanley Works, is a Fortune 500 American manufacturer of industrial tools and household hardware and provider of security products. Headquartered in the greater Hartford city of New Britain, ...
, a major US plane manufacturer
* Stewart Spiers
Stewart Spiers was a small but innovative firm of plane-makers in Scotland, founded first of all in Ayr in Ayrshire and continuing under the registered name of Stewart Speirs Ltd 'sic''in Paisley, Renfrewshire, from c. 1933 until its demise in ...
, a Scottish plane-maker
* Veritas Tools, a Canadian plane manufacturer
Citations
General and cited references
* Greber, Josef M. (1956, reprinted 1987) ''Die Geschichte des Hobels. Von der Steinheit bis zur Enstehung der Holzwerkzeugfabriken im frühen 19. Jahrhundert'', Zurich, reprinted Hanover: Verlag Th. Schäfer. .
* Greber, Josef M., transl. by Seth W. Burchard (1991) ''The History of the Woodworking Plane from the Stone Age to the Development of Woodworking Factories in the Early 19th Century''. Albany, NY: Early American Industries Association. .
* Hack, Garrett (1997) ''The Handplane Book''. .
* Hoadley, R. Bruce (2000) ''Understanding Wood: A Craftsman’s Guide to Wood Technology''. .
* Russell, David R., with Robert Lesage and photographs by James Austin James Austin may refer to:
Sports
* Jim Austin (baseball) (born 1963), former baseball pitcher
* Jim Austin (rugby league), New Zealand rugby league player
* James Austin (judoka) (born 1983), English judoka
* James Austin (American football) (19 ...
, cataloguing assisted by Peter Hackett (2010) '' Antique Woodworking Tools: Their Craftsmanship from the Earliest Times to the Twentieth Century''. Cambridge: John Adamson. . .
* Salaman, R. A. (1989) ''Dictionary of Woodworking Tools''. .
* Todd, R., Allen, D., Alting, L., ''Manufacturing Processes Reference Guide'', p. 124, 1994
* Watson, Aldren A. (1982) ''Hand Tools: Their Ways and Workings''. .
* Whelan, John M. (1993) ''The Wooden Plane: Its History, Form and Function'' Mendham, NJ: Astragal Press .
External links
Handplane Central
Information for all types of hand planes, including wooden planes, infill planes and Stanley type planes. Also information on how to make hand planes.
Catalog of American Patented Antique Tools
A pictorial collection of antique planes and other tools showing some of the variety in styles.
The history, types, collector value and other information on the British hand plane maker Record Planes
Old woodworking planes
{{DEFAULTSORT:Plane (Tool)
Articles containing video clips
Woodworking hand tools