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 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 ...
, the
shoulder
The human shoulder is made up of three bones: the clavicle (collarbone), the scapula (shoulder blade), and the humerus (upper arm bone) as well as associated muscles, ligaments and tendons. The articulations between the bones of the shoulder mak ...
plane's blade extends, therefore cuts, to the full width of the tool. The shoulder plane is used to trim the shoulders and faces of
tenons. It is used when it is necessary to trim right into the concave corner where two surfaces of the same piece of wood meet perpendicularly. It is also commonly used to clean up dadoes (housings) and tenons for joinery.
Unlike the rebate plane, the shoulder plane is intended to cut
end grain
Wood grain is the longitudinal arrangement of wood fibers or the pattern resulting from such an arrangement.
Definition and meanings
R. Bruce Hoadley wrote that ''grain'' is a "confusingly versatile term" with numerous different uses, including ...
. There are therefore differences between it and a rebate plane in the angles at which the iron (blade) is set.
* There is a more
acute angle
In Euclidean geometry, an angle is the figure formed by two rays, called the '' sides'' of the angle, sharing a common endpoint, called the ''vertex'' of the angle.
Angles formed by two rays lie in the plane that contains the rays. Angles ar ...
between the iron and the sole of the tool.
* The iron is set square across the tool rather than obliquely (skewed).
* The iron is set face down. The ground and honed bevel forming the edge is uppermost.
A shoulder plane also has a much finer set mouth, which allows finer shavings to be taken.
References
*
{{Planes
Planes