The time has arrived for me to sidestep Norm and invest in some good hand planes. This question might be better for the beginning woodworkers folder, but I thought it more appropriate for the hand tools folder. I already have a “useable” block plane and need to invest in some form of shoulder or rabbet plane. I’ve read the previous posts on how to fine tune tenons and see there is much lively debate on which tool and method is best (block plane, shoulder plane, router plane, etc). This will be my first application for such a plane, but I’m trying to look further into the future as to which plane I choose next. In case it matters, my ambitions are to make 18th and 19th century style pieces with the occassional A & C. So I need a tutorial on some various planes. Could someone please give me a “brief” (if that is possible) description of what each of the following planes are most commonly used for and which way they they most effectively work such as on end grain, cross grain, etc.
— rabbetting plane
— shoulder plane
— rebate plane
— bullnose plane
— any other type of plane similar to these that I’ve failed to list
Bankrupt
Edited 9/9/2006 10:09 pm ET by bankruptedbyNorm
Replies
Hi BR,
You'll get lots more responses than consensus. But...
-- rabbetting plane
A general term for many different types of planes where the iron extends to the sides of the plane used to cut rabbets, but also useful for other things like paring tenon cheeks and fielding panels. For paring tenon cheeks I prefer a wooden rabbet plane with a higher pitched iron. It seems to work better for me on cross-grain paring than the low angle ones, while still giving me more control than a paring chisel or rasp. Not everyone aggrees though, so YMMV.
-- shoulder plane
A rabbet plane, often but not allways smaller, low angled for trimming the endgrain of tenon shoulders. But handy for a great many other things.
-- rebate plane
Rebate is the Kings English term for the 'merican word Rabbet.
-- bullnose plane
A bullnose rabbet plane has the iron very close to the forward end of the plane useful for cutting near to the end of a stopped rabbet (like on a carcase back). Often the front of the bullnose can be entirely removed to get all the way to the stop. Preston, Record and Stanley all made examples.
David C
BBN,
AAAHHHHH...always refreshing to see a Normite turning from the dark side of tailed apprenticeship to the enlightenment of hand tool use!!! ;-)
On a more serious note: for general purpose trimming and fitting of tenon-like parts, a medium or large shoulder plane is likely to be the most useful. A LA rabbet block plane is also useful if you have wider pieces to trim & fit.
In reality, you're now moving into special-purpose planes that, while they will do more than one thing, really are most suitable primarily for that operation for which they were designed....
If you are going to be cutting a lot of grooves on/along the side of a board, then a rebate plane or a moving filletster would be better suited. For cutting grooves parallel, but relatively close, to the edge of the board, a plow plane works well.
For cutting dados, a cross-cut saw, a (crank neck) chisel, and a router plane work quite well. The router plane excels at flattening the bottoms of grooves, hinge mortises, and similar relatively shallow "holes" where you need a flat surfaced bottom. A (pair of) side-rabbit plane(s) is very useful for widening dados, etc., just a hare..... (sic)
Taking the idea of the bull nose plane a step further, the chisel plane excels at getting into the corners of stopped rebates, as well as trimming glue lines.
In general, planes with a lower iron bedding angle are intended for cross- and end- grain use, while those with a higher iron bedding angle are intended for long-grain use. The planes you listed will work equally well on long grain and cross grain. The "secret" is having a VERY sharp iron adjusted to take a fine/very fine shaving. In fact, if you sharpen the iron properly, close up the mouth, and set the iron for a very fine shaving, you can use a #8 to trim tenon cheeks (except for a small section right next to the shoulder, due to a closed vs rebate-type mouth); this is, of course, a rather absurd thing to do, and there are certainly more convenient tools to use, but it can be done.
Take a look a Garret Hack's Handplane Book, and a couple of the other plane/hand tool books for a lot more detailed information than can be conveniently put into one of these posts.
The following two items might be of some use to you in a more general way, since you want to do 17. and 18. century style furniture, and want to use hand tools for at least part of the work:
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Here's a basic set of hand tools that you may find useful:
Hand planes:
Block Planes: a low angle (12.5°) adjustable-mouth block plane (probably the single most useful and versatile plane of them all); an adjustable-mouth standard angle (20°) block plane is also very handy and useful;
Bench Planes: a #4 or a #4-1/2 for a smoothing plane; a #5 for general purpose use or a #5-1/2 for general purpose and/or a large and heavy smoother; and either a #7 or a #8 for jointing edges and flattening the faces of boards; a #6 may be more useful for flattening faces and jointing, if you mostly do smaller-scale work like jewelry boxes, etc;
Other Planes: a scrub plane, if you're going to do your woodworking exclusively with hand tools, otherwise it's more or less optional -- get a "real" scrub plane here: it works much better than a converted bench/smoothing plane; a shoulder plane also comes in very handy; a router plane; other special-purpose planes – such as side rabbets, moulding planes, hollows & rounds, etc. -- can be added, as required.
General Comments on Hand Planes: My recommendation for vintage hand planes would be either old (pre-WWII) Stanleys (or Millers Falls, Sargents, etc.) (be prepared to do some fettling with the older tools) or new Lie-Nielsens (a bit on the expensive side); others will suggest the LV/Veritas planes or Clifton (moderate $$ to expensive). If you prefer -- or want to try -- wooden planes, ECE, Knight, and Clark & Williams -- to mention just a couple of modern wooden plane makers -- make very nice ones, but they are not inexpensive. Old (antique) wooden planes are not my area of expertise, so I'll have to defer to someone else to advise you on them.
Chisels: a good set of bench chisels (you'll get lots of recommendations from others here; I like the Japanese chisels sold by Woodcraft and the Pfeil “Swiss-Made”, but there are many, many other good chisels out there), and a good mallet; if you get Japanese chisels, also consider one of the Japanese chisel hammers. A couple of mortise chisels are also very useful. Specialized chisels can be added, as needed.
Saws: Take a look at the Japanese saws, as well as the western-style ones. A quality rip and cross-cut saw (one of each, to start); a good tenon and a good dovetail saw (LN makes really nice ones). A coping or fret saw and a bow saw can also be very handy, depending on the work you do. An Azibiki (Japanese mortise saw) is an incredibly useful little saw for a just few dollars. I use both Western and Japanese style saws.
Layout tools: a quality straight edge; a good 12” and a good 24” metal ruler (I like the center-finding ones); a good marking gauge (my favorite is the TiteMark); a marking knife; a bevel gauge; an accurate try square, and a high-quality combination square (you could go with one or the other at the beginning -- the combination square is more versatile; spend the money to get a quality – i.e., Starrett -- combination square; the cheaper ones are not worth the money or frustration).
Boring tools: a good "egg-beater" hand drill (get an old Miller's Falls or old Stanley, etc); a good brace (again, get an old Miller's Falls or old Stanley, etc); a standard set of brad-point bits; perhaps a 32/4ths (32 quarters) set of Russell Jennings pattern auger bits for the brace. A set of gimlets and a hand counter-sink are also useful. You can also get specialized bits, such as spoon bits, if you have a need for them.
Misc tools: a sharpening system (oil, water, or diamond stones); a couple of rasps and files (Nicholson #49 or #50, for example; the Aurious are very nice, but big $$$); some hand screws and bar/pipe clamps big enough to fit your work (you'll never have enough clamps….); a flat and a round sole spoke shave; a draw knife; a good, solid work bench (buy or make yourself -- there are several threads discussing the virtues and disadvantages of either course of action); a shooting board, a mitre shooting board, and a mitre jack (you'll have to make these yourself ).
Books: try these sites for woodworking books that you may find useful or interesting:
http://www.astragalpress.com/
http://www.blackburnbooks.com/
http://www.cambiumbooks.com/
http://www.woodworkerslibrary.com/
http://www.amazon.com
General Comments: While it's by no means an all-inclusive list, there's not a lot that you can't do with a tool set similar to that listed above, and it's not too terribly expensive to set yourself up with, especially if you buy good quality older tools off that (in)famous auction site, from some of the old tool dealers, or at the flea market and yard sales. And, hand tools (except for the bench) have the advantage of not taking up very much room, either in use or for storage, and are generally pretty quiet in use.
One last thing: buy the best quality tools you can afford, so you only have to buy them once...... (This also largely avoids having to “fight” a poor quality/cheap tool while you are trying to learn how to use it.)
Good luck, and have fun setting up your shop and with your woodworking!!
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Hand planing (rough) lumber to dimension is not hard:
Ideally, you need 5 planes: a scrub plane, a #5, a #7 or #8, a #4 or #4-1/2, and a low angle block plane, but you can get away with a #5 and a low angle block plane -- it's just a little harder. (Or you can use wooden equivalents.)
You'll also need a good straight edge, an accurate try or combination square, a marking/panel gauge, and a pair of winding sticks (you can make these yourself). A card scraper is also handy.
Select a board face for the reference face. Use a pair of winding sticks and a straight edge to determine the high and low spots. Mark the high spots and use the scrub plane to reduce them to the approximate level of the rest of the board. Check for twist with the winding sticks. Correct with the scrub, as necessary. By this time, you should have a roughly flat (length and width) board with no twist and with a lot of troughs in it. Use the #5 to remove the troughs from the scrub plane. (Planing diagonally or straight across the grain in both directions with the scrub plane and the #5 to remove the scrub troughs will significantly reduce tearout in most woods. Then follow up with the #5 by planing with the grain.) Once the troughs are mostly gone, use the #7 or #8 with the grain to plane the face flat. Once you get full length and full width shavings, you board is very, very close to FLAT. Check with the straight edge and winding sticks. Correct as necessary. Finish up with the smoothing plane (#4 or # 4-1/2). Use the scraper on gnarly grain that gives your smoother a hard time, but be careful not to scrape a dip into the wood. Part 1 of 6, complete.
Mark this face as your reference face. All other measurements of square, etc., will come from this face.
Select one long edge, and use the #5 to roughly flatten/smooth it, and then use the #7/#8 to make it straight and square to the reference face. Mark this edge as your reference edge. Part 2 of 6, complete.
Use the reference edge and the try/combination square to mark one of the short edges square. You can use the #5 to plane to rough plane it flat and square to both the reference face and edge -- if the short edge is 4 to 6 or more inches wide; if not, then start with the LA block plane. (Chamfering the edges down to your cutting line will reduce tear out on the corner edges; alternative methods are to clamp a sacrificial piece of wood to the edge and let it tear out instead of your board, or to plane in from each outside edge.) Use the LA block plane to clean it up. Mark the other short edge to the desired length (saw it to rough length, if necessary) and do the same thing to the other short edge. Parts 3 and 4 of 6, complete.
Use your combination square or a marking/panel gauge to mark the other (unplaned) long edge to the desired finished width. Saw to rough width, if necessary. As you did for the reference long edge, use the #5 to roughly smooth it down almost to the cutting line, and then use the #7/#8 to make it straight and square to the reference face. Check for straight and square to the reference face and to the 2 short edges. All 4 edges should now be square to the reference face and square to each other. Part 5 of 6, complete.
Use your marking gauge, basing off the reference face, to mark the thickness of your board around all 4 edges. Flip the board over to the unplaned face and use the scrub plane to plane down almost to the marked reference lines (The bottoms of the troughs should be about 1/16 inch above the cutting line). Use the #5, and the #7 or #8, as before on the reference face, to make this face flat and square. Finish up with the smoothing plane and, as necessary, the scraper. Part 6 of 6, complete.
At this time, you should have a board with 2 flat, smooth, and parallel faces, 4 flat and square edges (long edges parallel to each other, as well as short edges parallel to each other, and all 4 edges square to the two faces and to each other), and of the required thickness, length, and width, ready for whatever needs to be done next.
The first board you do by hand will take what seems like an inordinately long time, but with just a little bit of practice, it becomes nearly as fast as -- and often faster than -- putting a board through a jointer, thickness planer, and sanding sequence.
If you have a shooting board, you can use it to assist with steps 2, 3, 4, and 5.
A couple of things to keep in mind:
Keep your plane irons SHARP!!
If you have only a couple of planes, open the mouth up for the initial rougher planing, and close the mouth for the finer, finish planing.
Let the plane do the work -- don't force it.
Skewing the plane often helps to reduce tear out and makes planing easier.
Try to keep the amount of wood removed from each face roughly equal; otherwise any internal stresses present may cause the board to warp or cup again, after you have put all that work and effort into making it flat.
Expect to get a good upper body work out!
The listed sequence is not the only sequence that this can be done in, but it works quite well.
Good luck, and have fun! There's nothing quite like the sense of accomplishment you get when you have taken a piece of rough-sawn lumber and turned it into a nicely finished, dimensioned board using only hand-powered tools.
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Tschüß!
Mit freundlichen holzbearbeitungischen Grüßen!
James
There are 2 videos available from Tools for Working Wood by Jim Kingshott on working with planes. He covers the basics in one and special planes in the other. He was one of the old-time English master craftsmen, apparently the fourth or fifth generation in his family of furniture makers. He more than convinced me to go through the 12-step program to be de-Normed.
This site may be of some interest, too:
http://www.supertool.com/StanleyBG/stan0a.html
A Rebate and Rabbit is the same thing if I remember right and is a open sided groove..
A Groove is a runs with the grain and a Dado runs across the grain..
A Bull Nose plane has a short toe that allows the blade to get up close to a shoulder...
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