Posted by
Easy WoodCraft on
Jul 18, 2016
Hand planes are the workhorses of the woodworker's shop and I'm not talking about the cabinetmakers of yesteryear. I'm talking about modern-day woodworkers who do fine, sensitive work. Anyone who knows me well can tell you that I don't get on a soapbox often. But the great "to sand or not to sand" debate is enough to get me going. I'm not a purist: I own and use power sanders. But I really love using my planes. And I reach for them whenever I can because, like Krenov, I truly believe they leave a superior surface.
It's sad to see so many woodworkers jump on the power sanding bandwagon as a standard way of woodworking. I've seen guys spend literally hours sanding out uneven surfaces or imperfections that could have been taken care of in minutes with a sharp plane. And to watch beautiful bird's eye maple lose its crispness to sanding in place of a scraper plane just seems like a waste. Okay enough ranting. If you have not had the pleasure of shearing off thin, wispy shavings from a board while working up a light sweat, I heartily recommend it.
The three types of planes you'll find most useful in the shop are jack or jointer planes, block planes, and specialty planes. Jack and jointer planes are used for smoothing panels, jointing edges, and all purpose planing. Block planes, with their shorter soles and bevel up blades, are great for trimming, fine tuning joints, and planing end grain. The bulk of the remaining planes you'll find handy are broadly classified as specialty planes. These include rabbet planes, shoulder planes, chisel planes, circular planes, combination planes, and so on.
Bevel orientation
One of the big differences between jack and block planes is the orientation of the bevel. On a jack plane the bevel is down; with a block plane, it's up. Jack planes all have a chip breaker to help sever chips as they roll off the leading edge of the blade. Although a block plane looks like it doesn't have a chip breaker, the bevel actually serves this purpose. The blade on a block plane is also mounted much lower than that of a jack plane (roughly 25 versus 45 degrees). You might think this creates a much lower cutting angle, but it's actually roughly the same as the combined bevel plus mounting angle. This ends up around 45 degrees — the same as a jack plane (to learn why a block plane handles end grain so well, see
Block Plane).
Skewing
Effective cutting angles can also be varied by skewing a plane. Instead of cutting straight in line, if you angle the plane, say, 30 degrees, you alter the effective pitch of the blade, as you're producing more of a shearing cut. This is why skewing is often used when working with hard to plane woods like bird's eye maple or burls. Skewing is so effective, some plane makers manufacture their planes with skewed blades.
Throats
The throat opening on a plane that is, the space between the beveled end of the blade and the sole plays an important role in the tool's overall performance. This sensitive area of the sole is the portion that "backs up" a cut. It prevents the blade from lifting up too large a sliver. At the same time, it must be wide enough to allow chips to pass through without jamming. The throat openings on jack and jointer planes are adjusted via a frog (see
Using A Jack Plane), and on quality block planes they can be adjusted by adjustable throat plates (see
Adjustable Throat in Block Plane>).
Thanks for reading Plane Terminology. Please share...!
