PLANES and floats

child pages:

Block
Cambered Blades
cabinet for storage
David Charlesworth
Floats
Flattening Plane Irons and Soles
Lie-Nielsen reviews
Misc Planes stuff
Rack for planes #plane til
Preparing Rough Sawn Lumber
Scraper Planes
Shooting Boards [sub page]
Side Rabbet Plane
Stanley Bailey vs Bed Rock
Techniques for flat and square stock
Toothed Blades
Veritas reviews

My Planes

No 3 (iron) Smooth no spare blade
9" long. Blade is 1¾" wide x .125" thick. Iron 3.5 lbs.
No 4 Smooth have a spare roughing blade & have a spare normal blade that fit in No 4 or No 5 and 50 & 55 degree frogs that fit No 4 or No 5
9-1/2" long. Blade is 2" wide x .125" thick. Iron body, 4 lbs.
No 4 Smooth (bronze) have a spare roughing blade & have a spare normal blade that fit in No 4 or No 5 and 50 & 55 degree frogs that fit No 4 or No 5
9-1/2" long. Blade is 2" wide x .125" thick. Bronze body, 4-1/2 lbs 'Fine Woodworking's "Best Overall Smoothing Plane"'
No 4 1/2 Smooth Plane have qty 2 2-3/8" spare blades that fit No. 4-1/2, 5-1/2, 6 or 7 Bench Plane; have 50 degree and 55 degree frogs that fit No. 4-1/2, 5-1/2, 6 or 7
10-3/8" long. Blade is 2-3/8" wide x .140" thick. Iron body, 5-1/2 lbs.
No 5 Jack have a spare roughing blade & have a spare normal blade that fit in No 4 No 5 and 50 & 55 degree frogs that fit No 4 or No 5
14" long. Blade is 2" wide x .125" thick. Iron body, 5-1/2 lbs.
No 5 1/2 Jack
14-3/4" long. Blade is 2-3/8" wide x .140" thick. Iron body, 7 lbs.
No 6 Fore
18" long. Blade is 2-3/8" wide x .140" thick. Iron body, 7-1/2 lbs.
No 7 Jointer have qty 2 2-3/8" spare blades that fit No. 4-1/2, 5-1/2, 6 or 7 Bench Plane; have 50 degree and 55 degree frogs that fit No. 4-1/2, 5-1/2, 6 or 7
22" long. Blade is 2 3/8" wide x .140" thick. Iron body, 8-1/4 lbs.
[No 8 Jointer that I don't have is 24" long. Blade is 2-5/8" wide x .170" thick. Iron body, 10 lbs.]
No. 40-1/2 Scrub Plane apparently didn't buy spare blade yet
10-1/4" long. Blade is 1.450" wide x 3/16" thick, A2 Tool Steel. 3" Blade radius. Iron body, 2.40 lbs
No 60 1/2 Adjustable Mouth Block Plane (Low Angle) have spare blade
6-1/4" long 1-3/4" wide Blade is 1-3/8" wide x 1/8" thick. Blade is bedded at 12º Weight 1.5 lbs.
"BEST OVERALL BLOCK PLANE" - Fine Woodworking Tool Guide "TOP TOOL" - Wood Magazine
No 60 1/2 Rabbet Block Plane with Nicker (Low Angle) have spare blade
Dec 2001 Popular Woodworking p40 claims it is based on the Sargent 507
1-3/4" overall width, 6-1/4" long Blade is 1-3/4" wide x 1/8" thick Blade is bedded at 12° Weight 1.65 lbs.
No 62 Low Angle Jack Plane have spare blade & have toothed blade
14" long. Included blade is 2" wide x .175" thick, bedded at 12°. Iron body, Bronze cap. Weight 4.55 lbs. The trick to getting the most out of this plane is to have multiple blades honed to different angles for a variety of tasks. For example: 30° for end grain work, 35° for smoothing, 40° or more for tackling wavy grain with less tear out, a Toothed Blade for aggressive removal of material with less effort, and a 90° Scraper Blade.
Veritas Medium Shoulder Plane apparently didn't buy spare blade yet
No 73 Large Shoulder Plane have spare blade
FWW 0246 pdf69 prevent cheeks from tapering by overlapping cuts
to trim shoulder, lay down the rail and use planre with flat side on cheek (easier than with rail on end and balancing on shoulder)
No 95 Bronze Edge Plane Right for 90 degree edges; apparently didn't buy spare blade yet
Veritas Edge Trimming Plane Left A2 for 90 degree edges; apparently didn't buy spare blade yet
No 97 1/2 Small Chisel Plane (bronze) apparently didn't buy spare blade yet
6-1/2" long x 1-3/4" wide. Blade is 1-3/4" wide x 3/16" thick, A2 Tool Steel. Weight is 2.35 lbs.
Veritas Side Rabbet Plane for cleaning up or trimming sidewalls of rabbets, dadoes or grooves; 01 tools steel Rc 58-60);
got it instead of LN 98 & 99; apparently didn't buy spare blade yet
No 101 Violin Maker's Plane have spare blade
The body is 3-7/16" long x 1-3/16" wide x 1-5/8" tall. A2 Steel Blade is 7/8" wide x 1/8" thick, bedded at 20º. Weight is .50 lbs.
No 102 Low Angle Block Plane (bronze) have spare blade
5¼" long Blade is 1¼" wide x 1/8" thick Blade is bedded at 12° for fine cuts and end grain Bronze body, 15.2 oz.
No 112 Large Scraping Plane apparently didn't buy spare blade yet; normal, 18tpi and 25tpi available
No 140 Skew Block Plane Right uses 18 degreee right skewed jaws for honing; apparently didn't buy spare blade yet
Lie-Nielsen No. 140 [sub-page]
The 1-1/2" wide x 1/8" thick blade has an 18° skew and is bedded at 12° with a captive nut for positive and accurate adjusting. Body is 6-7/8" long x 1-7/8" wide. Bronze 2.15 lbs.
No 164 Low Angle Smooth Plane "essentially a low angle version of the No. 4 Smooth Plane and a shorter version of the Low Angle Jack."; apparently didn't buy spare blade yet
Yoke Plate (used to adjust blade depth) needs to be set 2 1/2" from the blade's edge
9-1/2" long. Blade is 2" wide x .187" thick, bedded at 12°. Iron body, 3.75 lbs. Fine Woodworking's "Reader's Choice"
Veritas Shooting Plane Left always ground straight, so little need for spare blade FWW 0248 p18 review of plane and track
Veritas Shooting Plane Right always ground straight, so little need for spare blade

Honing Guide
Long Jaw Pair

Angle of Attack

Drawbacks to high angle frogs?

creating camber on bevel up planes by derek from perth using belt sander with jig made from cabinet handle. See "belt sander & grinders for creating camber on bevel up planes" on the sharpening page "Sharpening - Camber" section.

Johnathan Klahn article on different frog angles and uses
Rob Cosman article on angle of attack and clearance angle
Paul Sellers article on the exact angle not mattering

AMWW Jan 2013pdfp71 quick blurb on bevel-up planes

shooting planes compared

easy to understand plane information

Drawbacks to high angle frogs at sawmillcreek.org

Bevel up vs Bevel down FWW 197 p26 pdfp26

Handplane blade angles FWW 186 p96 pdfp96 "Understanding Handplane Blade Angles"

Low Angle Smoothing Planes - review of Veritas and discussion of Stanley 164 and low angle in General - PWW 2004-08 p29

Veritas Bevel-up Bench Planes PWW 2005-12 pdfp39 p65

Paul Sellers on bevel up vs bevel down for new handplane woooworkers

detailed article on Bevel up planes on woodworker's institute

Block Planes

FWW 0231 p80 chamfer end grain without tearout

Christopher Schwarz The Real Truth About Block Planes (local .pdf)
bed angle, camber blades or not, quarter coint at different angles to show amount of camber needed, touch and go landing (remove heel not toe), the "wear bevel" problem solved by the ruler trick

Cambered Blades

Cabinet

PWW Oct 2004

David Charlesworth

HandPlane Tuneup FWW 172 p 36

Hand Planing.avi

2:55 Stop Shavings & Straight Edges
10:45 Datum Surfaces
22:20 Bumps
27:36 Face Edge
34:09 Wind
- 35:45 distance between winding sticks = x; viewer should be 2x or 3x from nearest winding stick
- 37:20 use paper shims to measure the error
- ~39 paths to remove wind
41:55 Thicknessing to a Gauge Line
57:00 Hand Planing End Grain and Squaring Edges (no shooting board)
- 58:30 quarter showing how a bevel up plane requires more camber
- must relieve back edge so no spelching
- 1:03:55 squaring edge
- 1:09:30 if can't remove fibers at end before plane because already completed work (e.g. table leg leveling), take stopped shavings from either end, then sand
1:10:34 Placing a Knife Line
- 1:17:30 use chisel in knife line on ends to make relief bevel so no spelching; will still have to make 2 stopped cuts (1 from each end)
- 1:19:45 can't see feathered edge / polished trackin end grain well
1:24:40 ending / conclusion

A User's Guide To Waterstones" FWW 0169 pdfp 31

"Precision Hand Planing" - [Popular Woodworking 2007 Oct] pdfp33 p54

Charlesworth on Scraper Planes "Success with Scraper Planes" PWW June 2010 (issue 183) p42 pdfp44

Learning Curves by David Charlesworth [Popular Woodworking 2005 August PWW 2005-08 pdfp42 p53
curved plan blade sharpening

David Charlesworth youtube video on setting plane blade depth
David Charlesworth youtube video on tuning up an old plane 3:05 25 degree back bevel on LN No. 5 to plane notorious yew wood
David Charlesworth youtube video odate dressing plate for cambering plane irons saves time but at 2:24 can use flat stone and take 5 strokes at 5 different positions; Popular Woodworking on Odate; This appears to be the same guy now has a "sharpen it rotated 90 degrees jig"
David Charlesworth youtube video on new chip breaker preparation
David Charlesworth youtube video on planing a square edge with a cambered blade
David Charlesworth youtube video on the "edge exercise" hollowing the center then reducing that hollow with 1 or 2 full length passes to about 0.002" over 20" length

Chip Breaker

Per Charles Schwarz in "Building Furniture wiht Hand Planes" video:
jointer plane start with chip breaker 1/8" back from edge and move closer as get more comfortable with using it
smoothing plane chip breaker should be about 1/32" back from edge

Floats

I have
1" push cheek float and
[crank-neck] push face float

as of 2023 Lie-Nielsen no longer makes them and hasn't since maybe 2013, but this landing page is still on their site

comparison of Lie-Nielsen floats, and Auriou rasps and Stanley skew block planes for trimming tennons by Derek Cohen ( think the Perth frequent poster on sawmillcreek)
    he likes the fine control of the floats for hardwoods over the Stanley No. 140 , though only after the factory sharpening was rehoned. softwoods still produced dust even after honing.
    he likes the Stanley No 140 for taking off larger amounts of material in both hardwood and softwood but someimes " like using a hammer to swat a fly"
    he seems to indicate Lie-Nielsen ones are really rebranded Clark & Williams floats

I had previously read this Popular Woodworking article about Clark & Williams -
3 guys in Arkansas that started making floats to make wooden replicas of 18th Century moulding, bench and joinery planes then 1 guy dropped out of the club
later renamed to Old Street Tool, Inc
now no longer making bench planes, they still make side escapement planes

Flattening Plane Irons and Soles

Tolerance of plane sole:

Schwarz in "Super Tune" Your Plane Chapter 4 05:30:
a 0.0006" gap in the sole will cause problems with it's use.
Schwarz in "Troubleshooting a Bench Plane"
- 02:31, don't hold ruler to edge and look for light as human can see as small as 0.001" gap between 2 steel surfaces and also reflection on shiny surface will make error appear doulble what it actually is. this will result in false positive of error when perhaps within tolerance
- 03:25 do it this way:
  - retract blade
  - lightly clamp upside down in vise
  - put ruler in center try to get smallest feeler gauge under ruler (his was 0.003")
  - if can't get 0.003" feeler gauge under ruler then sole is flat enough
  - repeat with inside and outside
  - pay particular attention to in area in front of mouth

Flattening A Plane Sole, Part 1 - block plane on a diamond stone from PWW (local .pdf)
Flattening A Plane Sole, Part 2 - bench plan on a granite plate from PWW (local .pdf)

FWW 232 p24 flattening the back of an iron
150 grit then 320 600 1000
use heat gun to soften sandpaper adhesive before removal

Lie-Nielsen reviews

Lie-Nielsen Convex-sole Block Plane PWW 2005-12 pdfp38 p64 PWW 2005-08 pdfp16 p24

Lie_Nielsen Medium Shoulder Plane PWW 2006-08 pdfp21 p28

Lie-Nielsen No. 4 1/2 Smoothing Plane PWW 2005-08 pdfp19 p29

Lie-Nielsen 25th Anniversary FWW 0188 pdfp86 p86

Mouth Opening Setting

video on using tape to set mouth opening on smoothing plane

Planes - Misc

FWW 0204 pdfp30 Handplaning 101
same issue pdfp46 Plane like a Pro

Popular Woodworking 217 (April 2015).pdf pdfp12 p10 to set the chipbreaker to a precise depth, tape a feeler gauge to surface, put edge of iron on surface and marry iron back to feeler gauge then slide chipbreaker down

Howard adjusters (knobs with bearings for Lie-Nielsen planes)
orig link I found is now 404 was Henry Eckert Toolworks
this thread Derek from Australia discusses them - probably where I first heard of them
found woodbywright which seems to have high quality and makes several sizes

rank meaning of planes

easy to understand plane information

AMWW Jan 2013 pdfp71 using a backer board to prevent spelching when planing rails & stiles

bench stop for super thin stock 3/4" dowel with credit card planing stop secured with glue and brass tack, add more cards from bottom to make thicker stop

Troubleshooting a Bench Plane 28 minute video by Chris Schwarz

06:00ish if bench has hollow of 0.006" or greater, will get spring on material 3/4" and thinner
7:15 where to apply pressure to avoid workpiece from becoming convex

jig for holding box/drawer for plaining pins FWW 0234 pdfp16

Handplanes for beginners PWW Jun 2007 pdfp48 p70

Christopher Schwartz on using bench planes with machinery to speed your work [Popular Woodworking Feb 2006] pdfp24

when planing end grain, this post from fear_atropos sugggests spray misting with rubbing alcohol.
in PWW Apr 2010 pdfp 14 p12, denatured alcohol is also recommeneded, especially for ring-porous woods (e.g. oak , hickory and ash) though it states any liquid woould work. they prefer alchol because it is low on VOC scale and doesn't rust tools.

Spill Planes were used to make shavings that were used to transfer flame from one place to another and can make very long shavings.

Low Angle Smoothing Planes - review of Veritas and discussion of Stanley 164 and low angle in General - PWW 2004-08 p29

Oil Wick to lubricate bottom of plane PWW 2005-10 pdfp43 p61
socks in a can with a wood surround. Use mineral oil or raw linseed oil (but not boiled linseed oil as that may spontaneously combust)

Paul Seller's video on making a rag-in-a-can oiler

Links:

Sharpening subsection on woodoworking page
Sharpening cloverleaf plane spurs [Popular Woodworking 2006 August] pdfp11
Sharpening and Setting the Bench Plane
1:50 diamond stones he calls coarse 250 fine ~600 super fine 1200 he lubricates the diamond stones with window cleaner
Matt Estlea youtube video on How to get SILKY SMOOTH SHAVINGS from a PLANE
Matt Estlea youtube video on How to Plane Correclty
Tips and Tricks for Handplaning article at FineWoodworking
Paul Seller's youtube playlist on bench planes
How to make flat boards straight, smooth and square (stock preparation part 2)

Popular Woodworking October 2013 pdfp17 fence for hand plane for edging
Popular Woodworking October 2013 pdfp16 Perfect Bevels with a Jointer Plane

Shoulder Plane setup and use FWW 0187 pdfp65

PWW Feb 2002 pdfp12 use paper at ends to set blade to about a thousandth

Shopnotes 88 p7 chamfer jig for block plane

Preparing Rough Sawn Lumber

When planing to thickness, remove roughly the same amount from each side to prevent cupping FWW 0221 pdfp82

Preparing Rough Lumber with hand tools FWW 239 pdfp24

Precision Edge-jointing by Hand (with a long plane) PWW 2004-02 p92 pdfp72

Plane Rack #plane til

FWW 0265 pdfp45 unenclosed shelves and tool holders

Mike Pekovich's Hanging Tool Cabinet video FWW 0237 p32 specifics on plane till is on p35 links to video series other plane till videos

[Popular Woodworking 2004 Oct] pdfp54 p72

[Wood Magazine 220] 2013-09 pdfp16 p14

Scraper Planes

setting up scrapers and scraper planes FWW 0304 p28

setting up scraper planes Woodsmith 184 p10

Scraper planes and cabinet scrapers FWW 0189 pdfp70 p70

convert a low angle block plane into a scraper plane with a different iron FWW 0188 pdfp110

Spring Joints

Notes from FWW video "Video: Creating a spring joint with a handplane" by Bob Van Dyke

minor benefit: in theory, you only need one clamp to glue up a sizable panel or tabletop; since the edges of the glue-up touch before the middle, it's easy to keep them aligned as you add clamping pressure and finesse the middle of the board.
minor benefit: guarantees that the ends of his edge joints don’t open up over time
during suface preparation, mark face and edge
create spring joints with multiple passes of a smaller handplane (such as a No. 4 smoother), others use their jointers
major benefit: a spring joint makes it easier to glue up a flush panel that requires only light handplaning or scraping (and won't go through the planer again) since it is at finished thickness prior to creating the spring joint
first, clamp together with 2 hand screws
then take full length shaving
take very short pass in the middle, then a little longer pass still centered on board length and expand out length until full length pass
- for 3 foot board he makes 3 short passes total (not including the final full length pass)
put in correct orientation,

clamp over joint at ends with spring clamps, then clamp in middle with 1 clamp - put both panels in one plane at center using pressure on one side or the other before applying final pressure
remove squeeze out as it will just "insulate" the inner glue and take longer to cure
can unclamp after 20 minutes

Side Rabbet Plane

easy jig for setting projection video

Stanley Bailey vs Bed Rock

very detailed informaton on differences at supertool.com

very detailed historical information on all models of Stanley Planes by Patrick Leach

Woodworker's journal on the cost of modern high quality hand planes vs. original Stanley Planes

In 1923, an 05 bailey jack plane sold for $6.05 (80.49 in 2014 dollars) and the 605 bedrock jack plane was $6.75 (89.80 in 2014 dollars)
most baileys were made 1869 to 1960s
baileys 01 through 08 pronounced Oh and the number
1898 bedrocks introduced, 6 preceded the Oh number
in early 1900s cheeks of bedrocks were squared off on the top to help differentiate
bedrock production lasted until 1943
A 05 Lie-Nielsen Jack today costs $325, which is 3.6 times (adjusted for inflation) the price of the 1923 Bedrock

Techniques for flat and square stock

FWW 0191 pdfp32 p32

Toothed Blades

PWW oct 2009 pdfp33

Veritas reviews

Veritas Shoulder Plan review (for large, I have medium) PWW 2004-12 pdfp14 p27

Veritas Bevel-up Bench Planes PWW 2005-12 pdfp39 p65

Veritas rpouter plane review PWW Feb 2006 pdfp14

last updated: Wed 2024-12-18 5:30 PM

plane type	profile
scrub plane	1/16" camber
fore plane	1/32" camber
smooth plane	rounded corner + straight or 1/64" camber
jointer plane	square corner + straight