History and Development of Hand Planes
– Hand planes have been used for shaping wood for thousands of years.
– Early planes were made from wood with a rectangular slot for the cutting blade.
– Roman planes from the 1st to 3rd century AD resemble modern planes.
– Egyptian tombs show evidence of smoothing wood surfaces with cutting tools.
– Leonard Bailey introduced cast iron-bodied hand planes in the mid-1860s.
– In 1918, an air-powered handheld planing tool was developed for shipbuilding.
– The Bailey design, developed in the mid-1860s, is still manufactured today.
– Modern hand planes are made from wood, ductile iron, or bronze.
– Modern hand planes are heavier and rust-resistant compared to older designs.
Parts of a Hand Plane
– Mouth: opening in the sole of the plane where the blade extends.
– Iron: steel blade that cuts the wood.
– Lever cap: secures the cap iron and iron to the frog.
– Depth adjustment knob: controls the cutting depth of the iron.
– Knob: allows a second hand to guide the plane.
Types of Hand Planes
– Block plane, smoothing plane, and jointing plane are common types.
– Shoulder plane, router plane, bullnose plane, and chisel plane are specialty planes.
– Electrically powered hand planers have joined the hand-held plane family.
– Bench planes have the cutting bevel facing down and a rear handle known as a tote.
– Block planes are smaller tools that can be held with one hand and excel at working against the grain.
Uses and Techniques of Hand Planes
– Planes are used to flatten, reduce thickness, and create a smooth surface on wood.
– They can produce horizontal, vertical, or inclined flat surfaces.
– Special types of planes are designed for cutting joints or decorative moldings.
– Hand planes are used for fine-scale planing, while power planers are for larger tasks.
– Planing with the grain results in thin shavings and a smooth surface.
– Planing against the grain may cause splintering and tearout.
– Planing across the grain is called traverse or transverse planing.
– Planing end grain requires different techniques and specialized planes.
– Bevel-up planes are effective for planing difficult end grain.
Different Types and Materials of Hand Planes
– Wooden plane: entirely wood except for the blade, adjusted by striking with a hammer.
– Transitional plane: wooden body with a metal casting to hold and adjust the blade.
– Metal plane: largely constructed of metal, except for handles.
– Infill plane: metal body filled with dense hardwood for smoothing difficult grained woods.
– Side-escapement plane: tall, narrow wooden body with a slit in the side for shaving ejection.
– Rabbet plane, shoulder plane, fillister plane, moulding plane, and grooving plane are specialized planes for specific purposes.
Note: Citations and external links have been omitted from the groups as they are not directly related to the content organization. Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compass_plane
A hand plane is a tool for shaping wood using muscle power to force the cutting blade over the wood surface. Some rotary power planers are motorized power tools 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 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 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 planes are pulled toward the body, not pushed away.
Woodworking machinery that perform a similar function as hand planes include the jointer and the thickness planer, 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, a large electric motor or internal combustion engine 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.
