Setting Up and Using Bench Planes

The three planes

Hand planing has three jobs, and pre-industrial shops used a plane for each ¹:

A long sole bridges the low spots, so a jointer only cuts the high spots until a surface is straight. A short smoother follows the surface and only refines it. Add a block plane for end grain and chamfers, and you have the core planing kit.

Wooden planes (the traditional form) and metal planes do the same work; most beginners start with metal Bailey-pattern planes, new or restored.

Parts of a bench plane

On a bevel-down metal plane ¹:

• Sole and mouth: the flat bottom and the opening the iron projects through.
• Frog: the wedge the iron rests on, usually at 45° (“common pitch”), which sets the cutting angle.
• Iron (blade), bevel down.
• Cap iron (chipbreaker): screwed to the iron’s face, it curls and breaks the shaving.
• Lever cap: clamps the iron assembly to the frog.
• Depth knob and lateral lever: set the depth of cut and square the edge to the mouth.

Setting the plane

1. Sharpen the iron ².
2. Set the cap iron: for coarse work about 1/16 in. back from the edge; for smoothing, very close - a hair’s width (a few hundredths of an inch). A close cap iron is the most effective cure for tearout.
3. Set the mouth (by moving the frog on Bailey planes): wider for heavy cuts, narrow for fine smoothing.
4. Install and adjust: sight down the sole from the front toward a light, advance the iron until a sliver shows, and use the lateral lever until the projection is even side to side.
5. Test on a scrap: the shaving should be even across its width, and as thin as you want.

Using a plane

• Stance: feet apart, push from the legs and hips, not the arms.
• Pressure: on the front knob at the start of the stroke, even through the middle, on the tote at the end, so you don’t round the ends.
• Read the grain and plane with it (see Reading Grain and Figure).
• Wax the sole with paraffin; it glides far more easily.
• Rest the plane on its side, or on a strip, so the edge isn’t on the bench.

Flattening a board by hand

The classic sequence for rough stock ³:

1. Assess: sight across the board with winding sticks (two straight strips laid across each end) to see twist; check for cup with a straightedge.
2. Fore plane: work across the grain or diagonally on the face, taking down high corners and the hump of a cup until the face is roughly flat. The cambered iron leaves scalloped tracks.
3. Jointer: plane along the grain until the winding sticks sit parallel and a straightedge shows no gaps.
4. Edge: joint one edge straight and square to the face, checked with a try square.
5. Gauge the thickness and width from those reference surfaces with a marking or panel gauge, and plane down to the lines.
6. Smooth the show surfaces last.

Mark the first face and edge with face and edge marks; every measurement and joint is laid out from them.

What to take from this

Fore planes (cambered) remove stock, jointers make surfaces straight, smoothers make them smooth. A bevel-down plane cuts at the frog’s 45°; set the cap iron very close and the mouth tight for smoothing, sight the iron even, and push from the legs with shifting pressure. Flatten rough stock by fore planing across, jointing along, checking with winding sticks, then gauging thickness and width from marked reference surfaces.