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OK…my pleasure…didn’t think it was a big deal…but I’ll clean it up and repost it. In order of typical, general use on roughsawn boards… …and the more-effective Stanley Cast-Iron Model #’s used for each task(there were also beech-bodied transitional planes that mirrored many of these, and they are also excellent user planes today): #40 Scrub – Short, crude plane with thick, convex blade that removes face material quickly to reduce thickness or remove warp. #5 and # 5 1/2 Jack – Middlin-size plane to follow the scrub plane for a flatter, but not finished surface to a specific dimension. Usually set coarse…takes off the ridges left by the scrub plane. The “half” sizes are wider. #3, #4 Smoothers – Short, finishing planes for the final thickness, set either coarse or fine. In spite of today’s hype about “ease of adjustment”, no plane is easy to adjust upwards and tradesman had two on hand if they needed two blade settings. #6 Try or Fore Plane – To remove any real high spots from board edges before jointing. Not many tradesmen bothered with one of these as the #5 worked just as well for the task. #7, #8 Jointer – Long planes to make a perfectly true edge for edgejoining panels. Trademen usually owned one or the other…not both. The #7 was lighter. #20 and #113 Compass Planes – These plane curved edges. Modern, neophyte chairmakers complain they don’t do facegrain very well….well, they weren’t designed for facegrain….you’ll have to make a woodie compass with a thick, convex blade ala the #40 to do that well. #78 and #10 Rabbet – In joining, used to cut rabbet joints….the #10 big rabbets in ships and carriages. #71 Dado – Ditto for dados…but only in combination with a now-rare adjustable-depth dado saw. They work well to clean out a tablesawn dado…but so does an upside down bench chisel. There were also dado and plow planes that could do it without the saw….but these weren’t as fast or popular as the saw followed by the #71. # 90-Series Shoulder – Trims cross and endgrain tenon shoulders and cheeks. #18 and #60-Series Blocks – Pares end grain and lives in your apron pocket for any general trimming/easing. Even machine-only woodworkers need one of these. #4 1/2 Smoother – Set very fine, planes the final surface on the finished workpiece. A short, wide, heavy plane. Done right followed by minor work with the card scraper, no sanding is required. #12, #80 and #112 Scrapers – Put the final surface on faces and edges ready for finish. These are heavier than cheaper card scrapers and were popular because they could “plane” highly-figured wood without the chipping common with smoothers alone. #45, #50 and #55 Combo Planes– Also cut rabbets but are primarily to mold, bead and flute edge decoration after the surface was finished or in applied molding. These by design have poor throat support and only work on clear, perfectly-straightgrained wood. There’s a lot more plane models out there but are usually variations of the above.
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“When we build, let us think that we build forever. Let it not be for present delight nor for present use alone. Let it be such work as our descendants will thank us for; and let us think…that a time is to come when those (heirlooms) will be held sacred because our hands have touched them, and that men will say, as they look upon the labor and wrought substance of them, ‘See! This our father did for us.’ “ –John Ruskin.
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This post recalls one of the biggest/dumbest mistakes of my life. Pop had nearly every one of the older planes shown above handed down from his Pa and GPa and even GGPa. Asked me in the 50's if I thought I wanted them, told him "who wants that old stuff", so he gave them to a co-worker.
Dumb me (brother was dumb also). Neither of us has ever passed up old 'junk' since we 'got educated".
Good post and information. I own every one of the above planes and more. I had been doing carpentry for several years and along the way had picked up some unique planes mostly for free, this was before the collection craze of hand planes. One day I was perusing an article on collectables and found out I had in my posession several planes worth real $$, one was worth over $800!, today that plane would get even more. Anyhow that's when I started trading and it's been a pleasure to collect, learn about, and restore these old relics. Every one of them is a user even though I only use about five different ones in my work. I reciently bought an old Japanese smoother just to use as a showpiece on the mantel. The new high end planes that are being made today (Lei Nielson), are absolutely superior for using and will last the rest of your life and several others, but you pay a high price for them. A good place to start to learn about planes is in The Handplane Book by Garret Hack, a regular contributer to Fine Woodworking. There is a surprising amount of literature on planes and their history. To collect, own and restore these tools has given me a great deal of pleasure and I often wonder about who used them before I did and what fine work was accomplished using them.