Wood-working for Beginners: A Manual for Amateurs

by Charles G. Wheeler

The jointer (22" to 30" in length) or long jointer (from 24" to 30"), is still longer than the fore-plane and correspondingly more accurate for making a surface level and true, or for shooting the edges of boards. Twenty-four inches is a good length. It is very useful for making joints to be glued, and is used in the same way as the fore-plane, the stroke being continued steadily the whole length of the piece if possible.

The smoothing-plane is used, as its name indicates, for the final smoothing of the surface, so far as it can be done with a plane. It is from five to ten inches long.

It is an invaluable plane to the amateur, and the beginner can get along very well for a great deal of work with no other, for stock can be bought ready planed and can easily be trued and jointed, when necessary, at any wood-working mill or shop at slight expense.

Fig. 626.

A plane with a short stock, as the smoothing-plane, will make your work smooth, but it is hard to make it straight and level or true with such a tool, because, being short, it will follow the larger irregularities of the surface and will only plane off the smaller inequalities. It will go up and down over the hills and valleys of the wood, so to speak, while a longer plane cannot do this, but will cut off the tops of the hills until the surface is made level, as shown in Fig. 626. The smoothing-plane is therefore merely to smooth the surface after it has been straightened by a longer plane, or in cases where smoothness only is essential and it is not required that the surface should be true. Small pieces can, of course, be straightened and trued by the smoothing-plane alone.

A wooden smoothing-plane can be held as shown in Fig. 627. An iron plane can be used by laying the hand naturally over the knob for the purpose.

Fig. 627.

The block-plane is small and is meant chiefly for planing across the ends of pieces (for planing "end-grain"), but it is also frequently useful in other directions. The iron is usually set at a more acute angle with the face of the stock than in the other planes and with the bevel upwards, and the width of the mouth is often adjustable, which is a convenience. A block-plane is made which can, by means of a detachable side, be used as a rabbet-plane. The block-plane makes a quite good substitute for a smoothing-plane for amateur work and is a very useful little tool.