The jack plane also tends to straighten the work, owing to its greater length. The greater the length, the more does it straighten. The old-fashioned jointers were made several feet long for this very purpose.
If a boy can afford only one plane, it should be a jack plane, but the cutter should be ground straight to act as a smooth plane.
The block plane can be dispensed with better than any of the others, because the smooth plane can be used on a shooting board for truing up end grain, the original purpose of the block plane.
The latter plane has no cap, as it works on the ends of the wood fibres with a shearing or paring action. This is helped by holding the tool at an angle with the wood, a position not advisable with the other two tools.
By the Courtesy of the Metropolitan Museum of Art
Tools of the Seventeenth Century.
Showing how little progress has been made in tool construction. In this collection is a jointer plane, a smooth plane, rabbit plane, straight edge, dividers or compasses, a bench vise, hand vise, wrench, hacksaw and combination tool.