Types of Hand Planes and What They Actually Do

Hand planes manipulate wood surfaces through controlled blade geometry and body length. The blade removes material, the sole determines what surface the plane creates, and the length dictates whether the tool follows surface variations or bridges them. These three variables combine to create distinct plane types, each optimized for different operations in the progression from rough lumber to finished surfaces.

The numbering system most woodworkers reference traces back to Stanley's Bailey patent designs from the 1860s. Leonard Bailey developed the adjustable frog mechanism and standardized body lengths that other manufacturers adopted. Stanley later acquired Bailey's patents and established the numbering conventions that persist today, even though multiple companies now produce planes using these same designations.

Bench Planes

Bench planes handle the primary surfacing and edge work that happens at the workbench. These two-handed tools range from 9 to 24 inches long, with blade widths between 1-3/4 and 2-3/8 inches. The blade sits bevel-down at 45 degrees in most configurations, supported by a chipbreaker that stiffens the cutting edge and breaks shavings.

Smoothing Planes (No. 1 through No. 4-1/2)

The shortest bench planes, typically 9 to 10 inches long, prepare surfaces for finishing. A smoothing plane follows the immediate surface contour rather than trying to flatten it, taking fine shavings that remove tool marks, pencil lines, and minor surface blemishes without changing the overall geometry.

The compact sole rides into shallow hollows that longer planes would bridge over. This characteristic makes smoothers ideal for final surface preparation after flattening operations are complete. The short length also means less mass to push, allowing the delicate touch needed for whisper-thin finishing cuts.

Number 4 smoothing planes (9 inches long with 2-inch blades) appear in more workshops than any other bench plane size. The dimensions balance maneuverability against enough mass to maintain momentum through cuts. Smaller No. 3 planes work well for narrow stock, while the heftier No. 4-1/2 with its 2-3/8 inch blade tackles wider panels.

Jack Planes (No. 5 and No. 5-1/2)

Jack planes occupy the middle ground at 14 to 15 inches long. The name derives from "jack of all trades" since these planes handle multiple operations adequately if not optimally. The length bridges minor surface irregularities while remaining short enough for spot work.

Traditional jack plane use involves rough stock removal with a heavily cambered blade that takes deep, scooped shavings. The curvature prevents blade corners from digging in while removing material quickly. This aggressive setup reduces rough-sawn lumber to near-final dimensions before longer planes refine the surface.

Modern jack plane applications often involve edge jointing and general smoothing work. The versatile length works for boards up to about 4 feet long, making the jack plane useful for furniture-scale projects. Low angle jack planes substitute a 12-degree bed for the standard 45-degree geometry, creating better end-grain cutting characteristics.

Jointer Planes (No. 7 and No. 8)

Jointer planes stretch 22 to 24 inches long, making them the largest bench planes. The extended sole bridges surface irregularities, contacting only the high spots as it removes material. Each pass flattens the board incrementally until the plane takes continuous shavings across the entire surface.

The length determines flattening capability. A 10-inch board with 1/8-inch twist at the corners requires a plane longer than 10 inches to register the error. The jointer's 22-inch sole spans that twist, cutting only the high corners until they level with the rest of the board. Shorter planes would follow the twist rather than correcting it.

Edge jointing represents the other primary jointer plane operation. Preparing board edges for glue-ups requires dead-straight surfaces that meet at precise 90-degree angles to the face. The long sole maintains straightness across the board's length while the lateral adjustment ensures square edges.

Weight becomes significant with jointer planes. A No. 8 might weigh 10 pounds, providing momentum that helps maintain consistent cutting depth but also causing fatigue during extended flattening sessions. The mass serves a purpose in serious stock preparation but makes these planes less practical for casual use.

Fore Planes (No. 6)

Fore planes sit between jacks and jointers at 18 inches long. The length handles light flattening work without the weight and bulk of full jointer planes. Historically, fore planes were the first plane used after the scrub plane in the roughing-out sequence, hence the name.

Current woodworking sees less distinction between fore planes and jointers since many woodworkers use a jack plane for initial work and jump directly to a jointer for final flattening. The No. 6 occupies an in-between zone that overlaps both jack and jointer capabilities without excelling at either.

Block Planes

Block planes differ fundamentally from bench planes through their blade orientation and intended use. The blade sits bevel-up at bed angles between 12 and 21 degrees, creating effective cutting angles between 37 and 46 degrees depending on blade bevel. The compact size, typically 6 to 7 inches long, allows one-handed operation.

The low cutting angle slices end grain cleanly where bench planes tear and chip. Fitting drawer fronts, trimming through-tenons, cleaning up dovetails—all these operations involve cutting across growth rings where the low angle and compact control make block planes the default tool.

Standard angle block planes use 20 or 21-degree beds, creating 45-degree cutting angles with standard 25-degree blade bevels. This geometry handles long grain and general smoothing adequately while still working for end-grain operations.

Low angle block planes employ 12-degree beds for 37-degree effective angles. The shallower approach excels specifically at end grain, slicing fibers rather than pushing through them. Cabinetmakers doing extensive joinery reach for low-angle blocks most frequently.

The lack of a chipbreaker means blade thickness matters more in block planes. Thin blades flex under pressure, causing chatter. Quality block planes use 1/8-inch thick blades that resist deflection even during heavy cuts.

Specialty Planes for Joinery

Joinery planes represent highly specialized tools designed for specific joint-cutting operations. Each addresses particular geometric requirements that general-purpose planes can't achieve.

Shoulder Planes

Shoulder planes feature blades that extend to the full width of the plane body, sometimes slightly beyond. This configuration allows cuts right into corners and rabbets where standard planes leave uncut ridges. The blade sits bevel-up like a block plane but at bed angles around 18 to 20 degrees.

Trimming tenon shoulders and cheeks represents the primary shoulder plane application. The side of the plane body rides the reference surface while the blade cuts perpendicular, establishing precise shoulder locations. The full-width blade ensures clean corners without requiring chisel cleanup.

Rabbet work also benefits from shoulder plane geometry. The blade cutting to the full body width means rabbets can be trimmed or refined without the plane body interfering. The low bed angle handles both long grain along the rabbet bottom and cross grain at the shoulder.

Rabbet Planes

Rabbet planes cut and refine rabbets through blades that extend past one or both sides of the body. The open-sided design allows the blade to cut right to the corner where a side wall meets the bottom of the rabbet. Some models include fences and depth stops for establishing new rabbets, while simpler versions just trim existing ones.

The Stanley No. 78 represents the classic adjustable rabbet plane with fence, depth stop, and nickers (small cutters that score cross-grain fibers ahead of the main blade). The complexity makes these planes versatile but also means more setup and adjustment.

Simpler rabbet planes eliminate adjustable features in favor of lighter weight and easier handling. These trimming planes refine rabbets cut by other methods rather than establishing new ones from scratch.

Router Planes

Router planes cut shallow recesses to precise, uniform depths. The blade extends downward from the body, riding the surrounding surface while cutting the bottom of the recess. Depth adjustment determines how far below the reference surface the blade cuts.

Hinge mortises, inlay recesses, and dado bottoms all benefit from router plane work. The tool excels at establishing flat-bottomed recesses where depth consistency matters more than removing large amounts of material. Hand-cut dados often get roughed out with saws and chisels, then refined to final depth with router planes.

The L-shaped blade configuration creates a scraping rather than slicing action. The cutting geometry works more like a scraper than a traditional plane, which means these tools handle gnarly grain directions without the tearout that would plague bevel-down planes.

Bullnose Planes

Bullnose planes feature blades mounted very close to the front of the body, sometimes within 1/4 inch. This minimal nose length allows cuts into tight corners and stopped rabbets where regular planes can't reach. The compact body and fine adjustments make these precision tools for detailed joinery work.

Some bullnose planes include removable front sections that convert them into chisel planes when the nose is completely removed. This versatility appeals to woodworkers who want multiple capabilities in a single tool, though dedicated chisel planes often work better for their specific applications.

Transitional and Wooden Planes

Before Stanley's metal plane dominance, wooden-bodied planes handled all woodworking operations. These traditional designs persist both as working tools and as links to historical methods.

Wooden Bench Planes

Wooden bench planes function identically to metal versions but substitute wood bodies for cast iron. The lighter weight reduces fatigue during extended work sessions. Wood-on-wood friction differs from metal-on-wood, creating different handling characteristics that some woodworkers prefer.

Traditional wooden planes lack the adjustable frogs found in Bailey-pattern metal planes. The blade beds directly in the wooden body at a fixed angle. Adjustment happens by tapping the blade with a hammer to extend it or striking a button at the rear to retract it. This simpler mechanism offers fewer adjustment options but also fewer parts to malfunction.

European wooden planes typically feature a closed handle at the rear and a front grip. Japanese wooden planes eliminate handles entirely, with the user gripping the body directly. The pull-stroke cutting action used in Japanese woodworking requires different body positioning than Western push-stroke techniques.

Transitional Planes

Transitional planes combine wooden bodies with metal mechanisms. The sole, frog, and adjustment hardware use metal components while the main body and handles remain wood. This hybrid construction appeared during the transition period when manufacturers moved from purely wooden to fully metal planes.

Stanley produced transitional planes throughout the late 1800s and early 1900s. These tools cost less than full-metal planes while offering better adjustment capability than purely wooden designs. The market position made transitionals popular with cost-conscious woodworkers who wanted modern conveniences.

Current transitional plane use tends toward collectors rather than working woodworkers. The combination of materials creates maintenance challenges since wood and metal expand differently with humidity changes. Purely wooden or purely metal planes avoid these dimensional stability issues.

Scrub Planes

Scrub planes represent the most aggressive stock removal tools in the hand plane family. The heavily cambered blade, typically with 3 to 4 inches of radius, scoops deep shavings that reduce rough lumber thickness quickly. The narrow blade (usually 1-1/4 to 1-1/2 inches) concentrates cutting force in a small area.

Traditional dimensioning sequences started with scrub planes removing the bulk of excess material, followed by jack planes for intermediate flattening, then jointer planes for final truing, and finally smoothing planes for surface preparation. Power planers and jointers have largely replaced scrub planes in modern shops, though hand-tool purists still use them for initial stock preparation.

The short body (typically 9 to 11 inches) combined with the heavily cambered blade means scrub planes create deeply scalloped surfaces. The tool makes no attempt at flatness, simply removing material rapidly. Subsequent planing operations remove the scallops while establishing flat reference surfaces.

Molding and Specialized Planes

Historically, woodworkers used dedicated molding planes for each profile they needed to cut. A complete molding plane collection might include dozens of planes, each designed for a specific shape. Hollow and round planes in various radii could combine to create complex profiles, while dedicated planes cut beads, ogees, ovolos, and other common moldings.

Modern woodworking relies primarily on router bits for molding work, rendering most specialized molding planes obsolete for production purposes. Collectors prize these planes for their craftsmanship and historical significance, but few woodworkers maintain working collections of molding planes.

Scratch stocks filled the role of custom molding planes by using shaped scrapers rather than traditional plane blades. A fence guides the scraper along the workpiece edge while the profiled edge cuts the molding shape. This simpler approach allowed woodworkers to create custom profiles without commissioning dedicated planes.

Plane Sole Length and Surface Geometry

The sole length determines whether a plane follows surface variations or corrects them. Understanding this relationship clarifies why different plane lengths exist and when each works best.

A 9-inch smoothing plane riding a board with 1/8-inch hollow in the center will cut both ends while missing the center entirely. As the plane passes over the hollow, it eventually reaches a position where the hollow sits between the blade and the rear of the sole. At this point, the plane can cut the hollow bottom. The short sole quickly dips into hollows, cutting them away rapidly.

A 22-inch jointer plane on that same board bridges the 1/8-inch hollow entirely, cutting only the areas fore and aft of the depression. The plane must remove enough material from the high areas to bring the entire surface level before it can take full-length shavings. This takes more passes but creates a flatter overall surface.

The implication for work sequencing: use long planes to establish flatness, then switch to shorter planes for surface finishing. Trying to flatten with a smoothing plane means fighting the tool's tendency to follow rather than correct surface variations. Using a jointer plane for final finishing wastes time since the long sole can't reach into the minor hollows that smoothing planes eliminate quickly.

Effective Cutting Angle

The effective cutting angle determines how the blade engages wood fibers. This angle results from the combination of bed angle and blade bevel orientation. Understanding the relationship clarifies why different plane configurations cut differently.

Bevel-down planes (standard bench planes) add the bed angle to the angle between the back of the blade and the wood surface. A 45-degree bed with a blade backed by a flat chipbreaker creates a 45-degree effective cutting angle regardless of the bevel angle ground on the blade's front.

Bevel-up planes (block planes, low-angle jacks, some specialty planes) add the bed angle to the bevel angle itself. A 12-degree bed with a 25-degree bevel creates a 37-degree effective cutting angle. Changing the bevel angle directly changes the cutting angle, allowing one plane body to serve multiple purposes with different blade bevels.

Lower cutting angles (35 to 40 degrees) slice end grain cleanly but may tear long grain in figured woods. Higher angles (50 to 55 degrees) handle difficult grain better but require more force and don't cut end grain as cleanly. The 45-degree angle found in standard bench planes represents a compromise that handles most long-grain work adequately.

Blade Width Implications

Blade width affects both cutting capacity and the force required to push the plane. Wider blades cover more surface area per pass but increase cutting resistance proportionally. The relationship between width and effort isn't linear since wider blades also provide more mass and stability.

Narrow blades (1-1/4 to 1-3/4 inches) concentrate cutting force in a smaller area, making these planes easier to push through dense wood. The reduced width means more passes to cover a given surface area, but each pass requires less effort. Narrow planes work well for edge work and small components.

Standard width blades (2 to 2-1/8 inches) balance coverage against effort. Most bench planes use these widths because they handle typical furniture-scale work efficiently without excessive resistance. The width provides enough mass for stable cutting without making the plane overly heavy.

Wide blades (2-3/8 to 2-5/8 inches) found in panel planes and some jointer planes cover maximum area per pass. The increased resistance matters less when the work involves long, straight passes where momentum assists cutting. Wide planes flatten large surfaces efficiently but prove tiring for intermittent use or detailed work.

The Progression From Rough to Finished

Traditional hand tool woodworking follows a specific sequence, using progressively longer and more refined planes. Understanding this progression clarifies why multiple plane types exist and how they work together.

Rough-sawn lumber begins with significant thickness variation, twist, cupping, and surface irregularities from the sawmill. Scrub planes remove the worst high spots rapidly, creating deeply scalloped surfaces that are closer to uniform thickness but still far from flat.

Jack planes follow the scrub work, using moderately cambered blades to smooth out the scrub plane scallops while continuing to remove material. The 14-inch length starts to address longer-scale flatness issues while still removing stock efficiently. Several passes with the jack plane produce surfaces that are mostly flat but still show subtle waves.

Jointer planes establish true flatness on both faces and edges. The 22-inch sole bridges any remaining surface variations, cutting only the high spots until the plane takes continuous full-length shavings. This indicates the surface has reached flatness within the tolerance the jointer plane can achieve (typically within a few thousandths of an inch).

Smoothing planes provide final surface preparation, removing the fine marks left by jointer planes and any remaining minor surface blemishes. The short sole follows the now-flat surface, taking whisper-thin shavings that create surfaces ready for finish application. Properly executed smoothing plane work can produce surfaces that require minimal or no sanding.

This traditional sequence appears less in modern shops since thickness planers and jointers handle the heavy dimensioning work. Contemporary hand plane use often begins with machine-prepared stock, limiting hand work to final smoothing, edge preparation, and fitting operations. Block planes handle the constant stream of small adjustments and end-grain work that continues regardless of how stock gets dimensioned.

Plane Selection for Different Shop Approaches

The planes needed vary dramatically based on whether hand tools serve as primary dimensioning methods or as supplements to machinery.

Power tool shops using hand planes for finishing and fitting typically need just three planes: a block plane for end grain and tight spots, a smoothing plane for final surface preparation, and possibly a jack plane for edge work and general smoothing. This minimal set handles the hand tool operations that remain useful even with full machine capabilities.

Hybrid shops doing some hand dimensioning but using machines for heavy stock removal might add a jointer plane for edge work and final flattening. The longer sole provides capabilities that supplementing thickness planers with hand work requires. The block plane sees heavy use for all the small adjustments that happen constantly.

Hand tool-focused shops working wood primarily with hand planes need the full progression: scrub or heavily cambered jack for stock removal, jack plane for intermediate work, jointer for final flattening, smoother for surface prep, and block plane for end grain and detail work. This represents the traditional complement that allows complete stock preparation without machinery.

The economic reality: new premium planes cost $150 to $300 each. Building a complete hand tool kit represents significant investment. Vintage planes from the 1940s and 1950s often provide similar performance at $30 to $80 per plane, though finding good examples requires patience and potentially restoration work.

What Determines Plane Quality

Premium planes justify their cost through manufacturing precision and material quality that directly affects cutting performance. Understanding what actually matters helps evaluate planes across price points.

Sole flatness determines whether the plane can produce flat surfaces. Deviations beyond 0.003 inches start causing cutting problems. Budget planes might arrive with 0.010 inches or more variation, requiring extensive lapping to function properly. Premium planes ship within 0.001 to 0.002 inches across the sole.

Blade thickness affects chatter resistance, especially in block planes lacking chipbreakers. Blades under 0.100 inches thick flex during cutting, creating vibration that dulls edges rapidly and leaves washboard surfaces. Blades 0.125 inches thick or greater resist flexing even under heavy cuts. Budget planes often use thinner blades to reduce costs.

Adjustment mechanism precision determines how reliably settings hold during use. Loose-fitting parts shift under cutting pressure, changing depth mid-pass. Machining quality in adjustment threads, frog mating surfaces, and lever cap pressure points separates tools that maintain settings from those requiring constant fiddling.

Material choice affects durability and feel. Cast iron provides adequate performance if properly stress-relieved and machined flat. Ductile iron resists cracking better than gray iron. Bronze bodies cost more but offer superior corrosion resistance and, some argue, better damping characteristics. The practical difference matters most to woodworkers in humid environments where rust becomes problematic.

Edge geometry and heat treatment determine how long blades hold edges and how easily they sharpen. Tool steel hardened to Rockwell C 58-62 balances edge retention against sharpenability. Softer steel dulls quickly, harder steel resists honing. The blade's thickness behind the edge affects how well it slices wood versus wedging fibers apart.

The market segments clearly: budget planes ($20-$50) require setup work and tune-up but function adequately once dialed in. Mid-range planes ($80-$150) work reasonably well out of the box with potentially minor adjustment. Premium planes ($150-$300+) work immediately and maintain settings reliably through extended use. Each tier serves different users based on skill, patience, and intended use intensity.

Hand planes remain relevant because they provide surface quality, control, and versatility that power tools don't match for specific operations. The compact size and immediate availability mean reaching for a block plane to chamfer an edge takes less time than fetching and setting up a router. The surface clarity from a properly tuned smoothing plane exceeds what sanding achieves, particularly in figured woods where hand-planed surfaces reveal depth and chatoyance that abrasives obscure.

Understanding what each plane type does and why clarifies which tools suit specific work. The progression from rough stock to finished surfaces doesn't require every plane ever made, but it does require the right plane for each operation. A block plane won't flatten a tabletop, a jointer plane won't trim a dovetail, and a smoothing plane won't straighten a board edge. Matching tool to task remains the fundamental principle that makes hand planes work.