Bench plane

How it works

The iron (blade) projects a small distance through a slot in the sole called the mouth. As the plane is pushed, the edge cuts a shaving whose thickness equals the projection, and the sole, bearing on the wood ahead of and behind the edge, limits the cut to the high spots. A longer sole bridges more hollows, which is why Moxon in 1703 describes the jointer as longer than the fore plane, with a sole perfectly straight from end to end, for shooting an edge straight.

Moxon describes the bench planes as a sequence. The fore plane comes first; its iron is ground with a convex arch and set rank, to take thick shavings and prepare the stock. The jointer follows to make an edge or a board straight, and the smoothing plane, with its iron set very fine, takes out the irregularities the fore plane left.

On the cast-iron Bailey pattern the iron rests on a separate casting, the frog, and is held by a lever cap. Bailey’s 1858 patent replaced the wooden wedge with a clamp lever and thumb cam bearing on a screw, so the iron could be released, adjusted or removed without striking the plane. His 1867 patent added a forked lever engaging a hole in the cap iron and driven by a nut on a screw near the rear handle, to move the iron lengthwise and set the depth of cut. Lie-Nielsen, which makes planes of the later Bed Rock type, says its blades are bedded at 45 degrees with the bevel down and that the frog can be moved from the rear to change the mouth opening from coarse to fine.

Anatomy

Body (stock): Wood on traditional planes; on the Bailey pattern a cast-iron body. Bailey’s 1867 patent describes a transitional plane with a wooden lower stock and an iron upper part.
Sole: The flat bottom that bears on the work; Moxon gives the jointer a sole perfectly straight from end to end.
Mouth (throat): The opening in the sole through which the iron projects and the shaving escapes. Bailey (1867) notes that wear on a wooden sole widens the mouth.
Iron (blade, cutter): Thick on wooden planes; Leach records that Bailey was the first to use the thin irons later standard on Stanley planes.
Cap iron (chip breaker): A second plate screwed to the iron near its edge; in Bailey’s 1867 patent it carries the hole that the adjusting lever engages.
Wedge or lever cap: Moxon’s fore plane holds its iron with a wedge; Bailey’s 1858 patent substitutes a clamp lever with thumb cam.
Frog: The casting that supports the iron on the Bailey and Bed Rock patterns; the Bed Rock frog mates with the body over its whole bottom, according to Leach.
Depth adjuster: The nut and forked lever of Bailey’s 1867 patent.
Lateral adjustment lever: A lever on top of the frog that tilts the iron side to side; Leach dates its debut on Stanley planes to 1885.
Tote and knob: Rear handle and front knob. Moxon names the tote of the fore plane in 1703.

Variants

Smoothing plane: The shortest bench plane, set fine to finish a surface (Moxon). Lie-Nielsen’s No. 4 is 9-1/2 in. long with a 2 in. blade.
Jack (fore) plane: A medium-length plane for first, coarse work; the Science Museum Group holds a beechwood jack or roughing plane by Moseley & Son of Covent Garden, 1863–1872, 433 mm long.
Jointer and try plane: The longest bench planes, for straightening edges and trying broad surfaces flat (Moxon). The Science Museum Group holds a Sheffield trying plane “for levelling up.”
Wooden plane: A body of wood, commonly beech, with an iron held by a wedge; the standard form in Moxon’s description and in the Charles Nurse & Co. catalog of 1926.
Transitional plane: A wooden lower stock with an iron upper casting carrying the adjuster, as in Bailey’s 1867 patent.
Bailey-pattern iron plane: Cast-iron body, frog, lever cap and screw depth adjustment; made by Stanley from 1869.
Bed Rock pattern: A Stanley line of 1898 onward whose frog seats on the body over its full length and can be moved by a screw; Lie-Nielsen says its bench planes, except the No. 1, are based on it.
Infill and other metal-soled planes: The Science Museum Group holds a smoothing plane with a metal base and steel blade by Mathieson; the construction of infill planes has not yet been sourced in detail.

Specifications

Length · in or mm: Varies by type; Lie-Nielsen No. 4: 9-1/2 in.; Moseley jack plane in the Science Museum: 433 mm.
Bed angle · degrees: 45Lie-Nielsen states 45 degrees, bevel down, for its bench planes.
Blade width · in or mm: Lie-Nielsen No. 4: 2 in.
Blade thickness · in or mm: Lie-Nielsen No. 4: 0.125 in.; Leach records that Stanley’s Bailey irons were thin by comparison with wooden-plane irons.

Safety and care

Care

Bailey’s 1867 patent describes gluing a thin plate of wood or other material to the bed of a worn wooden plane to restore the proper relation between the iron and the front of the mouth.

Tips

Plane with the grain
Before each stroke the plane is set on the work so that the grain points in the direction the plane will travel, and the stroke is a steady, even push along the length of the board. The manual states that bench planes are designed for cutting with the grain.1
Set the chipbreaker close to the edge
Lie-Nielsen advises setting the end of the chipbreaker about 1/16 inch from the cutting edge of the blade for general work, and closer for the finest smoothing work.1
Finish the blade adjustment going forward
Lie-Nielsen says to advance the blade by turning the adjuster nut clockwise and to end each adjustment with a forward movement to take up backlash and keep the blade from shifting. It also says not to overtighten the lever cap screw, so the blade stays easy to adjust.1
Adjust the mouth for the cut
On a plane with an adjustable frog, loosening the two locking screws and turning the middle adjuster screw changes the mouth opening. Lie-Nielsen describes changing the setting from a coarse to a fine cut for difficult woods or fine smoothing passes.1
Lift the plane on the return
The manual calls for the right hand on the handle and the left on the knob, reversed for a left-handed user, and for raising the plane from the work and returning it to the starting point after each stroke.1

History

Earliest documented

Roman period

Pompeii, Silchester (Calleva Atrebatum) and the Rhineland

G. C. Dunning, writing in Archaeologia Cantiana, reports that ancient planes are exceedingly rare, that Flinders Petrie considered the plane a Roman invention, and that Roman planes are known from Pompeii, Silchester and the Rhineland, larger than the Anglo-Saxon example he describes and used by joiners. Reading Museum says the carpenter’s plane from Silchester was found mostly in the town’s ironwork hoards. Dunning also records a wooden plane in a third-century hoard from Vimose, Denmark.1 2

The bench plane is a chisel held at a fixed angle and depth by a body that rides on the work. The archaeological record for it is thin. Dunning calls ancient planes exceedingly rare and reports Petrie’s view that the plane was a Roman invention, with Roman examples from Pompeii, Silchester and the Rhineland. Those were large joiner’s tools; the small Sarre plane of the sixth century and the wooden Vimose plane of the third show that the idea was carried north of the empire in smaller and lighter forms.

By the seventeenth century the joiner’s bench planes had become a graded set. Moxon’s account of 1703 sets the fore plane, the jointer and the smoothing plane in order of use, each with a different length and a different grind and setting of the iron, all of wood with the iron held by a wedge. Wooden planes of this construction were still being made and sold long after: the Science Museum Group holds a beechwood jack plane made by Moseley & Son between 1863 and 1872 and carpenters’ planes cataloged by Charles Nurse & Co. in 1926.

The wooden plane’s weaknesses were adjustment and wear. Bailey’s 1867 patent describes the mouth of a wooden sole growing wider as the sole wore away until it had to be patched. Bailey’s patents attacked both: the 1858 clamp lever released and secured the iron without a wedge, and the 1867 screw and forked lever moved the iron lengthwise to set the cut.

Manufacture and marketing made the Bailey pattern the standard. Stanley Rule & Level bought Bailey’s business in 1869, and the New Britain Industrial Museum reports sales rising from 6,500 to 100,000 between 1871 and 1876 and Stanley becoming the largest American maker of planes by 1900. Leach records that Stanley also adopted Bailey’s thin irons and promoted them as easier to grind. The lateral lever of 1885 and the frog adjustment screw of about 1910 completed the form that, Leach writes, became the world’s standard plane configuration.

The Science Museum Group describes an improved Stanley plane for curved work as superseding the separate wooden planes formerly used for that job. Power planers and jointers have since taken over most heavy stock removal, and O*NET’s Tools Used table lists planes for only 2 of the 24 occupations mapped to this archive’s trades, carpenters and cabinetmakers. Among current makers, Lie-Nielsen says its bench planes are based on Stanley’s Bed Rock pattern rather than the standard Bailey.

Timeline

Roman period
Iron-bodied planes used by joiners at Pompeii, Silchester and in the Rhineland, according to Dunning.1
third century
A wooden, canoe-shaped plane 10 in. long is deposited in the Vimose hoard on Funen, Denmark.1
sixth century
A small plane with a bronze sole and an antler stock is buried in grave 26 at Sarre, Kent (excavated 1863).1
1703
Moxon’s Mechanick Exercises describes the joiner’s fore plane, jointer and smoothing plane, naming the tote, mouth, wedge, iron, sole and stock.1
1858
Leonard Bailey of Winchester, Massachusetts, patents a clamp lever with thumb cam to secure the iron of a bench plane (US Patent 21,311).1
1863–1872
Moseley & Son of Covent Garden make a beechwood jack plane now in the Science Museum Group collection.1
1867
Bailey patents a screw-and-lever depth adjustment acting on the cap iron (US Patent 67,398).1
1869
Stanley Rule & Level of New Britain, Connecticut, buys Bailey’s machinery, inventory and parts and moves the operation, with Bailey, to New Britain.1 2
1871–1876
Sales of the Bailey plane rise from 6,500 to 100,000, according to the New Britain Industrial Museum.1
1885
The lateral adjustment lever first appears on Stanley bench planes, according to Leach.1
1890
A hoard of ironwork found at Silchester is later published by John Evans in Archaeologia; Reading Museum says the carpenter’s plane was among the tools from the town’s ironwork hoards.1 2
1898
Stanley introduces the Bed Rock series, whose frog seats on the body over its full bottom; Leach attributes the frog design to Justus Traut.1
1900
Stanley Rule & Level is the largest manufacturer of planes and related tools in America, according to the New Britain Industrial Museum.1
c. 1910
A frog adjustment screw, first used on the Bed Rock, is added to the Bailey line, according to Leach.1
1926
Charles Nurse & Co. of London, toolmakers and dealers, are cataloging carpenters’ planes later given to the Science Museum.1
1935–1943
The last Bed Rock models are discontinued; Leach gives production ranges ending in 1935, 1942 and 1943.1

Gaps in the record (10)

No museum catalog record for the Silchester plane, or for the Pompeii planes, has been read; their dates, dimensions and findspots are not sourced here. A widely repeated fourth-century date for the Silchester plane was found only on a forum and is not used.
Evans’s 1894 Archaeologia article on the 1890 Silchester hoard was read only as an abstract page; whether the plane belongs to that hoard is not confirmed.
Petrie’s own statement that the plane is a Roman invention has not been read; it is reported through Dunning.
The patent behind the 1885 lateral adjustment lever and the Bed Rock patents of 1895 and 1910 have not been located and read.
The construction and history of British infill planes have not been sourced.
Leach’s Blood & Gore is a collector’s reference, not a primary source; its dates should be checked against Stanley catalogs.
No standard has been confirmed; bs-3159 is a guess.
Safety has no sourced entries.
No disagreements between the sources read were found; disputed is empty.
No independent test data has been found, so buying is null.