assembly, usually pushing the blade out of the throat slightly and changing the adjustment. You must then loosen the lever cap again, back the blade off, and second-guess how much the blade will move when the lever cap is tightened back down. This makes fine or frequent adjustments tedious. A thicker blade and/or a different chip breaker that keeps the assembly flat might remedy the situation.
Taking a quantum leap in development, a German manufacturer has replaced the wedge altogether with its Primus adjustment mechanism. The Primus blade-adjustment mechanism is one of the quickest and most precise adjustment systems. There is zero backlash on this adjuster. It can give precise adjustment on a smoothing plane, but I find it particularly useful on a jack plane, where frequent readjustment can be required to level a board; with this adjuster I can quickly and accurately readjust the blade as the board levels.
Its main drawback is its complexity. It is time-consuming to remove and replace the blade for sharpening, so frequent re-sharpening, as might be required for final finishing, is pure drudgery. To remove the blade for sharpening, first the blade-tensioning mechanism and blade adjustment must be backed off almost completely, and the blade withdrawn. Withdrawing the blade requires pushing the blade-tensioning mechanism back in and twisting and then pulling the tension rod out. Because the blade is now loose, it just flops around as you try to twist the T-bar on the end of the tension rod, because the T-bar gets wedged on the chipbreaker and must be worked off. Once the blade is out, two tight-fitting screws must be loosened to remove the chipbreaker (Figure 1-7).
After sharpening the blade, the chipbreaker must be repositioned and carefully tightened down with some trial and error (the use of another type of chipbreaker is not an option as both the blade-tensioning device and the lateral-adjustment mechanism are part of the chipbreaker assembly). Then you thread the T-bar on the end of the blade-tensioning screw through the hole in the chipbreaker, rotate it, push it forward, rotate again, and pull it back to its seat on the chipbreaker. This whole process of removing and reinstalling the blade can take 5 to 10 minutes (or seem like minutes). Doing it a lot gets to be quite irritating. Luckily, with its chrome-vanadium blade, if you are rough planing, you will not have to do it very often.
Over the years, other solutions to the wedge and how to adjust the blade have come about, especially with the German manufacturers, who are still one of the few manufacturers of traditional style wooden planes easily accessible to the American (and other) markets today. One type you might find is a version of the screw adjuster, with a knob similar to the Primus but working more like a Norris adjuster. It has the screw (a worm gear, actually) directly engaging threads on the chipbreaker. This version does not use a tension rod. Because the purpose of the tension rod is to eliminate backlash or play in the adjustment mechanism, this version does have some play, but it is not too bad and is a serviceable adjuster.
Figure 1-6. Horned Reform Smooth Plane with Screw-Down Lever Cap The body is pear with a lignum vitae sole. The body has had some extra rounding to accommodate the user’s hand.
Figure 1-7. The Interior of a Primus Jack Plane In the well of the plane you can see the two buttons that support the blade assembly at the top, and below that the T-rod that engages the chipbreaker and holds the blade assembly in the plane. The lateral adjustment is mounted to the chipbreaker. Two screws mount the chipbreaker to the blade.
Figure 1-8. This block plane by Goldenberg appears to give no accommodation to the hands.
Figure 1-9. A less common grip often used on small block planes, such as this Goldenberg plane, has the fingers of both hands bear on top of the plane in front of the blade, with the thumbs behind.
Figure 1-10. This coffin-shaped plane is typical of smoothing planes of the 1800s. This one dates probably to before the 1860s.
THE BLOCK
The basic block, or body of the traditional wood handplane has evolved into a few variations.
There is, of course, the basic block shape that is used for all the different types of these planes—jack, jointer, smoother—and on the larger versions, with an added handle or two. This shape may literally be a simple block with straight edges and sharp corners that appears to give no accommodation to the hands. I collected such a plane (the Goldenberg plane I mentioned earlier) because of its unusual blade and chipbreaker set-up, but also because its severe geometry seemed not just uncomfortable, but possibly damaging (Figure 1-8). It appears well used and taken care of, but it has all its straight rectangular corners intact, giving no suggestion of how you could push this plane—in the manner we are used to, like with a Stanley plane—without bruising your hands. This befuddled me. Then, just recently I saw (again) a video of the Swiss cooper Ruedi Kohler, filmed (coincidentally by Rick Mastelli, the technical editor and photographer of my first book) in 1992. In the film I noticed Herr Kohler used a series of hollowing planes to curve the inside of the staves. These planes were a plain block, not shaped, like the Goldenberg I had. But instead of using the planes one hand in front of the blade, the other behind, he gripped the planes on both sides, thumbs behind the blade and first fingers down flat on either side ahead of the blade. Mystery explained. This is very similar to the grip used for cross-handled Chinese and Southeast Asian planes. Without the cross handles it doesn’t seem to be a grip of great power like you might want in a jack plane to remove a lot of stock, but it provides sufficient power for smoothing and light shaving, especially in softer woods. The position also seems to give good control. It is most comfortable to use, however, when pushing straight ahead on short pieces; standing to one side as you might do when a piece is dogged onto the bench is more awkward with this symmetrical grip (Figure 1-9).
For smoothing planes that require more power, the coffin shape was developed (Figure 1-10). This configuration works pretty well for shorter smoothing planes, directing the energy efficiently forward and down, and giving wide distribution on the hand, even on the older planes that have not been particularly rounded off. The only real improvement I can see making here is to add a “thumbpiece” behind the blade to catch the crotch of the thumb and first finger; otherwise there is a tendency for the hand to ride up and chafe on the back of the blade.
Figure 1-11. Razee fore plane, 15" (38.1cm) long The term Razee derives from the French vaisseau rase, a wooden warship with the upper deck cut away. Razee planes have the top of the body cut away behind the blade, lowering the handle and reducing the weight.
The Razee (from the French vaiseau rase, a wooden warship with the upper deck cut away) style of plane has the top of the body cut away behind the blade, lowering the handle and reducing the weight (Figure 1-11). These were often used to train students and apprentices because it was felt the full block versions were not only heavy (you have to remember these kids
