small), but also easier to control than the full-block versions. This is because the high position of the handle on the jointer plane, while initially awkward, once mastered, gives greater feedback as to the angle of the plane to the work when shooting an edge. This is basic geometry: the further away you are from the face of the work the more exaggerated the tilt must become in order to maintain the same angle. Thus it makes it easier to tell when you’re going out of square.
I find the reduced weight of the Razee style useful for preparatory planes such as the jack and fore plane. I also find it useful for my panel plane (more on this to come), because not only is it lighter, the low position of the handle gives good feedback when smoothing.
HANDLES
Larger planes are fitted with handles or “totes.” These can be either open or closed, though functionally it makes little difference to the hand. The closed tote is perhaps a bit stronger, though if you’re pushing hard enough to break one of these handles, you’re working too hard! It may make it easier to pick up a larger plane for the return stroke as the larger planes almost always have a closed tote. The older planes are usually meant to be used with a three-finger grip, so they may be a little small for the modern hand or someone who prefers a full grip. Modern versions usually are larger and meant for a four-finger grip.
The larger planes also no longer have a front handle. Moxon depicts a bent-over curlicue of a handle that I could never figure out and have never seen an example of, even in a museum, but such a handle has not been used for at least 300 years, so it must not have been very effective. Occasionally, longer Scandinavian planes would be fitted with a horn or variation of the horn handle up front, similar to those they used on their shorter planes, but this is also uncommon now.
Figure 1-12. Horned Plane with a Lignum Vitae or Hornbeam Sole
The bigger planes are intended to be used with the forward hand gripping the block cross-handed with the thumb toward the user, though they can also be used with the hand on top, the thumb on the far side of the plane. You can see long planes in the Tool Museum (Maison de l’Outil) in Troyes, France, where the block is worn to the shape of the forward hand and its thumb, and while perhaps some of these may have been shaped, it is believed that this is a result of wear. One of the planes is nearly worn through where the thumb would be (you can see light coming through!). That’s a lot of time spent holding on to that plane.
Northern and Eastern Europeans developed the “horn” for the forward handle on their shorter planes, the back of the block nicely rounded to fit the whole of the hand with a thumbpiece to keep your hand from riding up and chafing on the blade. I like this plane a lot for heavy work. I think the horn is a successful design (Figure 1-12).
While the cross handle today is most widely used on planes from Asia, antique examples from Europe can be found, particularly on two-man planes and larger one-man planes. It’s a pretty effective grip that can apply a lot of downward pressure, necessary for very hard woods, though this power dissipates pretty quickly the further you lean out as the stroke progress. Again, it is better to have the work in front of you than to one side, but it’ll work in that position too.
Figure 1-13. Traditional Smoothing Plane of China and Southeast Asia
ANATOMY OF THE HORNED PLANE
Horned planes commonly come with 45° or 50° blade angles. I believe they were also made with 43° and 47.5° blade angles. Prep planes such as scrub planes sometimes have a 40° pitch; some finish planes have a pitch above 50°. A toothing plane is made with a 70° pitch. Check with the distributor if you are looking at new planes, or take a protractor to the flea market.
On premium models, the mouth opening adjusts with a movable mouthpiece (the reform plane). Chipbreakers are substantial and well-made, though some may require some refinement to function with a finely set mouth.
Primus planes use a traditional approach to bedding the blade by having it contact the bed at just its bottom and top. To do it, they have installed two metal buttons at the top of the blade bed to suspend the blade so it contacts the bed only at these points and at the bottom. This guarantees the blade is supported at the heel of the blade bevel, the most critical area for eliminating chatter. Though the blade and chipbreaker assembly bridges this distance, this assembly, further dampened by the tension rod which holds this assembly and is part of the adjustment system, is thick enough that the blade does not chatter.
The blade placement is a little more central than Bailey-style planes and most traditional wood planes, the blade edge being back from the leading edge of the plane about 40% of the length of the sole. This slightly more central position makes it a little easier to begin and complete a planing stroke.
The horn is available in both right- and left-handed versions.
AND A WORD ABOUT CHINESE-STYLE PLANES...
I think the Chinese-style planes can be useful to the Western woodworker. But since they are functionally exactly like western planes, the real advantage is being able to find planes with 60° and 65° blade angles already made. I wouldn’t bother buying one that has less than a 60° blade angle as there is (currently) a greater variety of quality planes and parts in the Western style in the lower angles. If you can source Chinese-style planes that have the high blade pitch, these planes can be really handy, if not indispensable, when working tropical hardwoods, many Australian hardwoods, and the harder Northern hardwoods. Conversely, if you never, or only rarely, use these woods, you will probably be able to get by without them (though my 60° Chinese jack works great on oak). The planes, with the correct pitch, work exceptionally well, and the ergonomics are easy for the Westerner to adapt to. But, if you are not comfortable with the Chinese-style form, you can always fabricate planes to your needs that have similar tactical specifications.
The planes used by Chinese cabinetmakers and furniture makers are functionally very similar to early European wood block planes (Figure 1-13). However, there are differences, and both these and the similarities are interesting to note. The blade-wedging techniques for the two is exactly the same: a wooden wedge holds the blade, itself held in place in a wedge-shaped slot cut in either side of the blade opening in the body. The same methods control tearout: the setup of the chipbreaker, and mouth opening; and the primary means, the blade angle. I think this is largely a result of having to plane the hard tropical woods traditionally used—a high-angle scraping cut seems to be more reliable. The smoothing plane has a blade angle of 65°+, no chipbreaker (which would seem unnecessary at this angle anyway), and a mouth opening of only several thousandths of an inch—barely enough to see light through when the blade is set. Often a brass piece is dovetailed into the throat to control wear (Figure 1-14).
Figure 1-14. The Sole of a Chinese-Style Plane You can see the brass mouthpiece dovetailed into the sole that is used to form a tight mouth and reduce wear.
The plane is pushed using a slightly oval-shaped handle that is inserted through a hole in the plane body behind the blade (though there are some variations of this from region to region, a fixed, oxbow-shaped handle being the most common). The palms
