How to Use a Plow Plane

Plow planes are some of the easiest joinery planes to use , once you know a few tricks to getting good results. I struggled with the tools until Don McConnell (now a planemaker at Clark & [...]

Troubleshooting Planes

Practical solutions to common plane problems. When a plane is working right, it can produce a silky-smooth surface that absolutely glistens. When it doesn’t work, you get an ugly surface covered [...]

The Core Hand Tools

For the cost of one large piece of machinery, you can set up a complete shop with hand tools. Here's what you need to get started.

Handplanes for Beginners

Once you understand the anatomy of a handplane, you’ll be well on your way to using it with success. [View the full-size exploded view of a handplane here] Handplanes are the king of woodworking [...]

Japanese Fish Shaving Plane

Many of us have seen videos of Japanese hand planning competitions where the contenders are competing which individual (in some cases its a team)  is capable of producing the widest, longest and [...]

Veritas Small Scraping Plane

Tool: Small Scraping Plane Buy Now  Manufacturer: Veritas MSRP: $139 Sometimes a wood’s grain direction is so unruly that planing just gets you in trouble–tearout is [...]

Skew Block Plane

Modern hand planes continue to be popular, and this low-angle block plane excels at trimming tenons, rabbets, and end grain. Tool: Skew Block Plane Buy Now Manufacturer: Veritas MSRP: $229 [...]

Right-Angle Guide for Jointing

Planing the edge of a long board perpendicular to its face is a real challenge. To make the job easier, I built a guide that attaches to the side of my plane with rare earth magnets. Now jointing [...]

Apologia for the Custom Handplane

The best rationale for these ultra high-end tools might not be what you think. Editor’s note: This article originally appeared in the December 2015 issue of Popular Woodworking Over the [...]

Gas-powered Plane-till Lid

I have a meager collection of handplanes made up of mostly dog-meat users. I like using planes that have history because it’s fun to think about what each might have made during the last 100 [...]

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