of the iron, and then screwing it tight; the blade or iron and the cover must now be placed in the mouth of the plane stock, and adjusted in the following manner: The plane iron should be passed through the mouth of the stock until as much in depth of it is seen to protrude from the bottom face of the stock as is equal to the thickness of shaving it is intended to cut: to estimate which, place the back end of the plane upon the bench, holding the stock in the left hand with the thumb in the plane mouth, so as to retain the iron and wedge in position, the wedge being turned toward the workman. A glance down the face of the stock will be sufficient to inform the operator how much or how little the cutting edge of the iron protrudes from the face of the plane stock, and hence how thick his shaving will be. When the distance is adjusted as nearly as possible, the wedge may be tightened by a few light blows of the hammer. If, after tightening the wedge, the blade is found to protrude too much, a light blow on the fore end of the top face of the plane will cause it to retire. The wedge should be tightened by a light blow after it is finally adjusted.

In using a jack plane, we commence each stroke by exerting a pressure mostly on the fore part of the plane, commencing at the end and towards the edge of the board, and taking off a shaving as long as the arms can conveniently reach. If the board is longer than can be reached without moving, we pass across the board, planing it all across at one standing; then we step sufficiently forward, and carry the planing forward, repeating this until the jack planing is completed. To try the level of the board, the edge or corner of the plane may be employed; and if the plane is moved back and forth on the corner or edge, it will indent, and so point out the high place.

The fore plane (or truing plane, as it is sometimes called) is made large, so as to cover more surface, and therefore to cut more truly. It is ground and set in the same manner

as the jack plane, with the exception that the corners of the iron or blade, for about one eighth inch only, should be ground to a very little below the level of the rest of the cutting edge, the latter being made perfectly straight (or as near so as practically attainable) and square with the edge of the iron. If the end edge of the cover is made square with the side edge, and the iron is ground with the cover on, the latter will form a guide whereby to grind the iron edge true and square; but in such case the cover should be set back so that there will be no danger of the grindstone touching it. The oilstoning should be performed in the manner described for the jack plane, bearing in mind that the object to be aimed at is to be able to make as broad and fine a shaving as possible without the corners of the plane iron digging into the work. The plane iron should be so set that its cutting edge can only just be seen projecting evenly through the stock. In using the fore or truing plane, it is usual, on the back stroke, to twist the body of the plane so that it will slide along the board on its edge, there being no contact between the cutting edge of the plane iron and the face of the board, which is to preserve the cutting edge of the plane iron from abrasion by the wood; as it is obvious that such abrasion would be much more destructive to the edge than the cutting duty performed during the front stroke would be. The face of the fore plane must be kept perfectly flat on the under side, which should be square with the sides of the plane. If the under side be hollow, the plane iron edge will have to protrude further through the plane face to compensate for the hollowness of the latter; and in that case it will be impossible to take fine shavings off thin stuff, because the blade or iron will protrude too much, and as a consequence there will be an unnecessary amount of labor incurred in setting and resetting the plane iron. The reason that the under surface should be square, that is to say, at a right angle to the sides

of the body of the plane, is because the plane is sometimes used on its side on a shooting board.

When the under surface of the plane is worn out of true, let the iron be wedged in the plane mouth, but let the cutting edge of the iron be well below the surface of the plane stock. Then, with another fore plane, freshly sharpened and set very fine, true up the surface, and be sure the surface does not wind, which may be ascertained by the application of a pair of winding strips, the manner of applying which will be explained hereafter. If the mouth of a fore plane wears too wide, as it is apt in time to do, short little shavings, tightly curled up, will fall half in and half out of the mouth, and prevent the iron from cutting, and will cause it to leave scores in the work, entailing a great loss of time, in removing them at every few strokes. The smoothing plane is used for smoothing rather than truing work, and is made shorter than the truing plane, so as to be handier in using. It is sometimes impracticable to make a surface as smooth as desirable with a truing plane, because of the direction of the grain of the wood. Thus in Fig. 7, let E represent a piece of stuff requiring to be planed on Fig.7.

G

F

the upper surface, and let us plane it, cutting in the direction of the arrow, D. It is evident that the edge of the plane iron, when cutting the surface from B to A, will strike against the edge or end of the grain of the wood, tending to rough it up; whereas, while passing from A to C, the tendency of the pressure of the iron edge would

be to smooth the grain of the wood downwards, the difference between the two tendencies being sufficient to make it necessary in many cases to use a smoothing plane, cutting in both directions, as shown in Fig. 7, first from A to B, cutting in the direction of the arrow, F, and then from A to C, cutting in the direction of the arrow, G. Thus the cutting will be at all times performed in the direction tending to smooth down and not rough up the grain of the wood. That this method of planing is necessary is demonstrated in planing across the end grain of wood, for which purpose the smoothing plane is almost indispensable, and in which operation it is necessary to use it, on small surfaces, with a side as well as with a forward sweep, thus producing a curved motion, the most desirable direction of which is determined by the direction of the grain of the wood.

Fig. 8 represents an ordinary compass plane, which is a necessary and very useful tool for planing the surfaces of

Fig. 8

hollow sweeps. This tool is sometimes made adjustable by means of a piece dovetailed in the front end of the plane, as shown in Fig. 9, at A; which, by being lowered, alters the sweep and finally converts it from a convex to a concave. There is now, however, in the market a compass plane, the

body of which is made of malleable iron with a sole made of a blade of spring steel, which, by the operation of two screws, can be set to any curvature, either concave or convex, within the capacity of the instrument.

Fig.10.

FRONT VIEW

A

B

tion, A being the router, and B the work. The use of this tool is to plane out recesses (exactly to any given depth) such