# Chisel Plane



## rwyoung (Aug 3, 2008)

In anticipation of some work I will be doing on my Shaker cupboard, I believe a chisel plane will be useful. Chisel planes have the plane blade right out at the very nose of the plane. Much like a bull-nose plane. These are bevel up planes so to work correctly, you keep most of your force on the heel of the plane. Otherwise the blade digs in. 

I'm still practicing a bit with this one and I may go get a decent iron. The iron (and you can see how it is cupped in one photo) is just a $2 replacement iron from the BORG. I wanted something to test with and didn't want to tear down another plane. I believe my local Woodcraft stocks a Hock iron in 1-5/8" width.

Other than the iron, the expense is about $0.75 for the cap screw, washer and threaded insert. The oak and rosewood are leftovers from other projects.

The design is based around the one shown in Fine Woodworking some time back. Google coughed it up. Also over at Matt's Basement Workshop, he has a couple of video podcasts that show his version of the same plane.


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## xplorx4 (Dec 1, 2008)

Nice work, could you show a pic with it in action, well, sort of stop action??


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## derek willis (Jan 21, 2009)

Lot's of mentions of your Fine Woodworking magazine, seems like a good one to me, and one I haven't seen over here. When I used to take a lot of British magazines, I was always copying the contraptions, tools and gadgets shown therein and have quite a few that are in fairly regular use. This is one of the most interesting aspects of woodworking magazines to me.


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## harrysin (Jan 15, 2007)

A well produced useful item Rob. Does it feel much different in use to a conventional plane?


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## rwyoung (Aug 3, 2008)

derek willis said:


> Lot's of mentions of your Fine Woodworking magazine, seems like a good one to me, and one I haven't seen over here. When I used to take a lot of British magazines, I was always copying the contraptions, tools and gadgets shown therein and have quite a few that are in fairly regular use. This is one of the most interesting aspects of woodworking magazines to me.


Fine Woodworking Magazine - skill building articles, tool reviews, project plans, books will get you there. I'm not sure what the exchange rate would be but for about $14US I have an on-line subscription which lets me access all the back content they have put on the web. This isn't exactly the same as having the real magazine or paying the big bucks for a 100% complete archive but I think I've cone well for my $14 investment.


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## rwyoung (Aug 3, 2008)

harrysin said:


> A well produced useful item Rob. Does it feel much different in use to a conventional plane?


Compared to the limited experience I have with my other handplanes, yes it is different handling. Since the blade is both bevel up and un-supported in front it will dig in to your workpiece unless you keep 75% or more of your pressure at the heel. This isn't a heavy stock removal tool.

I've got some more practicing to do but it occurred to me late last night to try a motion like a paring cut with a regular chisel and see how that works.


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## harrysin (Jan 15, 2007)

Without forward support, it puzzles me how one starts a cut from the end of a piece of wood Rob.


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## rwyoung (Aug 3, 2008)

harrysin said:


> Without forward support, it puzzles me how one starts a cut from the end of a piece of wood Rob.


One doesn't. The primary goal of a chisel plane is cleaning and stock removal in a corner where there would be no room for the toe of a conventional plane.

They can also be used for cleaning the cheeks of a tenon in the absence of a shoulder plane.

Essentially, it works the same as a chisel would except that you don't have the handle getting in the way and the wider base can be of some benefit in keeping alignments.


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## Hamlin (Dec 25, 2005)

Hi Rob,

Very nicely done.

Wouldn't a scraper do just as well?


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## rwyoung (Aug 3, 2008)

Hamlin said:


> Hi Rob,
> 
> Very nicely done.
> 
> Wouldn't a scraper do just as well?


Not in all cases, because you cannot get a scraper all the way into the corner. The only way to get all the way into a corner would be to lay the scraper on its face and at that angle, the burr won't cut diddly.

It would be close but the chisel plane will remove stock a bit more aggressively than a scraper since you can make the equivalent of a paring cut. 

I'm estimating that the most material I need to remove is 1/16" tapering back to nothin' over about 2 feet. That would take forever with a scraper. With the chisel plane I can work that last 1 foot of stock and remove the bulk. Then go back with a scraper or sanding block and fine tune it down to my line.

The other benefit of this over a card scraper is that this tool can reference from a surface. A card scraper (ignoring for the moment scraping planes) can't. So to keep a square edge with a card scraper you have to be very careful about alignment. The chisel plane has a flat bottom and thus transfers the edge behind the blade to the front of the blade. This still assumes some care in application of course but at least some of the work is done automagicly. 

Bit of a trade off all the way around.


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## harrysin (Jan 15, 2007)

rwyoung said:


> One doesn't. The primary goal of a chisel plane is cleaning and stock removal in a corner where there would be no room for the toe of a conventional plane.
> 
> They can also be used for cleaning the cheeks of a tenon in the absence of a shoulder plane.
> 
> Essentially, it works the same as a chisel would except that you don't have the handle getting in the way and the wider base can be of some benefit in keeping alignments.


Thanks for that Rob, I should have thought of that, there really is no substitute for a good education!


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