Bench Planes

An ordinary set comprises, in general the three - (a) jack plane, (b) halflong, truing or trying plane, and (c) hand or smoothing plane. The jack plane is used for removing the rough surface after the saw, securing approximately correct surfaces, and for rough work generally. The halflong is employed for straightening, flattening or truing surfaces after the jack plane. The hand plane is used for smoothing or finishing work after the other planes, as also for numerous purposes for which the jack or halflong would be unsuitable. The stocks of bench planes are made of beech. The irons or cutters are of wrought iron faced with cast steel to form the cutting edge, which makes grinding more easily performed than if they were wholly made of cast steel. The irons are fixed in the planes at the angle of 45 ° to the face and kept in position by beech wedges Plane irons are sharpened on the grindstone at the angle of about 25°, on one side only - the other being left quite flat; and afterwards on the oilstone at about the angle of 350, thus leaving about 10° as an angle of clearance. Each iron is provided with a steel cover (kept in position by a screw) for the purpose of strengthening the cutting edge, and at the same time acting on the shaving as it is being removed, raising it up at a more obtuse angle and enabling the cutting edge to get closer to the point where the shaving is being severed from the wood. This secures a better cutting action, and removes to a great degree the splitting tendency, otherwise unavoidable. The screws are all right hand, and are tightened on being turned by the thin pane of a pin hammer, in the same direction as that of the forward motion of the hands of a clock or watch. The cover of a jack plane iron should be kept about 1/16" from the cutting edge, whilst those of halflong and hand planes should be placed as close to the edge as practicable.

To keep planes in good working order, the stocks, when new, ought to be well soaked with raw linseed oil, and receive an occasional coat afterwards. This will cause them to work more easily, last longer, look better, and be more pleasant to handle.

Saws

The saws required in general work are the rending or ripping-saw, cross-cut or hand-saw, panel-saw, tenon-saw, dovetail saw, and compass-saw. They may be classified into three divisions, (a) for cutting along the grain of the wood, (b) for cutting across the grain and (c) for cutting both ways. The rending-saw is the only one belonging to the first class, the crosscut and panel-saws belong to the second, and the remaining three to the third. The chief differences exist in form and size of teeth and blade.

Rending-Saw

The cutting faces of rending-saw teeth are almost at right angles to a line touching their points. The teeth are nearly of the form of right angled triangles, but for hard woods this hook or angle is too great, and the teeth are sloped backwards so as to make the angle of contact with the wood more obtuse.