"What if I bought a cabinetmaker's plane? .. No, maybe a smoothing plane or a jack plane?" No need to stress out, ManoMano is here to give you advice. In the "hand plane" category, you'll find wooden STANLEY, OUTIFRANCE, or even FAITHFULL hand planes to better chamfer and smooth or even create grooves on your wooden support.
Generally, a hand plane is used for various materials: wood, plasterboards... It often consists of a body, a handle at the back of the product for handling, and the iron, also called the cutting blade. Concerning the body, it can be made of wood or metal; however, metal is currently more commonly used as it guarantees better geometric stability, and the sole wears down less easily. The handle may be varnished to add an aesthetic aspect to the product or simply synthetic for more comfort.
So what to choose? A traditional plane, a jack plane, a smoothing plane? All these types of planes have different characteristics, but one thing they have in common: all are capable of "lifting" shavings of a few hundredths of a millimeters.
But depending on the use you want from your hand plane, you'll need to choose between different types of hand planes:
1) If you want to make large wooden surfaces flat and straight, you'll need a scrub plane, a jack plane, or a traditional plane!
2) For digging grooves, prefer a fillister plane: often equipped with an additional iron, it allows a lateral cut of the support.
3) As for the scraper plane with a handle, it is also used to strip and remove excess glue or even to clean a grimy workbench top. It can be used instead of a belt sander.
A tip: always make sure to keep your blade very sharp so that the grooves created are clean and match the desired outcome.
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