There's Only One

way to push a plane

This is the last post in a short series on jointing seats, tuning and using handplanes.

I’m hesitant to make grand statements about anything these days, especially when it comes to tool use. You’ve seen the internet, I’m sure you get it. But for the life of me, I can’t let this one go. As I mentioned in recent posts, getting a handplane to work well has lots of variables to be addressed. It takes time and attention. But the skill of using a handplane is where it gets pretty simple. As much as I warned of the tendency of a plane to crown a surface, using good technique (and a well tuned plane) can keep a surface flat through repeated passes. If you use light pressure in the beginning and end of the pass and heavier pressure in the middle, you can overcome the tendency of the plane to cut more near the ends.