The shoulder plane is one of the best planes that most professional woodworkers use. A shoulder plane is a plane tool with a blade flush with the edges of the plane, allowing trimming right up to the side of a workpiece. Similar to the rebate plane, the shoulder plane’s blade extends, therefore, cuts to the full width of the tool. The shoulder planes are, therefore, used to trim the shoulders and faces of tenons.

Main characteristics of a shoulder plane

A shoulder plane is exactly square to the sole, and the blade extends to the sole. However, there is no land of the bottom on the sides of the blade like on a bench plane. You can get more details on top dewalt planers by browsing this website.

Why you need to use a shoulder plane

Whether you are a beginner or hand-tool woodworking professional, it is crucially necessary to have incremental precision techniques to an exceptional tune journey. Through using a plane, you can remove wood in a highly controlled, predictable manner in increments of only one or two thousands of an inch and maintain the trueness of mating surfaces. However, this often must be done on inside corners. It is also believed that no joint cutting process is perfect, and you also don’t want to default into common joinery. That is the reason why you should be using shoulder planes.

The use of a shoulder plane

Larger shoulder planes are typically suitable for trimming the cheeks of the tenons. However, rabbets, whether made with a router or by hand with a rabbet or moving fillister plane, often require adjustment to form a mating piece fit neatly. The shoulder plane is employed on its side or vertically to cut along or across the grain. The shoulder planes are typically used for refining your work.

Techniques for using a shoulder plane

Shoulder planes typically don’t come with handles with them, so you need to come to peace with the tool by experimenting to find a capable, comfortable grip. You need to wrap your hand around the device and get your fingers in the spaces so you can apply pressure where it’s required and keep the plane stable. For instance, when using the plane on its side to trim a tenon shoulder, you should start by applying lateral pressure. This pressure will help to keep the front of the sole firmly against the shoulder. As the cutting progresses, you should place lateral pressure over the blade and then on the rear of the sole. It would help if you tried to keep the corner of the blade against the inside edge of the workpiece. However, in the vertical orientation, you should avoid tipping the plane out of the square. You need to ensure that the blade of the shoulder plane is quite sharp to perform the activities.

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