Thread: How do I know what type of plane does what?

Guys, reckon I'll be caned for asking this question but how do I know for what purpose a plane is intended to be used for?

My local tool shop were stock clearing so I bought a block plane and a small smoothing plane. From what I gather a block plane has its bevel up (or is it down?) and it's used for cutting across end grain? The smoothing plane I can understand. In the leaflet that came with them, it mentioned other types of plane and they have odd-looking numbers, like No 120 and so on. Do these numbers actually describe what the plane is? I think I can picture what a shoulder plane is, but what is a jack plane? Maybe there's a link to a site that shows pictures and describes what they are designed to do? Do you need to use a different plane on one type of wood but use another plane to do something similar on another type of wood? That sort of thing is what I'd like to know. Be kind on me, I'm new to this woodwork malarkey and I'd really like to know about them.