Thread: Ever seen a Shouldering Plane or have any info on them ?

The boss I did my apprenticeship with had 3 of them, among the set of about 180 other wooden moulding planes

Originally Posted by China

The boss I did my apprenticeship with had 3 of them, among the set of about 180 other wooden moulding planes

Nice. Did you get to use any of them ? The 180. Which ones ?

Yes certainly did use them, part of the business was restoring antiques, they were very handy especially when we needed to re create a moulding inserted/scarfed part way along or at the end of a piece, very common on corners of table tops, side boards, picture frames etc.
Many times several planes were put into play to create one shape.

I have a habit of re-inventing wheels, only my first wheel wasn't as sophisticated as your shouldering plane, Rob. I wanted a plane to finesse router-cut sliding dovetails so made myself this small plane: D_tail plane 1.jpg

Although I'd never seen a 'shouldering plane', my effort was basically similar, a short body, though with a square, not skewed blade. It showed me why your plane has a steel sole & the metal side-plate- the acute corner of my plane wore quite quickly, despite being a reasonably hard wood. Because it was for cleaning up after a router had done the bulk of the work, rather than making the whole thing, I didn't bother with a nicker. On the couple of occasions I did use it to cut dovetails from scratch, I knifed the shoulder line heavily & clamped on a bit of wood for a fence. It worked out ok, but a nicker is a much better solution!

So I made another a few years later, and besides adding the (unnecessary) handle/tote, I skewed the blade, added a nicker & a metal skate to beef up the corner, and attached a fence & depth-stop. D_T plane a.jpg

As fate would have it, I've hardly used the thing since I finished it; just haven't done any sliding dovetails for a while, but it does work pretty well, and I'm sure I'm going to need it again someday soon....

Cheers,

I re-purposed a skew rebate plane into a dovetail plane in 2006. The article is here: http://www.inthewoodshop.com/ShopMad...ailPlane2.html

Later, I tarted it up - blame bloody IanW will all that brass work!

This has a nicker and an adjustable fence.





It's had quite a bit of use over the years. In its pre-tart form ..



Regards from Perth

Derek

Derek, I think HNT deserves the blame (or credit?) for inspiring your brasswork - I'm the Johnny-come-lately to the fancy dovetailing plane scene..

So Rob, I meant to ask, does a dovetailing plane become a 'shouldering plane' when you delete the fence & depth stop? That seems to be about the only difference that I can see.

I note both your oldie & Derek's re-purposed plane are configured to cut the corner of the D/T with the trailing edge of the blade. My intuitive approach would've been to make the leading edge cut the corner, so that the shavings are ejected away from the work, but I had seen someone else's effort, & he insisted the blade should cut the corner with the trailing edge. After thinking about it, I decided it made sense because having the leading point cutting into the corner would require a lot of relief to the side of the blade making the point pretty fragile. And my fears that it might impede ejection of shavings turned out to be groundless, they spew out just fine...

Cheers,

Nice to see your made and converted Planes getting the job done Ian and Derek.

Reading your link Derek. You changed it back to a dado in the end to match the bought HNT Gordon Dado . No need for dovetails or are you planing another?

I was looking at one of my Moving Filister planes and they are very close to a Dovetail Plane . Im pretty sure a change of angle to the sole is all it needs plus re drill the fence screw holes to match the angle. Its a just a bit of a too nice plane to convert maybe .
The depth stop and nicker are all there ready to go .

I compared my Shouldering Plane to a German Dovetail I have Ian . I reckon not having a fence means its narrower and can get in and lean to what you like . I looks to have more possibilities because of that . A fence can be clamped to the work if you need to which is a bit more of a fiddle . Ive also wondered if the English used these as a bookshelf plane . The dado like saw tooth version you see a lot in Georgian Bookcase sides. One of the nicest way's of shelf adjustment . There is a drawing of a fenced one in that US book ( Pictured at bottom ). There are tones of bookcases with such a shelf holding set up but Ive not seen a plane for it yet . Apart from the drawing and this Shouldering plane possibility. How many 18th C toolboxes exist to be looked into ? Not many.
18 C planes out of their boxes are even pretty rare .

This is the shouldering up against My German dovetail plane . The sole angle of the German is at 70 degrees compared the the 67 of the shouldering . Not many degrees but it looks a lot different .

Both have the trailing edge to the inside

IMG_2240.JPGIMG_2241.JPGIMG_2243.JPGIMG_2244.JPGIMG_2245.JPGIMG_2246.JPGIMG_2247.JPG

Reading your link Derek. You changed it back to a dado in the end to match the bought HNT Gordon Dado . No need for dovetails or are you planing another?

Hi Rob

The dovetail plane remained a dovetail plane. Here is the sole from a better angle ...



What you have missed - what you likely saw as a dado plane (not the HNT Gordon dado plane) - is this trio of planes ...



One is the HNT Gordon dado plane, another is the dovetail plane. Then there is this one ...





This is also a dovetail plane. The first one (which you refer to as a shouldering plane) planes the male section of a sliding dovetail. The plane above planes the female section of a sliding dovetail

The plane body is angled and the blade and nickers along with this ...



Then the plane runs along a angle guide ...



The article is here: http://www.inthewoodshop.com/ShopMad...gDovetail.html

I have come up with a couple of other ways to do these tasks. One is with a Veritas Small Plow Plane ...







... and another is with a Stanley #79 ...






All lots of fun, and functional

Regards from Perth

Derek