Can someone explain the difference between plane and a smoothing plane?

Hey Rich

My beliefs are the Bench Plane is a generic name for the line up of basic hand planes. Ranging from the No.2 , the No.4 Smoother, the N0.5 Jack, the No. 6 Foreplane and the 7 and 8 jointers. Those are the basic bench planes. The No. 4 is considered an all purpose smoother because it is excellent in general smoothing of drawer fronts, cabinet sides and tops and most mid sized surfaces. It is the most reached for hand plane in any shop, and the same holds true in my shop. For a quick touch up of a surface it is great, just like those beautiful blanket chests you build, that No.4 would take care of most of your blanket chest surfaces for smoothing, you might break out the No.6 if your blanket chest top had a slight cup in it, and the jointers would be great for joining those long boards before glue up. Yet the good ol standby No 4 would be more likely taken out time and time again for those surface touch ups and general smoothing.

Thanks for your reply John.  Would a #4 be a good choice for flushing off dovetails and box joints? Do you have any opinion on the Lie Nielsen # 4 1/2 which is a tad longer than the # 4? Or would a low angle smoother be better for flushing work.

 

http://www.lie-nielsen.com/catalog.php?sku=4_5

 

http://www.lie-nielsen.com/catalog.php?sku=164

The American Woodworker said:

Hey Rich

My beliefs are the Bench Plane is a generic name for the line up of basic hand planes. Ranging from the No.2 , the No.4 Smoother, the N0.5 Jack, the No. 6 Foreplane and the 7 and 8 jointers. Those are the basic bench planes. The No. 4 is considered an all purpose smoother because it is excellent in general smoothing of drawer fronts, cabinet sides and tops and most mid sized surfaces. It is the most reached for hand plane in any shop, and the same holds true in my shop. For a quick touch up of a surface it is great, just like those beautiful blanket chests you build, that No.4 would take care of most of your blanket chest surfaces for smoothing, you might break out the No.6 if your blanket chest top had a slight cup in it, and the jointers would be great for joining those long boards before glue up. Yet the good ol standby No 4 would be more likely taken out time and time again for those surface touch ups and general smoothing.

Hey Rich, I'll need to get back with you on this one tonight, I have to leave out the door soon for jury duty. I was in jury duty last Thursday and I got called back today. See yall tonight!

Rich, block planes are excellent for flushing joints of any type and end grain. I have a low angle block from Veritas that is great for this purpose. That being said, if I was going to buy one plane to do most jobs it would have to be the No. 4 or the 4 1/2. And your choice of maker is an excellent choice. I have a No. 4 Bronze LN and a No. 8 Joiner LN that is the cats meow. I have about 10 hand planes ranging from the low angle block, to the No. 8 and I am reaching for that No. 4 most of the time. I have a low angle Foreplane from Veritas that is great of edge joining and surfacing smaller areas, the problem I have found with the low angles for surfacing, is you cannot crown the blade as you could a normal plane, so you'll see some ridges in the surfacing. The low angle is a great design, if you invest in various blades then you could duplicate the cutting characteristics of a standard bench plane, but I prefer one plane for one job. So in a nutshell, go for that No. 4 or 4 1/2 LN standard blade pitch. The standard blade angle I feel gives you a more glassy finish, because of the angle of the blade, it is almost a scraping cut instead of a slice. And we all know how glassy smooth a fine tuned scraper leaves your work surface.  You'll be very pleased, it will work great out of the box, and yes, it will flush those box joints and dovetails like nobody's business. After owning both Veritas and LN, I will buy LN's from now on money permitting. They really aren't that much more then the Veritas lineup either. And if you like the classic Stanely Bedrock design, you'll love the LN bench planes.  Hope this helps Rich.

Thanks John,  but does "crown the blade mean"? You can see I don't much about bench planes. I have a couple LN block planes but never use anything larger than those.

The American Woodworker said:

Rich, block planes are excellent for flushing joints of any type and end grain. I have a low angle block from Veritas that is great for this purpose. That being said, if I was going to buy one plane to do most jobs it would have to be the No. 4 or the 4 1/2. And your choice of maker is an excellent choice. I have a No. 4 Bronze LN and a No. 8 Joiner LN that is the cats meow. I have about 10 hand planes ranging from the low angle block, to the No. 8 and I am reaching for that No. 4 most of the time. I have a low angle Foreplane from Veritas that is great of edge joining and surfacing smaller areas, the problem I have found with the low angles for surfacing, is you cannot crown the blade as you could a normal plane, so you'll see some ridges in the surfacing. The low angle is a great design, if you invest in various blades then you could duplicate the cutting characteristics of a standard bench plane, but I prefer one plane for one job. So in a nutshell, go for that No. 4 or 4 1/2 LN standard blade pitch. The standard blade angle I feel gives you a more glassy finish, because of the angle of the blade, it is almost a scraping cut instead of a slice. And we all know how glassy smooth a fine tuned scraper leaves your work surface.  You'll be very pleased, it will work great out of the box, and yes, it will flush those box joints and dovetails like nobody's business. After owning both Veritas and LN, I will buy LN's from now on money permitting. They really aren't that much more then the Veritas lineup either. And if you like the classic Stanely Bedrock design, you'll love the LN bench planes.  Hope this helps Rich.

Crowning the blade means to shape a rise in the middle of the blade while sharpening it. So you when you plane a surface, you don't get the ridges from the corners of the blade. I use the terminology "Crown" to explain the shape of the cutting edge, but others use "Camber". The following image shows you what I am talking about. See the rise in the top of the blade. Now with a low angle plane blade, this is very difficult to achieve if you just think about the angle the blade is while contacting the surface as compared to the standard plane blade at a standard pitch where the blade will contact the surface.  The purpose of cambering a blade is to reduce the ridges you'd see caused from the corners of the plane blade digging in, leaving behind unsightly lines. Camber your blade, and the corners do not contact the woods' surface.

I'm gonna throw my 2cents in here AND suggest you go with the low angle whenever possible.

 

Which leads me to the next question of Why do you need to plane them off?

 

A sanding with a ROS and 120 grit paper should suffice.

 

And a smoothing plane has a specific use, mainly for the FEILD of the board, and not the edges. (bigger and longer foot)

 

Check out this site for more information on planes

http://www.supertool.com/StanleyBG/stan0a.html

I gotta respectfully disagree with you on this one Mike as far as sanding the DT's is just as good or sufficient. The DT's really show beautiful end grain off when you slice em flush. I can tell the difference. Just my opinion of course!

dragon1 said:

I'm gonna throw my 2cents in here AND suggest you go with the low angle whenever possible.

 

Which leads me to the next question of Why do you need to plane them off?

 

A sanding with a ROS and 120 grit paper should suffice.

 

And a smoothing plane has a specific use, mainly for the FEILD of the board, and not the edges. (bigger and longer foot)

 

Check out this site for more information on planes

 

http://www.supertool.com/StanleyBG/stan0a.html