Shoulder to Shoulder

After a smoothing plane and block plane, a good shoulder plane should be on most woodworkers’ tool lists. These planes are great for planing the shoulders (hence the name) of tenons and will plane with the grain as well. Use them for cleaning up grooves or planing in tricky situations.

The blades on these run the full width of the body, in fact they extend a fraction beyond the body for planing right up to the edge of a workpiece. The blade must always be ground square or they won’t work well. The sides and base need to be ground at 90°. That is why better quality planes