How do I use a hand plane?

A hand plane is the tool people buy, fail with once and never touch again, because it arrives blunt and set wrong and gives no clue which. Set up properly it does things no power tool can, quietly and without dust.

Safety

Step by step

1. Sharpen the blade before anything else.New and second-hand planes are almost never sharp. Work through a coarse then a fine stone and strop. It should shave hair from your forearm. Everything below assumes this has been done.
2. Flatten the back of the blade.The first couple of centimetres, dead flat, done once. A plane blade cuts where two flat surfaces meet, and honing a bevel against an unflattened back achieves nothing.
3. Set the blade to a very fine cut.Sight along the sole with the plane upside down and wind the blade out until it is barely visible — a hair's breadth. If you can see it clearly, it is too deep.
4. Get the blade square to the sole.The lateral adjustment lever. Sighting along the sole, the edge should project evenly across its width. A blade skewed to one side cuts a wedge and digs in at one corner.
5. Take a test shaving.It should come off as a continuous curl thin enough to see light through. Dust or nothing means too shallow; a thick chip means too deep and the plane will jam.
6. Read the grain direction before you start.Look at the edge of the board and find which way the grain rises. Plane in the direction where the fibres rise away from the blade. Going the other way tears chunks out below the surface.
7. Turn the board round rather than forcing it.If it starts tearing, stop and plane from the other end. Grain direction can reverse partway along a board, and fighting it never works.
8. Clamp the work properly.In a vice or against a bench stop. Planing takes real forward force, and a board that slides is both useless and dangerous.
9. Use your body, not your arms.Weight on the front knob at the start of the stroke, transferring to the rear handle at the end. That is what stops the plane rounding over the ends of the board.
10. Take full-length strokes.Right off the far end each time, overlapping across the width. Short strokes in the middle produce a hollow that gets worse the more you work at it.
11. Wax the sole.A rub of candle wax or paraffin on the sole reduces friction dramatically. It is the difference between hard work and a plane that glides.
12. Check your progress with a straightedge.A rule on edge across and along the board. Planing by feel produces a board that is smooth and not flat, which is the commonest disappointment.
13. Store it on its side or on a wooden strip.Never sole-down on a hard bench — it dulls the edge. Retract the blade if it is going away for a while.

Tips

• A cheap old plane cleaned up and sharpened properly outperforms a new one straight from the box. Most second-hand ones need nothing but sharpening and a flat sole.
• If the plane chatters, the blade is either blunt or not seated firmly. Check the lever cap is tight before adjusting anything else.
• For end grain, skew the plane and work from both edges towards the middle — planing straight off the far corner splits it.

Common mistakes

• Setting the blade too deep — It jams, tears the grain and takes enormous effort. A shaving you can see light through removes material faster overall because it never stalls.
• Planing against the grain — The blade lifts fibres and tears out chunks below the surface, and no amount of sanding hides it. Read the grain and work with it.

If it doesn't work

Questions people ask