While conducting a plane-tuning seminar on Wednesday with toolmaker extraordinaire Chris Vesper, I got the opportunity to pick through his tool collection. I had no idea he was a tool collector. He is. And he has devoted about one-third of his living space to his collection.
His collection of plane irons (and chipbreakers) is remarkable. I could have spent a week examining them. But the tool in his collection that blew my mind was a Lancashire rebate plane he had sharpened and tuned up.
This is a user-made plane. Words and photos really don’t do it justice.
In essence, it is a cast brass rebate plane with a skewed cutter (snecked!). Instead of having a fence below the cutter (like a moving fillister plane), this plane has a sole that extends above the cutter and cutting surface.
This remarkable feature allows you to do several things:
- Cut rabbets of any width by dropping into a gauge line. The more you plane, the more stable the tool becomes. So you can really bear down and remove some meat once you get the tool started.
- Easily alter the floor of a rabbet with a little wrist twist. This allows you to clean up rabbets with ease.
- The tote encourages you to push the sole into the corner of the rabbet and to remain square.
- The escapement/lever cap of the tool throws the shavings onto the bench and not into your hand.
- The brass sole gives you a sharp arris that lets you start in a gauge line.
Vesper was kind enough to let me try the plane out on some King William Pine. I used one of his marking gauges to lay out the rabbet. And within a couple strokes I was a rabbeting fool.
I surmise that this is a tough tool to make. It has a skew cutter, an unusual sole and a wild (but very comfortable tote). So I wouldn’t hold my breath in hopes that someone would make it for the modern market.
But if you see one, drop your small children and watermelons and grab the tool. Buy it. You won’t regret it.
— Christopher Schwarz
Sweet tool! Was it hard to get going on the thin edge shown? Seems it would be easier use this for making super wide rebates that had been started with a normal rebate plane.
hi chris,
I have only heard these referred to as Lancashire pattern mitre planes. I suppose for shooting mitres. They make great side rabbets too.
This looks like a pattern makers tool to me. It is very similar in form to a core box plane, but obviously very different in the blade and usage.
The modern equivalent might be the 140, a skew block plane with a removable side. You can use a fence under this plane, but you can also use it like a rabbit plane with your fingers for the initial fence until you get started. I have a Lie-Nielsen and I like it quite it bit–it is a problem solving plane.
There is one for sale at http://www.toolexchange.com.au/Norris-Planes.html
And on flebay http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Wonderful-LANCASHIRE-Pattern-Mitre-Plane-/400423127005?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item5d3b1407dd
That’s a really cool plane.
Sort of like a Left handed Rebate version of the Stanley (Lie-Nielsen) #51?
Does the ability to tweak the angle of the rebate floor also mean you can inadvertently mess it up?
Need video.
Please tell me you shot video.
Need video.
The handle shape is VERY unusual. Though Lancashire pattern planes do crop up occasionally in the UK, they are by no means common, possibly because the standard wooden sort (in the 19th century) and the Stanley 78 (in the 20th) were much cheaper to buy.
…I surmise that this is a tough tool to make. It has a skew cutter, an unusual sole and a wild (but very comfortable tote). So I wouldn’t hold my breath in hopes that someone would make it for the modern market….
Sounds like something your buddies at Lee Valley / Veritas might tackle.
So, I guess the questions are is it a rabbet plane, a shooting plane, or something altogether different that works well on rabbets?
I like the idea of working the board on edge rather than flat on the bench. Obviously not the best way to do it on large panels…
I would categorize this beastie as a metallic reverse skewed badger plane. My understanding is that a badger plane is a usually a finishing tool for rebates cut with some rougher tool. Unlike a rebate plane, there is no lateral blade edge to scrape the sidewall while planing the rebate floor. All the wooden badger planes I’m familiar with have the leading corner of the skewed blade on the sidewall/floor aris. This skew pulls the badger into the rebate.
Now with this Lancashire plane, the straight blade is skew mounted with the leading corner toward the outside. This skew pulls the plane away from the sidewall of the rebate. The diagonally mounted tote counters the skew by pushing into the rebate. I suspect this balance of forces makes controlling such a plane easier than the usual skew rabbet.
I don’t think this tool really works as a mitre plane. With the blade going all the way into the corner, it would tear up a shooting board in short order. I suppose it could be used freehand on a flat surface, but that seems unlikely.
Is the blade mounted bevel down? Does it have chipbreaker?
I hope Tom Lie-Nielsen is reading this, and gives this plane design some serious consideration.
It’s a Lancashire-pattern shoulder plane, though I guess you could use it to trim mitres if you wanted to.