wooden plow plane

[Brandon Speaks]

I have been building my tool kit for a bit now and am generally pretty happy with it. The one place where I feel I am really lacking is the ability to plow a groove, this seems to be if not a requirement a big advantage on many of the projects that I want to do. I had been considering ordering the veritas plow plane but I had a few unexpected expenses recently and my wife and I have a trip to Denmark planed soon so I am holding off on that for now. I did see a few wooden plow planes in a local antique shop recently though that would fit the budget, ranging from 60-120 range that appear to be functional.

If these would be a good alternative I might do that for now and then add something like the veritas combo plane late in the year. If not I will just hold off for now and either change projects or work around (I have a router, router plane, or can saw and chisel) until I can get the right tool.

So the question is would a wooden plow plane be a reasonable solution as at least a 6 month alternative and then have continuing usefulness in my shop or should I hold off. I suppose the answer might me it depends on which plane it is, I unfortunately did not snap pics or write it down last time I was there.

[lowell holmes]

I would save my money and get the Veritas Small Plow plane.
I have one and it is a sweet plane.

[steven c newman]

These would be a good choice, IF they have the cutters..
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Sometimes you may have to "rebuild one"
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This one does grooves..
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But, you CAN buy about any width cutter for one of these planes, as long as they will fit into the plane.

[Warren Mickley]

When I was in your position, back in 1975, I made a Roubo style plough plane. Unlike a universal plough, it only has one iron and only one distance from the edge. However, it is rather easy to make. It has an open mortise in the side and a wedge, just two pieces of wood altogether. I made the groove in the bottom with a chisel. In Figure 2 there is a dotted line which shows the depth of the mortise and the width of the iron. The iron has to be slightly wider than the wood around it so the wooden portion doesn't get stuck in the groove. Even a quick and dirty plough of this type will give a nicer groove than a combination plane because there is a nice mouth in front of the iron. Actually the plane doesn't need to be as elaborate as the drawing; the wedge and the iron don't need hooks on them and the top of the stock does not need to be contoured.
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[ken hatch]

Warren has a good suggestion.

Used wood stock planes can be tricky, if good they are very good, if not so good it usually takes some knowledge to figure out what’s wrong.

Ken

[Jim Koepke]

Warren has a good suggestion.

Used wood stock planes can be tricky, if good they are very good, if not so good it usually takes some knowledge to figure out what’s wrong.

Ken

+1 on that. Making your own can be fun and educational. It will likely do a good enough job to keep you busy.

My old wooden plow can be coaxed into cutting a groove, but it is a PITA!

Unless you want to be an all wood bodied plane shop, save your time and money until you can get something that will work straight out of the box.

jtk

[Ted Phillips]

The Veritas Small Plough Plane is a blast to use, cuts really nice grooves, and can be outfitted with a number of different blade widths. It is one of my favorite planes to use.

[ken hatch]

When I replied last night I was on my iPad, it's a PITA to write on so the reply was cryptic. Wood plow planes were and can be wonderful but....it's a big but. They are complex and all the parts must work together, often on older plows folks have mixed and matched parts (cutters and/or wedges) that do not work well together. If you know what to do and fix most plows can be made to work but it is a learning process that involves lots of kissing and frogs. I love my good ones, I seldom give up on the not so good ones, and the near foolproof one is the Veritas Small plow.

ken

[Mike Baker 2]

My (less than) .02, since I am a beginner and have yet to cut my first groove, I looked a t afew of the wooden ones recently, and even asked advice on SMC. Eventually I realized that, for me, I plan to learn to cut them with the appropriate sized chisel first. Once I get that skill down, I'll look at a plow plane to make life easier. But I want the skill to do it without it first.

[Pete Taran]

Brandon,

I've got a different view. Finding a good usable plow need not be laced with peril. It's pretty straightforward to find a good one. Some things to look for:

Are the threads on the arms mostly intact? Almost all are missing a piece here or there, but if an entire inch is missing, thats not a keeper for sure

Others had no threads and wedges to lock the arms in place. Are they present? If so, they may be really locked into place because of wood movement. If so, are there cracks around the arms where the wedge is?

Is the wedge present and at least one iron? If so, any large cracks where the wedge was in place and the body shrunk around it?

Any large cracks in the body?

Is the skate straight?

Is the depth stop present and does it work?

Assuming the fence is threaded, are the washers on both sides of the plane present and not cracked?

Is the fence at 90 degrees to the main body?

Getting a plane like this to work is fun and rewarding. They also don't typically cost very much, at least the beech variety. One of the main things that is usually an issue is the irons. It is rare that the entire set is present, but they all were a standard taper and it's not hard to build a set.

The MW tool meets I attend there are countless plows and countless tubs of irons. If you can get to one, it would be a good place to start. If not, look around locally to you and just keep some of the "gotchas" in mind as you investigate a possible purchase.