Router or shoulder plane?

[Derek Cohen]

The better question is whether a router plane is better than a chisel at pruning tenons than a good rasp, or better than a paring chisel at leveling out dadoes.

Bruce, the issue is not about "pruning" but about making or keeping a face parallel. It is quite easy to saw a tenon cheek slightly (or more!) out-of-parallel to the stretcher. The router plane is an easier tool to use to restore parallel (while trimming).

The router plane certainly makes levelling easy, since that it what it is designed to do. Other tools can get there in the end, but require more effort to do so.

Regards from Perth

Derek

[Bruce Haugen]

Bruce, the issue is not about "pruning" but about making or keeping a face parallel. It is quite easy to saw a tenon cheek slightly (or more!) out-of-parallel to the stretcher. The router plane is an easier tool to use to restore parallel (while trimming).

The router plane certainly makes levelling easy, since that it what it is designed to do. Other tools can get there in the end, but require more effort to do so.

Regards from Perth

Derek

Not to me. My tenon cheeks are parallel and level to start. The only issue is fit.

[Derek Cohen]

Bruce, do you cut your cheeks with a handsaw or a power tool?

Regards from Perth

Derek

[Frederick Skelly]

Hi Oswaldo,
I use my small router plane more often than my shoulder plane. But I have both because they do different jobs in my shop. For me, the shoulder plane is used on tenon shoulders. But like many tools, you can use it for other functions such as cutting camphers.

I bought the router plane first and I have never regretted that. I originally purchased it to make sure that any long dados I cut on a machine are cut to the exact same depth over their entire length. (Sometimes, a long part rises up just a little as it goes over the dado head. Then the joint doesn't fit properly because the depth isn't right. So I use the router plane to make the dado bottom uniform depth.) After I bought this tool, I discovered that it has many other uses that others described above.

I would give up my shoulder plane before I would give up my router plane. But that's just me. Everyone works wood a little differently.

Good luck!

Fred

[Bruce Haugen]

Bruce, do you cut your cheeks with a handsaw or a power tool?

Regards from Perth

Derek

I’m a hybrid worker. tablesaw.

[Derek Cohen]

Tablesaw is cheating, Bruce The OP is asking about hand tools, so the cheeks would be shaped with a tenon handsaw, not a tenon tablesaw .. .

Regards from Perth

Derek

[Bruce Haugen]

Tablesaw is cheating, Bruce The OP is asking about hand tools, so the cheeks would be shaped with a tenon handsaw, not a tenon tablesaw .. .

Regards from Perth

Derek

When I cut tenons by hand and they need to be adjusted, I use a zephyr rasp. It’s quicker. I’ve never, ever found the router plane useful for that. Obviously you have. And, btw, the OP’s original question didn’t say anything about tenon cheeks.

[Derek Cohen]

Bruce, it is not about which is quicker - there are a lot of quick methods. A skew block plane or a rabbet block plane is quicker than a router plane. I often just use a wide chisel. But it is not about which is quicker, especially for a beginner (the OP, who began the thread asking about the merits of the shoulder plane vs the router plane) - it's about which is likely to produce the more accurate results.

Regards from Perth

Derek

[andy bessette]

I could easily live without my router plane. But my shoulder planes are used daily.

[lowell holmes]

I have both router and shoulder planes. IMO, they are used for different tasks.

[Prashun Patel]

There is overlap, but there are times one is more convenient than the other. Sometimes I appreciate the vertical registration and wide blade of the shouder plane.
Sometimes I appreciate the ability to get into a stopped groove, or to dial in a particular depth precisely.

This is subjective, but I will say that I tend to use the router plane to refine a tenon to a line, but a shoulder plane to refine a tenon to a mortise. Does that make sense?

[John Sanford]

Yes. Embrace the power of "AND". Based on my own past use though, if I could only have one, it would be the router plane. And knowing what I have done with the shoulder plane, I would not be a happy camper limited to just one of the two. So, barring the dictates of immediate need, I would get the router plane first and then a shoulder plane as opportunity/circumstances dictate.

[lowell holmes]

I have both or had both. I have not seen the router plane since Hurricane Harvey came through. I will have to look for them tomorrow.

[Warren Mickley]

I did a lot of cabinetmaking without a router or a shoulder plane. After quite a few years I got a router plane for carving work, but I have never owned a shoulder plane. Three tools which I could not have worked without, however are the plough plane, the fillister plane (rabbet plane with a fence), and the rabbet plane. I made simple versions of all three of these right away when I started woodworking.

[david charlesworth]

The idea that a shoulder plane could be used to clean small shoulders is completely alien to me!

Like Derek, I use a router plane to fit tenons and chisels to perfect the shoulders.

David Charlesworth