Woodworking bench planes are 200mm (8”) to 600mm (224”) long, for example, a Stanley Bailey No7 is 22” in length yet a No4 smoothing plane is 8 to 10 inches.
What is the length of woodworking hand planes?
The length of a hand plane is different for each model, for instance, a block plane is shorter than a jointer plane. In this blog, I will give you the length of these tools:
- Violin
- Block
- Smoother
- Jack
- Fore
- Jointer
Violin Plane
The violin plane is used by a Luthier. A luthier is an Artisan who make violins and other string instruments. A violin plane is also known as a finger plane and comes in these sizes:
4.5 x 1.5 x 2.5cm / 1.77 x 0.59 x 0.98inch
4 x 3 x 2cm / 1.57 x 1.18 x 0.79inch
5 x 3 x 2cm / 1.97 x 1.18 x 0.79inch
5 x 3 x 2.5cm / 1.97 x 1.18 x 0.79inch
5 x 4 x 1cm / 1.97 x 1.57 x 0.39inch
Block Plane
The length of a woodworkers block plane is between 3” to 8” / 75mm to 200mm
Smoothing plane
The length of a smoothing bench plane is 8” to 10” and is often referred to a No3 or a No4
Jack Plane
The length of a Jack plane such as the Stanley Baily No 5 is 14” to 15” / 355mm to 381mm
Fore Plane
The woodworker’s Foreplane is 18” / 450mm in length
Jointer Plane
The Jointer plane is the longest of the Stanley range of standard planes and comes as a No7 (22” / 559mm) and the No 8 (24” / 600mm)
Woodworking plane length conclusion
All the above planes are the most common planes available. The length of the plane is important for the task it is designed for. A small block plane is no good for trueing a plank of wood because it is too short so we use a longer plane such as the Stanley Bailey No7 or the No8. The block plane isn’t useless as it is commonly used for small tasks or end-grain as the plane iron is available at a low angle which easily cuts across the grain.
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