A Combination Plane, is a woodworking plane very
much like a
plough plane / plow plane
but with the added ability to accept additional blades such as bead plane blades and
tongue plane blades as well as the plough / grooving plane blades.
A combination plane is used for woodwork jobs such as cleaning and cutting grooves (ploughing
/ plowing), beads, tongue and grooves, dado work and rebate / rabbet work.
In addition to the cutters, combination planes are equipped with a
fence,
depth stop
and a spur.
Combination planes are often referred to as
plough planes / plow planes
due to the similar
appearance to an iron plough plane with often the only difference being the blades which
come with the plane.
'Combination Plane' is also a term sometimes used for a
Multi-Plane.
A combination plane under the Record plane indexing and for me (which must be directly or indirectly
from Record plane indexing) is a plane which sits between a plough / plow plane
and multi-plane in terms of functionality.
For others a combination plane is any plane which accepts different blades beyond the plow blades
which also covers what some class as a multi-plane.
This has come about due to some different naming / advertising of planes at various points in history
including the terms 'Universal Plane' and then 'Universal Combination Plane' used
at certain points in history for the
Stanley 55 Plane,
the box of the
Stanley 45
was also at one point being labelled 'Combination Plane',
and 'Combination Plane' is used today (at the time of writing) for the
Veritas Combination Plane.
Does it matter which definition of a combination plane is used? No, however it is good to be aware of
differing definitions.
The combination plane originally came about as an iron plane improvement on the old
wooden plough planes.
There was never a mainstream wooden combination plane that I am aware of,
only wooden plough planes.
The first mainstream iron combination plane which was originally listed as an
'Adjustable Beading Plane' (c.1884) then 'Combined Beading And Matching Plane' (c.1912) then 'Combination Plane'
(by 1939) and today is also often referred
to as a 'Plough Plane / Plow Plane' due to the
Stanley 50S Plane,
was the
Stanley 50 Plane
which was introduced in the 1880's.
Other examples of combination planes include:
As with most choices, there are advantages and disadvantages to buying a combination-plane tool, the pro's and con's as we see it are:
PRO'S:
CON'S:
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in good faith, any such information should not be solely relied upon and seen
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to good safety practices for the safety of you and others. Refer to good practices
for the good health of your tool and property.
(ii) The details here are given in good faith, the details are constantly growing
and evolving, there is scope for error and shouldn't be fully relied upon,
please confirm any details for yourself by performing additional research from
reliable sources.
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