A dado plane is a woodwork plane used
for cutting a groove / slot / trench across a piece of wood, cutting
across the grain.
In order to form a groove going across the wood, the dado plane is
designed in a special way to cut across the grain.
To achieve this the dado plane is equipped with a double point
nicker
at the front of the plane which scores / slices the wood paving the
way for the cutter further back to cleanly shave the wood. This combination
allows this to happen with every push of the plane.
There are two types of dado planes, wooden dado planes and iron dado
planes both of which carry out the same job:
The dado plane first came to fruition in the form of the wooden dado
plane, I believe the first being made in the 1700's, wooden dado planes
were certainly being manufactured in the 1700's.
Wooden dado planes were popular throughout the 1800's. They began to
decline in popularity as the iron planes started being invented
and marketed.
See the
Wooden Dado Planes Review
for additional information about wooden dado planes.
The iron dado planes were first invented around 1900 with Stanley
bringing the first mainstream version in the form of the
Stanley 39 dado plane.
The Stanley 39 dado plane, like the wooden dado plane, has a two point
nicker/spur system at the front with a skew mouth / cutter behind.
A plane which cuts grooves such as a
plough plane or grooving plane
is used to cut a groove along / with the wood grain.
A dado plane is used to cut across the wood grain.
Grooving planes and dado planes are designed differently:
- A grooving plane or plough plane is capable of cutting different
width grooves by simply changing the size of cutter used. A grooving
plane has a fence.
- A dado plane isn't capable of cutting different width grooves, it
is a one size plane which can only cut one sized groove, if a different
sized groove is needed then an additional different sized dado plane
will be needed.
A typical wooden dado plane consists of the following parts:
There have been a number of dado plane makers in the past, with a few present makers. Below are a list of a few well known dado plane manufacturers:
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