A Plough Plane, also spelt as
Plow Plane,
is a woodwork plane used for cutting and cleaning grooves.
A plough plane has a
depth stop
and an adjustable moveable
fence,
which is supported on and slides along usually two
arms.
A plough plane usually comes with a selection of different width plough / grooving
cutters for working different width grooves.
Plough plane is the UK way of spelling this type of plane.
Plow plane is the North America way of spelling this type of plane.
From what I have observed, other regions of the world spell this tool using one or the other
of the above spellings,
quite possibly depending on what literature has been read and likely historically where the tool was
first bought.
Plough planes / plow planes were historically made in two different main types:
Wooden plough / plow planes have been around since about the early 1700's, made by established
manufacturers all the way up to about the 1940's/1950's.
There are two main types of wooden plough plane:
The wooden plough planes used to have up to an 8-piece plough plane cutter set.
These planes are beautiful to handle and have a good solid 250+ year history of
grooving work.
If looking to buy an old wooden plough plane, be aware there can be a lot of
aged problems potentially with these types of planes and from experience very
commonly are, I would say it is defintely worth considering paying the extra
for one of these from a reputable dealer / source.
See the above wooden plough plane review pages to see some of the problems you
would be prudent to be aware of.
Iron plough / plow planes have been around since about the 1880's and they are still
made today.
Iron plough planes typically have 1 - 9 plough / grooving cutters.
Iron plough / plow planes are heavily based upon the wooden plough / plow plane core
designs.
Plough planes / plow planes are the smaller brother of the
Combination Plane
and the
Multi-Plane
The iron plough plane knocked the wooden plough plane pretty much completely from its
perch by the 1940's-1950's in terms of new sales, there was however a huge abundance of
secondhand wooden plough / plow planes at this time, and even today they remain
available in fairly large numbers.
(i) This review/article may give warning(s) / advisory notes / cautions / guidelines given
in good faith, any such information should not be solely relied upon and seen
as the exhaustive list of warnings / advisory notes / cautions / guidelines. Refer
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.
Enjoy viewing the encyclopedia of tools.
If you are inspired by our content or use info such as dates, sizes,
details from FindMyTool.co.uk
please kindly give credit where credit is due via giving a nod in a video
or a link to this website.
Please see our terms if using more than a few dates
or details.
"Just stumbled across your website and an absolute treasure trove of information.
I was recently given an old Stanley 110 block plane and wanted to know more about it.
Your website told me everything I needed to know.
But there is so much more to read. I forsee me spending a lot of time just reading
page after page. I can appreciate how much time this will have taken to put together.
I just wanted to let you know that your hard work is appreciated."