Plane (tool) - Parts of A Plane

Parts of A Plane

Two styles of plane are shown with some parts labeled. The top of the image is a bench plane; the bottom is a block plane.

• A: The mouth is an opening in the bottom of the plane down through which the blade extends, and up through which wood shavings pass.
• B: The iron is a plate of steel with a sharpened edge which cuts the wood. Some people refer to it as the blade.
• C: The lever cap holds the blade down firmly to the body of the plane.
• D: The depth adjustment knob controls how far the blade extends through the mouth.
• E: The knob is a handle on the front of the plane.
• F: The chipbreaker or Cap iron serves to make the blade more rigid and to curl and break apart wood shavings as they pass through the mouth.
• G: The lateral adjustment lever is used to adjust the iron by skewing it so that the depth of cut is uniform across the mouth.
• H: The tote is a handle on the rear of the plane.(Some aficionados object to the use of the word tote preferring handle).
• I: The finger rest knob Block planes are held in the palm of the hand while the tip of the user's index finger rests in the indentation on top of the knob. On some planes the knob is used to adjust the size of the mouth by allowing a sliding portion of the sole to be moved back or forward to accomplish this.
• J: The frog is a sliding iron wedge that holds the plane iron at the proper angle. It slides to adjust the gap between the cutting edge and the front of the mouth. The frog is screwed down to the inside of the sole through two parallel slots and on many planes is only adjustable with a screwdriver when the plane iron is removed. Some planes, such as the Stanley Bedrock line and the bench planes made by Lie-Nielsen have a screw mechanism that allows the frog to be adjusted without removing the blade.