woodworking Woodworking is the skill of making items from wood, and includes cabinet making (cabinetry and furniture), wood carving, joinery, carpentry, and woodturning. History Along with stone, clay and animal parts, wood was one of the first mate ...

, a moulding plane (molding plane in US spelling) is a specialised

plane Plane(s) most often refers to: * Aero- or airplane, a powered, fixed-wing aircraft * Plane (geometry), a flat, 2-dimensional surface Plane or planes may also refer to: Biology * Plane (tree) or ''Platanus'', wetland native plant * ''Planes' ...

used for making the complex shapes found in wooden mouldings. Traditionally, moulding planes were blocks of wear resistant hardwood, often beech or

maple ''Acer'' () is a genus of trees and shrubs commonly known as maples. The genus is placed in the family Sapindaceae.Stevens, P. F. (2001 onwards). Angiosperm Phylogeny Website. Version 9, June 2008 nd more or less continuously updated since http ...

, which were worked to the shape of the intended moulding. The blade, or

iron Iron () is a chemical element with Symbol (chemistry), symbol Fe (from la, Wikt:ferrum, ferrum) and atomic number 26. It is a metal that belongs to the first transition series and group 8 element, group 8 of the periodic table. It is, Abundanc ...

was likewise formed to the intended moulding profile and secured in the body of the plane with a wooden wedge. A traditional

cabinetmaker A cabinet is a case or cupboard with shelves and/or drawers for storing or displaying items. Some cabinets are stand alone while others are built in to a wall or are attached to it like a medicine cabinet. Cabinets are typically made of wood (s ...

s shop might have many, perhaps hundreds, of moulding planes for the full range of work to be performed. The late nineteenth century brought modern types which were all-metal affairs such as the American

Stanley Stanley may refer to: Arts and entertainment Film and television * ''Stanley'' (1972 film), an American horror film * ''Stanley'' (1984 film), an Australian comedy * ''Stanley'' (1999 film), an animated short * ''Stanley'' (1956 TV series) ...

No. 55 Universal Plane and the English Record No. 405 Multi-Plane with a wide variety of interchangeable cutters, integral fences, and "nickers", small cutting edges which score the grain fibers when working across the board.C. W. Hampton and E. Clifford:"Planecraft". Page 151.C. and J. Hampton Ltd. 1959 Large

crown moulding Crown moulding is a form of cornice created out of decorative moulding installed atop an interior wall. It is also used atop doors, windows, pilasters and cabinets. Historically made of plaster or wood, modern crown moulding installation ...

s required planes of six or more inches in width, which demanded great strength to push and often had additional peg handles on the sides, allowing the craftsman's

apprentice Apprenticeship is a system for training a new generation of practitioners of a trade or profession with on-the-job training and often some accompanying study (classroom work and reading). Apprenticeships can also enable practitioners to gain a ...

or other worker to pull the plane ahead of the master who guided it.Henry Chapman Mercer:"Ancient Carpenters' Tools". Bucks County Historical Society. 1975 While generally considered outdated, a modern furniture shop doing reproduction or restoration work might keep a collection of moulding planes to match original work, or to build in an authentic manner. The earliest known record of a moulding plane is a moulding plane iron of Roman origin unearthed in Cologne, Germany. In modern industry, the work of the moulding plane has been taken up by the electrically powered

spindle moulder Spindle may refer to: Textiles and manufacturing * Spindle (textiles), a straight spike to spin fibers into yarn * Spindle (tool), a rotating axis of a machine tool Biology * Common spindle and other species of shrubs and trees in genus ''Euony ...

wood shaper A wood shaper, usually just shaper in North America or spindle moulder in the UK and Europe, is a stationary woodworking machine in which a vertically oriented spindle drives cutter heads to mill profiles on wood stock. The wood being fed int ...

. On a smaller scale, the hand-held or table-mounted electric router allows the use of interchangeable router bits of a wide variety of profiles and is readily available to the small business or home craftsperson.

Notes

{{carpentry-stub Planes