Lee Laird's Hand Plane Fundamentals Series

Explore the set up, tuning and use of hand planes

*Lee Laird

*Lee Laird has enjoyed woodworking for over 20 years. He is retired from the U.S.P.S. and works for Lie-Nielsen Toolworks as a show staff member, demonstrating tools and training customers.

Lee Laird's Hand Planes Fundamentals Series

"Fine Tools & Education" is not just a slogan we put on catalogs, at Highland Woodworking we take our commitment to teaching woodworking skills seriously. That is why we are so delighted to have Lee Laird from Lie Nielsen Tools Works producing this instructional series on hand plane use and care. Lee, a regular contributor to The Highland Woodworking Blog, is a true hand plane expert with the knowledge to cover in depth all aspects of hand planes. In this series you can learn everything you need to know about hand planes - we explore the set up & tuning of hand plane, which hand planes to buy & use first, details on hand plane types & models and advanced techniques to help you maximize the hand planes own. When it comes to buying, tuning and using hand planes, you can never know too much so it is a great opportunity for us to present Lee's "Plane Facts" series. You can also find more articles on hand plane instruction in the hand plane section of our tips and techniques index. A big thank you to Lee for sharing his expertise with using hand planes and putting his time and energy into creating these extremely useful hand plane articles for our readers.

Hand Plane Fundamentals

• The Plane Facts: Why Doesn't This Plane/Chisel Work Like It Should??
  
  
• The Plane Facts: No. 60-1/2R Low Angle Rabbet Block Plane
  
  
• The Plane Facts: Using a Scrub Plane
  
  
• The Plane Facts: A couple of great scraper Planes
  
  
• The Plane Facts: The Lie-Nielsen Small bench Planes (1, 2 & 2I)
  
  
• The Plane Facts: The Lie-Nielsen Small Shoulder Plane
  
  
• The Plane Facts: Why Are There So Many Sizes?
  
  
• The Plane Facts: Bronze versus Cast Ductile Iron #4 Plane
  
  
• The Plane Facts: Lie-Nielsen Small Chisel Plane
  
  
• The Plane Facts: Lie-Nielsen Large Shoulder Plane (073)
  
  
• The Plane Facts: Lie-Nielsen No. 6 Fore Plane
  
  
• The Plane Facts: Lie-Nielsen 102 Block Planes
  
  
• The Plane Facts: Lie-Nielsen No 5. Jack Plane
  
  
• The Plane Facts: Lie Nielsen #101 Violin Maker's Plane
  
  
• The Plane Facts: The Lie-Nielsen #103 Block Plane
  
  
• The Plane Facts: The Lie-Nielsen Convex Sole Block Plane
  
  
• The Plane Facts: #95 Bronze Edge Lie-Nielsen Planes
  
  
• The Plane Facts: Lie-Nielsen 271 Small Router Planes
  
  
• The Plane Facts: Lie-Nielsen #51 Shoot Board Plane
  
  
• The Plane Facts: Three Great Lie-Nielsen Hand Planes that Every Woodworker Needs
  
  
• The Plane Facts: The Lie-Nielsen Large Router Plane
  
  
• The Plane Facts: The Lie-Nielsen #62 Low Angle Jack Plane
  
  
• The Plane Facts: The Lie-Nielsen #164 Low Angle Smoother
  
  
• The Plane Facts: What's So Special About This Ductile Cast Iron?
  
  
• The Plane Facts: I Can't Find the Exact Plane that I Need, Pt. 1
  
  
• The Plane Facts: I Can't Find the Exact Plane that I Need, Pt. 2
  
  
• The Plane Facts: The Lie-Nielsen #8 Jointer Plane
  
  
• The Plane Facts: The Lie-Nielsen 9-1/2 Adjustable Mouth Block Plane
  
  
• The Plane Facts: Planes for finishing – the Scraping Planes
  
  
• The Plane Facts: Using a Smoothing Hand Plane
  
  
• The Plane Facts: Lubricating a Hand Plane's Sole
  
  

Hand Plane Projects

• Creating a Curly Maple Handle for a Custom Japanese Hammer Head
  
  
• Building an Electric Bass Guitar: Part 1 - Design Considerations
  
  
• Building an Electric Bass Guitar: Part 2 - Building the Neck
  
  
• Building an Electric Bass Guitar: Part 3 - Making the Fretboard and Neck
  
  
• Building an Electric Bass Guitar: Part 4 - Gluing the Fretboard, Cutting the Headstock and Installing the Tuners
  
  
• Building an Electric Bass Guitar: Part 5 - Installing the Frets, Bridge, and Saddles
  
  
• Building an Electric Bass Guitar: Part 6 - Final Details
  
  
• Wooden Square Build - Part 1
  
  
• Wooden Square Build - Part 2
  
  
• Another method to create larger scaled tongue and groove joints
  
  
• My Method for Cutting Dovetails
  
  
• The Plane Facts: Woodturning and Using Hand Planes: Not so Different!
  
  
• The Plane Facts: Using the Lie-Nielsen #62 Low Angle Jack Plane to Handle Highly Figured Wood on a Guitar Project
  
  
• The Plane Facts: Tips for non-traditional router plane usage
  
  
• The Plane Facts: Restoring an Old and Rusty Bench Plane
  
  
• The Plane Facts: Repairing a Plane Body or Blade
  
  

Shop for Hand Planes, Plane Irons and Plane Parts.

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Checkout out our Hand Plane Videos: Hand Plane Videos.