A55 Smoothing Plane
A smoothing plane is an essential hand tool for woodworking, as it has the ability to smooth any difficult timber surface after it has been dressed by a Jack plane, thicknesser or planer. This smoothing plane is similar to a traditional tote and handle smoothing plane with a mechanical adjuster. This suits many crafters who are used to this style, and like to have an adjuster over a wedge mechanism. Like most of our planes, this smoothing plane has a high blade angle at 55 degrees which will be optimum on hard woods or reversing grain. On timbers that are too hard to plane, you can reverse the blade to bevel up and it will perform as an 85 degree cabinet scraper.
This plane is made from gidgee which is extremely hard and long wearing. It weighs 1.55kg and is 250mm long x 67mm wide x 38mm high. You have the option of a 50mm wide x 6mm thick x 97mm long Tool Steel (TS) blade hardened to Rc 62-64 or a High Speed Steel (HSS) blade hardened to Rc 62. We recommend choosing the HSS if you wish to reverse the blade to bevel up and use the plane as a cabinet scraper, as it will hold its edge longer under heat.
To adjust the blade there is a 40 TPI fine thread screw (one 10th of a turn gives meaningful change in depth of 0.001"). The adjuster also allows you to laterally adjust the blade.