1 Introduction
The Juuma- bench planes numbered 4,5,6 and 7 are the right tools to smooth, thickness, flatten and square
up solid wood. The shorter a plane is, the better adapted it is for finishing the faces of a board as a
smoothing plane even on relatively irregular surfaces. The longer a plane is, the better it is for trying and
jointing wood, that is, fine work to flatten the faces and make the edges straight and square, which is the
basis for all fine joinery. So, from short to long:
#4: Smoothing plane for finish work
#5: Jack plane for general work
#6: Try plane, for fine surfacing and squaring up
#7: Jointer plane, for surfacing and jointing long workpieces
The designs of these planes are based on the best models made by the top quality American manufacturers
during the apogee of hand tools during the first half of the 20th Century. They combine the highly evolved
design of those “golden age” planes with the high precision that modern manufacturing can provide.
The cast iron bodies of the Juuma bench planes make them enormously durable and long-lived. In comparis-
on with wooden-bodied planes, the extra mass allows them to glide unfazed through knots and other irregu-
larities in the wood grain. The low center of gravity of the grips allows very good and precise control of the
plane.
Planes should be able to cut different thicknesses of shavings. But the geometry of user-sharpened irons is
often relatively inexact, and the iron gets a tiny bit shorter with each sharpening. So for every plane, no mat-
ter what style, construction material or manufacturer, the position of the iron needs to be properly set for the
plane to function well.
Setting a plane iron is not all that simple, because it is a question of mere hundredths of a millimeter. Iron
planes of this type have the great advantage that all of the important adjustments and settings can be pre-
cisely controlled by knurled knobs, screws and levers. The traditional way, on wooden planes, of tapping with
a hammer on the plane body, wedge or iron, is no longer necessary.
2 Parts and function of the Juuma Bench Planes
All Juuma Bench Planes are identical in their basic construction. So all the directions and images will use the
smallest, #4 plane, and these can be applied simply and directly to the larger planes.
1 Plane body
2 Sole
Knob
4 Handle
5 Frog
6 Plane iron
7 Mouth
Picture 1: Juuma Smoothing Plane # 4
The flat sole, the bottom part of the cast iron body, glides over the surface of the wood workpiece. The
wooden knob and handle are held in the hands and used to push the plane in use. Which hand used on
which part does not matter -- these planes are in principle equally useable by either right- or left- handed
people.
The iron is fixed to the “frog”, the wedge-shaped brass part, which holds it firmly at a 45° angle to the sole
with the edge projecting slightly through a wide slot in the sole, the mouth, which allows the shavings to pass
out of the plane.
Juuma Bench Planes Dieter Schmid Werkzeuge GmbH, Berlin – www.fine-tools.com P. 2
