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I’ve always held the No. 95 edge-trimming plane like a block plane. The lever cap faces up to the sky. The fence of the No. 95 is then vertical.
So I was surprised to see a little tip in the February 1942 issue of The Woodworker (a U.K. woodworking magazine) that showed the plane being used in the opposite manner – the lever cap was vertical.
The text says the tool is “generally used with the wood lying flat on the bench” as shown in the illustration above.
“Huh,” I thought. “That looks odd.” So I tried it this morning.
It is odd. You have to use the plane with a sinister (left-handed) set-up on your bench, as shown in the illustration above and the video below. It feels weird, but not bad-weird. Just regular weird.
Perhaps this is the right way to use the plane, and I’ve been doing it wrong all these years. But I prefer to clamp the board in my face vise and plane the edge that way.
— Christopher Schwarz
Other Links Related to this Post
•The Woodworker magazine has been around since 1901 (Charles H. Hayward was the editor for a long time). The magazine is still going. Check it out at getwoodworking.com
• Patrick Leach’s Blood & Gore site has a lot to say about the No. 95. Read all about it here.
• Are you a plane geek? I’m a plane geek, and I wrote a book about it called “Handplane Essentials.” It’s 312 pages of pure mainline handplane geekery. It would be a great gift for the geek in your life. And shipping is free in the United States. Check it out here.
