Compass Plane (Circular Plane)

Identity

• Name: Compass Plane, also Circular Plane (Stanley's trade name for its metal production models). "Compass plane" and "circular plane" overlap historically; treat model names and trade terms as aliases, not proof of identical construction. Not to be confused with the unrelated Compass Saw (Tool Corpus/Compass Saw (Keyhole Saw)), a drawing compass, or a wheelwright's marking compass.
• Family/category: A hand plane whose longitudinal sole geometry is made or adjusted to register on curved wooden work that a flat-soled bench plane cannot follow. Record four fields separately, because they vary independently:
  • Body material: wood, or metal (cast iron and steel).
  • Sole / face construction: solid sole shaped into the body; or a flexible spring-steel face plate attached to the body.
  • Longitudinal curvature: fixed (one radius), or adjustable (convex, flat, concave within a range).
  • Adjustment mechanism, if any: an adjustable toe block on some wooden planes; Evans's curved links and set-screws (1864); Bailey's arms through rocking shafts with set-screws (1871); Clark's coupled levers and segment-gears worked by one screw (1877, the No. 113 type); other makers' own systems (e.g. Sargent).
  • Transverse sole shape is a fifth, separate axis: a round-both-ways chair-seat plane is not mechanically the same as a flat-across flexible-faced No. 113.
• One-line: A plane built to follow a curve rather than a straight line, either by a sole made to one curve or by a flexible steel face bent, within the model's safe adjustment range, to approximate the curve of the work.
• Earliest dated anchor found: Science Museum Group (UK), Object 1954-155, "Compass plane," dated 1717, wood and steel, "used for smoothing concave surfaces," catalogued as "screw in type, front holding knob missing," 92 × 180 × 92 mm. The record supports the name, date, materials and concave-smoothing use. It does not say whether the curvature is fixed or adjustable, or that it was one of a pair. https://collection.sciencemuseumgroup.org.uk/objects/co45831/compass-plane
• Earliest adjustable flexible-face evidence found: George Franklin Evans of Norway, Maine. US 34,248 was granted January 28, 1862; his US 41,983, "Improvement in Plane-Stocks," granted March 22, 1864, describes "Improvements in the Plane that was patented January 28, 1862," with "the spring face-plate to be curved either convexly or concavely on its outer surface," set by curved links locked with set-screws, "readily adjusted to plane any circular, concave, or convex piece of wood."

How NOT to use it (the heaviest section)

not-for

• Curves outside the model's radius or cross-sectional capacity (Schürch), or areas the sole cannot reach.
• Creating a curve from flat stock: rough it first by another controlled method (Orr; Nicholas Lawrence).
• Stock that cannot be secured without distorting it.

dangerous

A compass plane is an edged hand tool, and an antique adjustable one is also a loaded flexible mechanism. No compass-plane-specific injury or accident account was located in the forums and sites searched for the original entry; that is a research result, not a risk assessment. The hazards below are those of any hand plane plus those of a flexible sole, as set out in the review and Fine Woodworking's handplane safety manual.

• Contact with the iron during use, adjustment, sharpening and storage. Controls: keep hands clear of the mouth and cutting edge; when a small piece must be worked across an inverted plane, Fine Woodworking says to "hold the plane firmly and move the workpiece across the blade" and "be very careful to keep fingers clear of the blade"; retract or cover the iron for handling and storage, and store so the edge and the flexible sole are protected. A reader note on the same page: "Never sharpen or remove a blade in open-toed shoes, sandals or bare feet."
• Work moving under the plane. Control: "Secure the workpiece before planing, either with a vise, clamps, a bench stop, or a bench hook" (Fine Woodworking), without distorting the curved part.
• Loss of control from a dull or deep-set iron and excess force. Control: "Keep the plane iron (blade) sharp. You won't have to push as hard" (Fine Woodworking); set a light, controlled cut and work short sections.
• Pinch points while curvature is changed. Control: adjust curvature off the work, with the cutter protected and fingers out of the links, levers and gears.
• Failure of old flexible soles, links, pivots, fasteners, castings, totes or adjustment gears under load. Controls: before use, inspect the iron, sole, rivets and fasteners, links, pivots, gears, castings and handles for cracks, deep pitting, looseness or wear, and check that the iron and cap iron belong to the model; do not force a seized slide or a cracked antique mechanism; stop rather than lever it free. Wear eye protection where chips or brittle-part failure are credible (the review).
• Sharp machined edges on new planes. Fine Woodworking: "Use sandpaper to break the sharp machined edges on new planes" to avoid nicks and scrapes.

damaging

• Rust at the sole's pivot pins, risking a cracked flexible sole. "user-310309" (Fine Woodworking forum, "Compass Plane Question," 2004): "The rust is close enough to the pins that hold it to the front and back sides of the adjustment mechanism and I'm afraid that at some point it will weaken and bust." JohnWW noted no replacement-sole source; store dry, wax pitted areas, don't force a repair on an old one.
• Fitting a No. 3 bench plane's chipbreaker to a No. 113. Jim Koepke (Sawmill Creek, 2022): "One common problem with the #113 is the chip breaker gets swapped with one from a #3. They are different."
• A seized dovetail slide forcing load onto the pivots. Wallybois Woodworking blog (single-author, MEDIUM confidence): "If the compass plane dovetail slide is rigid it will put undue force on the toe and heel pivots." Mechanically consistent with the rust-at-the-pins report.
• Forcing the sole beyond smooth travel to chase a curve outside the model's range: risks bending or cracking the face and straining old links and gears.

beginner-trap

• Assuming the plane is broken when it won't take a fine shaving, rather than learning the wedge-and-taper setting (Mike Cornwall, 2019).
• Owning it for years without learning to use it (Mike Holbrook, an experienced user).
• Expecting it to carve a curve from scratch. Nicholas Lawrence: the Stanley compass planes he had seen "were being used to refine a rough shape, not to create it from scratch"; Mike Cornwall: "this plane is a lot happier following a concave contour than creating one."
• Confusing subtypes. Bob Glenn self-corrects on realizing his plane is radiused in both directions ("a different animal") from another poster's flat-across type.

lineage-misuse

• Treating the compass plane and the Travisher as interchangeable. Galbert chooses the travisher for most seat work; the tools control the cut differently.
• Treating the wedge-set wooden form and the screw-adjusted metal form as the same adjustment logic. The 2019 Sawmill Creek thread is a user expecting a wooden plane to adjust like a metal one.
• Treating a howel or stoup plane as a compass plane, or the reverse. Functional analogy only (Hack).
• Interchanging parts with an ordinary flat bench plane (the No. 113 / No. 3 chipbreaker swap).

Correct use

Genuinely good at: fairing long, sweeping curves in furniture work, including the final smoothing of a curve in Schürch's workflow ("still unchallenged when it comes to smoothing long, sweeping curves"); fairing uniform and changing-radius curves by repeated small curvature adjustments; and, in some named Windsor workflows, refining a chair seat between scorp and travisher. It can rough or fair depending on iron set, radius, stock and workflow.

Named practitioners differ on its job. Schürch uses it to smooth and fair. Bob Glenn (Sawmill Creek, 2019) says "the compass plane is not intended to take thin shavings, but used to rough out the final shape as a scrub plane would on a flat surface." Steve Demuth (Sawmill Creek, 2022) says it earns its keep "as long as 1) we're talking a fairly large radius in the curves, and 2) the material being used machines easily... On large radius convex curves it's not an improvement over a block plane." These are different workflows, not a prohibition.

Working method.

• Establish the rough curve first by another controlled method. Orr: "the initial arc is established, perhaps with a saw or other means," then trued in small sections. The plane registers on and fairs an existing curve; it does not efficiently create one from flat stock (Nicholas Lawrence and Mike Cornwall agree, below).
• Match the sole to the work within the model's safe adjustment range, adjusting off the work, incrementally, and never forcing the mechanism beyond smooth travel.
• Work short sections, checking for chatter and full registration. Orr: "It is virtually impossible to plane a full radius of size without having chatter."
• Re-adjust as the radius changes (Schürch's micro-adjusting).

Setup for the wedge-and-taper wooden form: tap the iron to retract, tap the wedge to advance and firm, tap the body's rear to retract further. Nicholas Lawrence's explanation took Mike Cornwall from 0.010" shavings on pine to 0.003" on maple and walnut.

Sharpening. Follow the exact model's iron geometry, or keep a serviceable existing bevel, unless authoritative instructions for that model support a change. (One current model's stated bedding is 55 degrees, per Peck Tool's Kunz listing.) No generic grind and hone angle is prescribed here.

Safety and handling (see How NOT to use it, Dangerous): secure the work; sharp iron, controlled cut; hands clear of the mouth and edge; adjust curvature off the work; protect the edge in storage.

Matching (the workbench's first read)

• Does: planes and fairs a longitudinally curved wooden surface, concave or convex, that a flat-soled bench plane cannot register against. An adjustable flexible-faced model does this across a finite range of curves within its safe adjustment range; a fixed wooden plane does it at one curve.
• Record for matching: fixed or adjustable longitudinal curvature; convex/concave capability; transverse sole shape; body and sole material; adjustment mechanism; safe radius range; cutter width and bedding; intended trade; and whether the tool is for rough shaping, fairing, or both in a named workflow.
• Suits: furniture curved-surface fairing (cabriole legs, curved aprons, crest rails, handrails, router templates); Windsor chair-seat refining in some named workflows (others skip it); boat and chair work (Highland's Kunz listing: "Excellent for boat and chair building").
• Kit-fit — pairs with: in one named chairmaking sequence, gutter adze and scorp before it, Travisher and curved card scraper after (Bob Glenn).
• Substitutes / substituted by (at their evidenced scope): a spokeshave and card scraper for gentler one-off curves (Richard Coers, Sawmill Creek, 2022: "for a headboard a smooth and fair curve will get the job done. Spokeshave and card scraper will do fine."); a travisher for chair-seat hollows (Galbert); a rasp, scraper, sanding block or purpose-made carving tool for curves the plane cannot register on. Powered carving tools are not listed as substitutes. An angle grinder or circular saw is not an equivalent: their discs, guarding, dust, workholding, kickback and training requirements differ radically, and a circular saw is not a free-form carving tool. If a powered roughing method is ever added, it must name the exact tool, accessory, cut strategy, guarding, workholding and dust controls from a documented source.
• Not-for: curves tighter than, or outside, the model's radius or cross-sectional capacity (Schürch: "there is a limit to how tight a curve it can handle"); areas the sole cannot reach; stock that cannot be held or cut safely. A single gentle curve where setup cost is not worth it is a practitioner judgment (Steve Demuth: "you may expend your whole month's share of cussing learning the ropes on the compass plane" for one Sheraton headboard), not a prohibition.
• Negative matches: compass saw, drawing compass, wheelwright's compass, flat-soled bench plane, transverse hollow-and-round moulding planes, travisher, howel, stoup plane, backing-out plane, unless their own entries cross-reference the functional analogy.
• Access: mixed. Mike Cornwall (Sawmill Creek, 2019) assumed his wooden plane was defective at 0.010" shavings until the wedge technique was explained; Mike Holbrook (Sawmill Creek, 2016), an experienced hand-tool user: "I just have not learned how to make it work for me yet." The beginner difficulty is mostly in setup and diagnosis. New: Kunz No. 113-style (limited retail availability, backorders). Vintage: Stanley, Record and others' adjustable planes. Fixed wooden or maker-built forms: separately.
• Revival: a maker picks one up for long fair curves a spokeshave struggles to keep true. New production exists but is thin (Kunz); most users work from restored vintage Stanley, Record or Crown examples.

Anatomy

Adjustable flexible-faced metal planes (from the Evans, Bailey and Clark patents and the Kunz listings; mechanisms differ by maker and type):

• Stock/body: the main casting.
• Flexible face (sole): a thin spring-steel plate attached to the underside (Bailey: secured near the centre; Kunz: "dovetailed into its cast iron body") that bends convex or concave.
• End connections: curved links with set-screws (Evans 1864); arms through rocking shafts with set-screws (Bailey 1871); linked rocking levers on shafts kept in step by segment-gears, worked by one adjusting screw (Clark 1877, No. 113 type; Kunz: "toothed side gearings").
• Scale: a graduated scale is documented on the No. 113 in Stanley's 1934 catalogue [manual, relayed]; Alix Stanley's 1903 indicator-rod patent may not have reached production (Orr).
• Iron, chipbreaker (cap iron), lever cap, cutter adjuster: distinct parts and patent subjects. The iron stays flat; only the face flexes. On the No. 113 the chipbreaker differs from a No. 3's (Jim Koepke, below).

Wooden planes. A wooden body, the iron held by a wedge, the sole shaped to the curve. Some carried an adjustable toe: the Science Museum's Marsden Bros. (Sheffield) foundry pattern, object 1975-247/14, is catalogued as a "Wooden pattern compass plane with adjustable toe stop."

Setting the wedge-and-taper wooden form. Nicholas Lawrence (Sawmill Creek, 2019): a light tap on the tapered iron loosens the wedge to retract the cut; tapping the wedge re-advances and firms the iron; a tap on the rear of the body also retracts it.

Variations (living)

Related, not variants: cooper's howel, stoup plane, backing-out plane, travisher (see Lineage).

Trades (where it appears)

General furniture and cabinetmaking (Schürch); Windsor chairmaking (used by some named practitioners, omitted by others); boatbuilding and shipwrighting (Schürch; Highland's Kunz listing); carriage building (Schürch). Coopering uses related but distinct tools (howel, stoup plane). Wheelwrighting: generic retailer attribution only, not asserted.

Lineage

Ancestors. Lee Valley's tool historian D.S. Orr: before metal planes, "the traditional wooden plane method was to make a purpose-built tool with a fixed radius that was either concave or convex," and "Many also used the spokeshave as a cheaper alternative." Old Woodworking Tools (an aggregator, MEDIUM confidence) describes fixed wooden planes made as convex-soled (for concave work) and concave-soled (for convex work) forms, so a different curve or direction needed a different plane. Dated wooden examples include the Science Museum's 1717 object (above) and a Smithsonian NMAH compass plane marked "Sims," c. 1825 (see Proof of existence).

Contemporaries: the Travisher. The corpus's Travisher entry names the compass plane as a near-relative chairmakers used for seat hollows, quoting Windsor chairmaker Peter Galbert: "the travisher is a more versatile tool, so my compass plane sits rarely used." The difference, by function and control: a travisher normally has fixed curved working geometry, and its cut is strongly controlled by how the hand presents and tilts it; an adjustable flexible-faced compass plane changes its longitudinal sole curvature to register over different arcs. Body materials and constructions vary in both families, and maker-specific exceptions exist. The plain spokeshave is the other contemporary.

A sibling form in the patent record: the compass rabbet plane. Evans's 1864 patent includes "Fig. 5 ... the rabbet and grooving plane," which can "groove or rabbet the same by simply bending the plate G to the desired position": a rabbeting/grooving form of the same flexible-face mechanism, in the same specification.

Related tools and functional analogues (not variants). Garrett Hack, The Handplane Book (Taunton, 1999), excerpted at FineWoodworking.com, writes that the cooper's howel "is really no different from a compass-soled plane attached to a large curved fence that rides along the top of the staves," and names the Stoup Plane, "a convex sole in both directions to work within the doubly curved staves." The analogy is functional. Howels and stoup planes are specialized cooper's tools with fences, trade-specific geometry and a defined place in the barrel-stave sequence (the howel prepares a level hollow for the Croze); they have their own entries and matching boundaries. Backing-out planes (for hollowing planking) are also a separate tool.

Descendants and current production. New manufacture is limited but not absent. Kunz (Germany) makes a No. 113-style plane: Highland Woodworking lists the "Kunz 113 Circular Plane," "A reproduction of Stanley's discontinued 113 with distinctive toothed side gearings," "Made in Germany," with a steel sole that "adjusts concave to convex and is dovetailed into its cast iron body," currently on backorder; Peck Tool lists a "#113 Ship Plane" "by Kunz" with a spring steel sole 260 mm long, a 44 mm iron "bedded at 55 degrees," adjusted "by means of the front knob which activates a gear mechanism on the side of the plane" (both listings read 2026-10-16; prices and stock change). Vintage Stanley, Record and other makers' adjustable planes, and fixed wooden or maker-built forms, remain common alternatives. Whether Lie-Nielsen or Veritas make one was not checked against their current catalogues.

History (Petroski "form follows failure" lens)

The failure the mechanism answers. Curved work meant either a purpose-built single-radius plane for each curve or a spokeshave (Orr, Lee Valley). The adjustable flexible-faced plane lets one tool approximate a range of curves, within its mechanism's limits. Orr: "By 1905, there were more than 15 patents issued for flexible-soled planes."

The patent sequence.

• US 34,248, George F. Evans, January 28, 1862: an adjustable plane stock. DATAMP (as cited in the original entry, not re-read) catalogues it as "the first commercially viable metallic compass plane" and records Roger Smith's observation that Stanley may have bought the operations of the Mitchell firm, a licensed maker of the Evans plane, whose plane "bears a striking resemblance to the mechanism on Stanley's No. 13 compass plane, which entered their product line in 1871." That is a collector's suggestion, not a documented acquisition.
• US 41,983, George F. Evans, March 22, 1864: the improvement patent (above): convex, flat and concave positions, and the rabbet/grooving form.
• US 113,003, Leonard Bailey of New Britain, Connecticut, "Improvement In Plane-Stocks," March 28, 1871: a different flexible-faced mechanism. "B designates the flexible face-plate, which is made of spring-steel, and secured to the under side of the stock A"; arms at each end of the face pass through "rocking shafts c c', which shafts are pivoted in each end of the stock," locked by set-screws, and "The face-plate B may be set with its ends at any point between the two positions herein shown." It is associated with Bailey's and Stanley's circular-plane line (the No. 13); it is not the earliest adjustable flexible face. (Fine Woodworking's statement that the first adjustable-sole compass plane was Bailey's 1871 design conflicts with the Evans patents.)
• US 176,152, Justus A. Traut and Henry Richards, April 18, 1876, assigned to Stanley Rule & Level Co., "Improvement in Bench-Planes": a compound-lever mechanism for holding and adjusting a cutting iron, reissued as RE 7,565 on March 20, 1877 [manual, relayed]. A cutter-adjustment patent used across several Stanley planes; not the circular-plane curvature mechanism, and not a cap-iron alignment patent.
• US 195,480, Henry M. Clark of New Britain, Connecticut, "Improvement in Circular Planes," dated September 25, 1877 (filed August 6, 1877), assigned to Stanley Rule and Level Company: a "connecting mechanism for the two ends of the flexible bottom of a circular plane, so that they necessarily move together." Rocking levers at each end are linked to the face; "The segment-gear on the outer end of the shaft, meshing into a like gear on its fellow shaft, carries the opposite lever," so one adjusting screw drives both ends. This is the core mechanism of the Stanley No. 113. Period No. 113 markings and later type studies reflect several patents [manual, relayed].
• US 738,500, Alix W. Stanley, September 8, 1903: per Orr, the patent aimed "to improve the repeatability of settings as applied on a circular plane," with an indicator rod; Orr adds, "It is unknown whether any of this model plane with the indicator rod were ever manufactured." Orr also calls it "the final version of Bailey's original patent (1871) for a flexible sole plane." Patent intent is not proof of a production feature.

Trade-literature gap. No period trade text (Moxon 1678, Nicholson 1812, Holtzapffel) was read and confirmed to name a compass plane; Salaman's Dictionary of Woodworking Tools was not consulted. An open gap.

Human Side

Forum and magazine accounts are carried from the original entry and were not re-read in this pass. They show how named people work; they are not a single correct sequence.

Windsor chairmaking: named practitioners place the tool differently.

• Bob Glenn (Sawmill Creek, "Help setting up wooden compass plane?", Feb 28 2019): "I use my Crown compass plane a lot when saddling chair seats... I begin with a gutter adze, then go to a scorp, then the compass plane, travisher and curved card scraper if needed."
• Dave Anderson NH (Sawmill Creek, "How do you shape a chair seat?", Mar 23 2005): "I've done Windsor chair seats with the traditional gutter adze, scorp, compass plane, and travisher combination and it works well." He also reports a working chairmaker who roughs out with an angle grinder and finishes with "the compass plane and travisher." That is one maker's powered roughing workflow, reported second-hand; it is not a documented method here and is not offered as a substitute (see Matching).
• Travisher and Inshave document Curtis Buchanan's video series using adze, scorp and travisher with no compass plane, and Galbert's stated preference for the travisher. Some practitioners use the compass plane as a stage between scorp and travisher; others omit it.

Boatbuilding and furniture. Paul Schürch, "Why You Need a Compass Plane," Fine Woodworking #227 (2012): "Long used by shipwrights, carriage builders, and furniture makers, compass planes are still unchallenged when it comes to smoothing long, sweeping curves. They have more mass and momentum than a spokeshave and are faster than sanding." He names cabriole legs, curved furniture parts, router templates, crest rails and curved aprons; "there is a limit to how tight a curve it can handle"; and "I find myself constantly micro-adjusting the curve when using a compass plane," including on changing-radius curves. A WoodenBoat Forum lead on a "backing out plane (type of compass plane)" for hollowing planking was not read and is low-confidence; backing-out planes are a separate tool.

Wheelwrighting: a naming trap. A retailer page (findmytool.co.uk) says compass planes were "traditionally used by wheel-wrights and joiners"; no named wheelwright account corroborates it. The wheelwright's compass is an unrelated marking instrument.

A maker who built them, and after. New England toolmaker Leon Robbins (Crown Plane Co.) built travishers, spoon-bottomed planes and compass planes used at Michael Dunbar's Windsor Institute (Christopher Schwarz, Popular Woodworking, 2007: "If you are one of the thousands of people who have taken a chair class at Michael Dunbar's 'The Windsor Institute,' then you have certainly used one of the travishers or spoon-bottomed planes from Crown Planes"). Robbins sold the business around 1999 to 2001; by 2016 Mike Holbrook (Sawmill Creek) found the Crown site down and Highland's stock out. Unlike the travisher, no living small-maker network for compass planes was found; the current new option found is Kunz (above), and a 2022 Sawmill Creek user complained about its quality, which is one user's experience, not a market verdict.

Proof of existence

• Science Museum Group, Object 1954-155, "Compass plane," 1717, wood and steel, for "smoothing concave surfaces," "screw in type, front holding knob missing." https://collection.sciencemuseumgroup.org.uk/objects/co45831/compass-plane
• Smithsonian NMAH, accession 1977.1101.0481, maker "Sims," c. 1825, beechwood/steel, 7¼" × 2⅝" (carried from the original entry). https://americanhistory.si.edu/collections/object/nmah_654879 A second, undated example by William Ward (1977.1101.0484, beechwood/brass/steel). https://americanhistory.si.edu/collections/object/nmah_654880
• Science Museum Group, Object 1975-247/14, Marsden Bros., Sheffield, "Wooden pattern compass plane with adjustable toe stop" (carried). https://collection.sciencemuseumgroup.org.uk/objects/co432900/wooden-pattern-compass-plane-with-adjustable-toe-stop
• Patents: US 34,248 (Evans, 1862); US 41,983 (Evans, 1864, read); US 113,003 (Bailey, 1871, read); US 176,152 / RE 7,565 (Traut & Richards, 1876/1877, cutter adjustment [manual, relayed]); US 195,480 (Clark, 1877, No. 113 mechanism, read); US 738,500 (Alix W. Stanley, 1903, via Lee Valley).
• Current manufacture: Kunz No. 113-style plane, Highland Woodworking and Peck Tool listings (read 2026-10-16).
• Antique market: a Record No. 020C listed at oldtools.co.uk (carried).
• Not searched: Mid-West Tool Collectors Association and Early American Industries Association archives, beyond the MWTCA article the reviewer cites (not reachable in this pass).

References

The reviewer's corrections (14)

• BLOCKER — 1. Restore ordinary hand-plane and flexible-sole hazards — Exact claim: The dangerous class is declared “genuinely, honestly empty” because no compass-plane-specific accident, kickback, or injury account was found.
• BLOCKER — 2. Remove generic grinder and circular-saw substitution — Exact claim: The matching section says the plane is substituted in modern chairmaking shops by rough-shaping “with an angle grinder or circular saw” before a travisher.
• BLOCKER — 3. Correct the adjustable-plane priority and Bailey patent gap — Exact claim: The entry calls Leonard Bailey's March 28, 1871 patent the “foundational” adjustable flexible-sole patent and repeats Fine Woodworking's statement that the first adjustable-sole compass plane was designed by Bailey in 1871, while saying the patent number could not be found.
• BLOCKER — 4. Add Henry Clark's defining No. 113 patent and repair the Traut attribution — Exact claim: US 176,152, granted to Justus A. Traut and Henry Richards on April 18, 1876, is described as a “cap-iron alignment mechanism used on the Stanley No. 113 Circular Plane.”
• BLOCKER — 5. Separate fixed, adjustable, wooden, and metal construction axes — Exact claim: The entry defines two lineages as “wooden, fixed-curve” and “metal, screw-adjustable,” then says the compass plane's sole is a flat steel plate bent by a mechanism.
• BLOCKER — 6. Correct the current-production and revival claims — Exact claim: The entry says the compass plane “has no confirmed active successor” and a current maker is “almost certainly restoring or buying secondhand,” while elsewhere acknowledging a Kunz reproduction.
• SHOULD-FIX — 7. Narrow what the 1717 museum object proves — Exact claim: Science Museum Group object 1954-155 is called a “pre-industrial wooden, fixed-curve” example proving that fixed wooden planes predate adjustable mechanisms by at least 150 years.
• SHOULD-FIX — 8. Qualify the Alix Stanley scale claim and model table — Exact claim: The anatomy and variation sections say Alix W. Stanley's 1903 US 738,500 added the graduated scale and assign “graduated-scale adjustment” to Stanley No. 20 and No. 20½ across their production ranges.
• SHOULD-FIX — 9. Do not classify howels and stoup planes as compass-plane variants — Exact claim: The variations table lists the cooper's howel and stoup plane as compass-soled variants and describes them as mechanically the same idea.
• SHOULD-FIX — 10. Remove the universal “cast travisher” contrast — Exact claim: The entry says a travisher's sole is “cast to one fixed curve” while the compass plane's sole is flat steel bent by a screw.
• SHOULD-FIX — 11. Repair the “not-for” and finishing-role universals — Exact claim: The compass plane is declared not for the final delicate fairing pass on a chair seat, and practitioner disagreement is treated as three unresolved jobs for the tool.
• SHOULD-FIX — 12. Bound the radius and “one tool replaces a rack” language — Exact claim: The flexible sole bends “to whatever radius the work demands,” works continuously across radii, and replaces a whole rack of fixed-radius planes.
• SHOULD-FIX — 13. Remove generic sharpening angles and calibrate confidence — Exact claim: The correct-use section gives a 25-degree grind and 30-degree hone from one blog, and the overall confidence is MEDIUM-HIGH.
• MINOR — 14. Remove research-process and corpus-position residue — Exact claim: The entry narrates web-search failures, run numbers, which sibling entries were built in which run, model/tool fetching, and internal corpus proof as though these were tool facts.