Riflard (French Roughing Plane)

identity

• name: riflard — in woodworking, a French roughing plane. CNRTL derives the word from rifler plus the suffix -ard and records the woodworking sense from 1622 [CNRTL]. (The earlier one-word gloss "scratch, scrape, or rasp away" is tied to that derivation, not offered as an exact translation.)
• definition (the reviewer blockers 2, 3): a woodworking plane with a rounded or cambered cutting edge, used to remove heavy shavings and reduce high areas, cup, bow or twist during hand stock preparation [ENC-R][CNRTL][BLB]. The Encyclopédie's RIFLARD article describes a two-handled plane used by joiners and other woodworkers to rough work, especially warped or knotty wood, with a slightly rounded iron for heavier shavings, and says riflards vary in length and width [ENC-R]. CNRTL calls it a large convex-bladed plane, smaller than the varlope, with two handles [CNRTL].
• size — dated examples, not a rule: CNRTL quotes Nosban's 1857 Manuel menuisier for a body of about 325 mm [CNRTL]; a period apprenticeship textbook gives 58 cm with a 40–42 mm iron [RF6]; one practitioner's measured specimens run 570–580 mm [RF12]; ARCOMA shows objects labelled or discussed as riflards at 580 and 640 mm (and a demi-varlope at 300 mm), while warning that size does not cleanly settle classification [ARC7]; a collector blog measures 480 and 512 mm bodies [RF21]. Historical and regional examples vary substantially.
• contre-fer (chipbreaker): some later examples carry one [ARC7][RF3]; the Encyclopédie's description specifies the rounded iron but no chipbreaker [ENC-R]. Confirm the configuration of the actual plane. It is not a defining feature.
• sole: flat in the showcased woodworking sequence [BLB]; distinguish adjacent curved-sole planes.

disambiguation — not the same tool (the reviewer blocker 4)

Matching rule: require a trade context (woodworking / joinery / carpentry) before returning this entry for "riflard."

✦ How NOT to use it

dangerous — operating controls (holding finding, rebuilt)

This is a sharp-edged plane pushed with substantial forward force on rough, sometimes unstable stock. The hazard class is not empty [FWW][DBE][the reviewer safety notes]:

• Secure the work with a vise, stops, dogs or clamps — but do not clamp a warped board so hard that it flexes flat (the board deforms under the pressure and springs back once released) [BLB][FWW].
• Inspect before use: body, sole, wedge, iron, contre-fer if present, and handles.
• Keep the iron sharp and set a manageable cut. A dull or over-projected iron demands more force and can catch [FWW][DBE].
• Keep hands behind and clear of the mouth and cutting edge during adjustment, testing, clearing, carrying and inverted use [FWW][DBE].
• Do not feel-test the edge or clear packed shavings with fingers.
• Retract or remove the iron for transport and maintenance as appropriate; store it so the edge cannot be contacted.
• Check reclaimed stock for nails, screws, staples and embedded grit before planing.
• Stable stance and suitable bench height [DBE].
• Sharpening: use controls appropriate to the stones or grinder used.

Research note: targeted searches found no riflard-specific injury account. That is a research result, not a risk assessment; the controls above stand on the tool's mechanism and general hand-plane guidance.

damaging

• over-clamping → flambage: excessive holding pressure deforms the board during planing and it springs back afterward [BLB]; etiennedesthuilliers shims low spots with shavings before clamping [RF14].
• overshooting the intended depth — DînerChocolat [RF6].

beginner-trap

• center hump from uneven stroke coverage (FBang citing Robert Wearing) [RF15].
• converted-plane force: a wider reground iron takes more force per pass [RF15].
• name drift at purchase: "riflard" on a generic cambered jack [RF6].

lineage-misuse

• riflard / varlope: the eighteenth-century MARQUETERIE passage calls the riflard one of a worker's two varlopes [ENC-M], and modern practitioners disagree on which one "trues" [RF14]. Keep the roles by stage: the riflard removes error fast; the varlope establishes the reference.
• riflard / Schrupphobel or scrub: French forum posters use "riflard" and a Veritas scrub plane interchangeably [RF15]. They overlap; differences in camber, body and cut matter (see matching).
• riflard / other trades' riflards: see disambiguation.

correct use (the reviewer blocker 6 — rewritten to the Bois+ workflow)

• sequence: secure the stock without forcing it flat; use rules or winding sticks to locate high areas and twist; use the riflard to remove them rapidly and reduce cup, bow or twist, with crossed passes, until the piece is no longer twisted; then a longer, straighter-soled plane (varlope) establishes and refines the reference surface to the required tolerance; then a finishing plane [BLB][ARC7].
• surface: the cambered iron leaves a coarse, scalloped surface and the shorter sole is less self-referencing than a varlope, but the riflard can make a board materially flatter and remove wind [BLB]. Practitioners stress output over appearance — Atelier Eustache: "Il n'y a jamais eu d'objectif d'esthétisme... plutôt de rendement" [RF15].
• strokes (the reviewer should-fix): short or diagonal/cross-grain passes are common for rapid localized removal; as the surface approaches flat, pass length and direction may change. The varlope is preferred for long self-referencing truing passes [BLB].
• process terms: dégrossir — roughing, removing bulk; corroyer — preparing stock to required faces and dimensions; dégauchir — removing wind/twist or establishing a plane face. The tools take part in a sequence; they do not map one-to-one onto one verb each.

✦ matching — for the app's read

• trade discriminator (required): woodworking / joinery / carpentry. Do not return this entry for plaster, stone, metal or textile contexts.
• does: removes high areas and coarse material quickly from rough or distorted stock; reduces cup, bow and twist ahead of truing.
• suits: hand preparation of rough-sawn or reclaimed boards before a varlope and a finishing plane; a hand-tool-only shop's first roughing stage.
• pairs with: winding sticks or straightedges/rules (diagnosis — they locate error; the plane removes it) [BLB]; workholding that does not distort the board; a longer truing plane (varlope/jointer); a finishing plane.
• overlaps with (not automatic substitutes): a cambered jack or fore plane, or a scrub plane / Schrupphobel. Interchangeability depends on sole length, camber, iron width, mouth and cap-iron configuration, stock condition and required removal rate. (The reviewer minor: "overlaps the roughing roles often assigned to jack or fore planes" — those names themselves vary in length and setup.)
• not-for (IF/THEN): IF the surface must be a finish face, a joinery reference face or a glue-up mating surface at fine tolerance, THEN follow with a longer truing plane and a finishing plane; the riflard's scalloped surface is a stage, not the result.
• access (mandate rule — no beginner verdict): use requires instruction in workholding that does not flex the stock, reading twist with winding sticks, setting a manageable cut, hand position relative to the mouth and edge, and sharpening a cambered iron (named by practitioners as harder freehand than a straight edge [RF15]).
• revival: current courses and books teach hand corroyage around this tool [RF14].

anatomy

Terms from ARCOMA (citing Bouillot, Chatellard & Parent, Les Rabots, 2010) and French Wikipedia [RF3][RF8]; features vary by maker and period.

• fût — body; cormier classically, also chêne vert, hêtre or sorbier.
• fer — iron, rounded/cambered; widths of about 30–50 mm across sources.
• contre-fer — chipbreaker, present on some examples [ARC7]; ARCOMA dates general adoption on French wooden bench planes to the late 18th century.
• coin — wedge. lumière — mouth. semelle — sole (flat in the cited sequence). nez / talon — toe / heel. joue — cheek.
• poignée / corne — rear handle and/or front horn; riflard à corne is a recognized variant [RF3].
• mechanism (the reviewer mech. notes): a cambered iron concentrates the cut and permits heavier localized removal; cut aggression also depends on projection, iron width, bedding, mouth clearance, sharpness, wood and user force. A contre-fer may affect shaving control but is not a universal component.

variations (living)

• riflard à corne — horn-gripped [RF3].
• dedicated wooden riflards — maker-marked specimens (Goldenberg, Coulaux & Cie, others) [RF3][RF21].
• converted metal bench planes (the reviewer should-fix): some practitioners convert a jack or bench plane by adding camber and, where necessary, opening the mouth [RF15]. Compatibility checks: sole length, mouth opening, tote/horn ergonomics, iron width (wider takes more force per pass — Steph331, Didier [RF15]), cap-iron setup, and available adjustment. (No prevalence claim.)

trades

• menuiserie / ébénisterie — hand corroyage [RF14][BLB].
• charpente — ARCOMA documents riflard/demi-varlope-class planes in its carpentry chapter [ARC7].

lineage

• regional traditions with overlapping roles (the reviewer should-fix): the French riflard, the English/American cambered jack or fore plane, and the German Schrupphobel are regional tool traditions occupying overlapping rough-stock-preparation roles. No transmission study is cited, so no claim of independent invention or direct descent is made. They differ in typical degree of camber, body and handle tradition (two handles or horn on the riflard), and intended cut [ENC-R][RF9][RF10].
• Gallo-Roman depictions: French Wikipedia, citing Paul Feller, says many two-handled planes on Gallo-Roman monuments "belong to the riflard family" [RF8]. Encyclopedia footnote to a monograph — LOW-MEDIUM; broad context.
• varlope — the longer truing plane that follows (see Jointer Plane for the French equivalent).
• cross-border trade: ARCOMA photographs a French-collected horn-gripped plane in this size class stamped by the German maker Ulmia (1925–1950 mark) [RF3].

history

• eighteenth century (the reviewer blocker 1): the RIFLARD article defines the tool (above) [ENC-R]; the MARQUETERIE plate explanation states that each worker has two varlopes, one called riflard, which "sert à corroyer" [ENC-M]. (The previously quoted wording "sert pour ébaucher," and its attribution to the VARLOPE article, were wrong and are withdrawn. For the exact passage, read the Wikisource transcription of MARQUETERIE.) No precedence interval over Roubo is claimed: Roubo's L'Art du menuisier is catalogued 1769–1775 [BNF], but no specific Roubo riflard plate has been verified.
• makers and catalogues: Peugeot Frères (plane irons from 1825) and Goldenberg (wooden plane bodies from 1893 at Tronville) [RF12][RF19][RF20]; Peugeot's 1904 and Goldenberg's 1927 catalogues list "varlopes et riflards" together [RF12].
• 1970s catalogue (the reviewer should-fix — descriptive): a 1970s Goldenberg catalogue offers the riflard in a single 42 mm iron width at 530 mm [RF12]. The contributor dneis reads this as "ça sent la fin de l'outil monté en bois" — his interpretation; no broader production or sales evidence is cited.
• compagnonnage: the idiom pousser la doucine is documented for a molding plane [RF13]; nothing riflard-specific is claimed.

✦ human side

• dneis (L'Air du Bois) — measured collection: riflard iron 40–42 mm, body 570–580 mm, ~2,400 g; varlope 44–55 mm iron, 677–715 mm body [RF12].
• a live practitioner disagreement, kept: Guilh63 — "le riflard est le rabot le plus important... c'est lui qui te permettra d'enlever la matière et de dégauchir"; sylvainlefrancomtois — "on dégauchit à la varlope, pas au rabot" [RF14]. The Bois+ workflow below shows both are partly right: the riflard removes twist; the varlope establishes the reference face.
• teaching today: Sébastien Gros (Le travail du bois aux outils à main, Eyrolles); La Manufacture Atelier Bois's two-day "Corroyer aux outils à main" course [RF14].
• trade press: Bois+ Le Bouvet, "Le corroyage aux outils à main" (Hugues Hovasse; technique by Samuel Mamias) [BLB].
• name drift: DînerChocolat notes retailers labelling any cambered No. 5-style plane "riflard" [RF6].

✦ proof of existence

• Encyclopédie — RIFLARD article and MARQUETERIE plate explanation [ENC-R][ENC-M].
• CNRTL — woodworking use from 1622; 1857 Nosban example [CNRTL].
• dated catalogues — Peugeot Frères 1904; Goldenberg 1927 and 1970s [RF12].
• maker-marked, measured specimens — e.g. walnut riflard 512 × 57 mm, iron 38 mm; riflard 480 × 61 mm, iron 50 mm; Goldenberg-marked cormier riflard, iron 42 mm [RF3][RF21]; stamps including Coulaux & Cie, L.F. Sangnier, J. Bertheaume, Fastenrath, E. Muller, Aux Mines de Suède, Thivel et Béréziat [RF3][RF21].
• museum, partial: the Musée des Arts et Métiers' 1783 joiner's-workshop model names "rabots, varlopes et autres trusquins" — varlope, not riflard [RF22].
• (Negative-search claims — "no patent found, none expected," museum absences — are moved out of the evidence; see research note.)

references

terminology — source by source (the reviewer should-fix: one table, no single canonical ontology)

The modern teaching order rabot < riflard < varlope is one teaching model, not the canonical ontology; whether demi-varlope is a synonym or a distinct tool depends on the source.

research note (search scope, not evidence)

Searches during the build (French and English, web and forum, Aug 2026) found no riflard-specific patent, museum accession record, compagnonnage source, regional-variation source or injury account. Scope was not formally documented, so none of these absences is used as a finding.

The reviewer's corrections (15)

• BLOCKER — Exact claim: “The 18th-century Encyclopédie ... article ‘VARLOPE’ ... [states] ‘chaque ouvrier a deux v …
• BLOCKER — Exact claim: “a mid-size ... French roughing/fore plane, ~57–58cm long” and “body 570–580mm long.”
• BLOCKER — Exact claim: “a chipbreaker-carrying, gently cambered plane” and “rough-removes stock fast via a gently …
• BLOCKER — Exact claim: The entry presents “Riflard” solely as a woodworking bench plane.
• BLOCKER — Exact claim: “Genuinely and fully empty” dangerous class because targeted searches found no riflard-spe …
• BLOCKER — Exact claim: “riflard first (bulk, uneven removal, no regard for final flatness)” and “cannot replace: …
• SHOULD-FIX — Exact claim: The woodworking riflard, English/American jack plane, and German Schrupphobel are “three i …
• SHOULD-FIX — Exact claim: “Full-length continuous shaving ... [is] not-for.”
• SHOULD-FIX — Exact claim: Converting a No. 3–5 plane is a “near-universal named-practitioner preference.”
• SHOULD-FIX — Exact claim: “modern three-tier hierarchy (rabot < riflard < varlope)” and “demi-varlope” as either a s …
• SHOULD-FIX — Exact claim: “a genuine, dated commercial-decline data point” inferred from a 1970s catalogue's single …
• SHOULD-FIX — Exact claim: “no patent found — and none expected” and the repeated museum/patent/search absences.
• SHOULD-FIX — Exact claim: The repeated labels “directly fetched,” “independently corroborated by Hewn,” “research su …
• SHOULD-FIX — Exact claim: Reference tags such as RF1–RF3 point broadly to “https://www.arcoma.fr,” and several other …
• MINOR — Exact claim: “same functional slot the Jack Plane holds” and repeated use of “jack/fore plane” as if th …