Shoulder Plane

identity

• name: Shoulder Plane — no widely used alternate English name found. Overlaps with the Rabbet Plane (rebate plane) family; Veritas itself describes its shoulder plane as "a specialized rabbet plane" [S5].
• family / category: Planing tools → joinery-fitting planes. Defining functional traits: a cutter that reaches the working side and accurate reference surfaces (sole and sides square to each other). Sits alongside the Block Plane and Router Plane as a corner-reaching specialist [S5][S8 cross-link].
• one-line: A hand plane whose full-width cutter reaches the adjacent corner, with sole and sides ground square, used to fit a joint one fine shaving at a time. It can run on either its sole or a ground side; the chosen body surface registers the cut — side on the tenon cheek to trim a shoulder; sole on the surrounding work to pare a cheek, a rabbet floor or a narrow dado bottom [S5][S24][S26].
• modern standard, stated separately: most modern Western shoulder planes use a bevel-up cutter on a low bed, with sole and sides ground square and the cutter reaching the working side — e.g. Lie-Nielsen No. 073, 18° bed + 25° bevel; Veritas medium, 15° bed + 25° bevel [S5][S18]. Historical forms differ: nineteenth-century patents include a two-iron stock that could be wood or metal (US 277,556) and cast-metal forms with side cutting edges (see history) [S23][S25].
• relationship to the rabbet plane: shoulder planes are optimized for controlled fitting into a corner, with square reference faces, fine adjustment, and usually a low bevel-up cutter. Rabbet planes cover a broader family for forming or refining open-sided recesses; some add a fence, depth stop, nicker, skew, alternate cutter position, or bench-plane architecture; plain rabbet planes may have none of these [S5][S9][S22]. The families overlap while differing in optimization and ergonomics.
• relationship to the router plane: a router plane is the stronger choice for leveling a broad recess to a controlled depth referenced from the surrounding surfaces; a shoulder plane can clean narrow dado/rabbet floors, cheeks and corners where its body has continuous support. Neither universally replaces the other [S6 cross-link][S26].

✦ how NOT to use it

• not-for:
  • general smoothing/surfacing, long continuous stock removal [S19][S16].
  • forming a rabbet efficiently when a fence, depth stop or volume removal is needed — use a suitable rabbet or fillister plane [S1][S9].
• dangerous (misuse that injures the user). No shoulder-plane-specific injury account was located. That is a research result, not a risk assessment. The Veritas manual states that the blade is sharp and careless handling can result in serious injury [S26], and Veritas notes traditional shoulder planes can slip from the hand [S5]. The cutting edge and the exposed working-side corner are live sharp edges during insertion, adjustment, use and removal. Controls:
  • handling the blade carelessly — retract the cutter before assembly or disassembly; handle the cutter by its non-cutting surfaces [S24][S26].
  • fingers at the mouth or the exposed side edge — keep fingers away from the mouth and the working-side edge; do not put fingers in front of the mouth or in the plane's forward slip path. Van Dyke's thumb-and-forefinger grip flanking the mouth for setting projection puts fingers near a fresh edge — set projection by sight or with a scrap test instead [S3][S24].
  • unsecured work or an unstable grip — secure the work; use a grip suited to the cut; keep the sole supported and the working side against its reference face to reduce tipping and uncontrolled movement [S5][S29].
  • forcing a heavy cut — begin light; if the plane jams or needs force, stop and check sharpness, projection, mouth, grain and support [S29].
  • testing the edge on a fingertip — never sweep a finger across the cutting edge to judge projection [S24].
  • clamps and hands in the stroke — when using a backing block, keep clamps and hands clear of the stroke [S3].
  • overclamping — the lever-cap screw should be snug; do not overtighten blade set screws, toe-locking screws or mouth-adjustment screws — Veritas warns this can damage the plane or prevent adjustment [S24][S26].
  • unprotected storage — protect blade and body in storage; remove debris, prevent rust, use a sack or wrap if the tool may be jostled [S18][S26].
  • a plane mounted blade-up in a hand-jointer fixture — a distinct operation: rigidly secure the fixture and keep hands away from the stationary exposed edge.
• damaging (misuse that ruins the tool or the work):
  • wrong blade projection. The blade should sit just proud of the working side (a slight, intentional projection that gives a crisp intersection and a very slight undercut) [S24][S26]. Excessive projection, projection on the wrong side, or a non-square edge can score the reference face or leave the joint out of square. A blade set shy of the side leaves a step and fails to clean the corner. (An earlier version warned against any projection beyond the side; that was wrong and contradicted the entry's own anatomy.)
  • a plane whose sole and sides aren't square: "a plane that isn't square will make joints that aren't square"; Van Dyke would reject a new plane on this basis [S3].
  • overtightening the lever cap, set screws, toe or mouth screws — damages the plane or prevents adjustment [S24][S26].
• beginner-trap:
  • heavy cuts during fitting — advance incrementally and test the fit; heavy cuts belong to rabbet forming, a different task [S3][S29].
  • skipping registration — the plane's accuracy depends on the body surface held against the reference face, not just a sharp iron [S3].
  • an iron honed out of square — with little lateral range on many models, an out-of-square edge gives unequal shavings; Van Dyke's two-shaving scrap test catches it [S3][S26].
• misuse by analogy to related tools:
  • treating a bullnose as if it had a shoulder plane's registration length — "more likely to wander" [S4]; and forcing a full shoulder plane into a stopped rebate, where the toe cannot reach the back wall — the job bullnose and chisel-plane configurations exist for [S4].
  • confusing it with a rabbet plane — a Sawmill Creek poster: "they have different bedding angles, and the bevels are in opposite directions, but they seem to do many of the same things" [S17]. The overlap is real (see identity); choose by optimization — precision fitting and corner access versus efficient formation with fence or stop [S5][S22].
  • treating it as a router plane for broad recess floors — a router plane holds a depth referenced from surrounding surfaces across a broad recess; a shoulder plane is the better fit only for narrow, supported floors [S6][S29].

correct use

Brief — a shoulder plane fine-tunes a joint that is already nearly right; it does not create the joint [S19].

• what it's good at: trimming tenon shoulders and cheeks to a scribed line; tuning rabbets; cleaning narrow dado and groove floors and walls; fine trimming of breadboard tenons; correcting inside joinery corners; paring proud end grain where the body can register safely [S19][S24][S28].
• choose the reference surface per operation: side on the cheek for shoulder trimming; sole on the surrounding work for cheeks, rabbet floors or narrow recess floors. Choose the orientation that gives continuous support [S24][S26].
• setting the blade: set the cutter parallel to the sole and just proud of the working side, following the model manual; keep the opposite side flush or safely within the body. Set projection by sight or a scrap test — never by sweeping a fingertip across the edge [S24][S26].
• cutting: begin with a light cut and advance incrementally — fine, even shavings; test the fit often [S3][S24]. If shavings jam or the plane needs force, check sharpness, projection, mouth opening, grain direction and support rather than pushing harder [S29]. Taper a correction from the high side to one final full-width pass; use a backing block where exit fibers lack support [S3]. (An earlier version gave "0.002–0.003 in." as a universal joint-trimming threshold, from a synthesized secondary source; that number is removed.)

✦ matching

The workbench's first read.

• does: fits tenon shoulders and cheeks; trues and tunes rabbets; cleans narrow dado and groove floors and walls; trims breadboard tenons; corrects inside corners (and, on convertible models in bullnose or chisel-plane configuration, corners where the toe would block); adjusts tight tongue-and-groove joints; removes machine marks from inside corners a sander can't reach; trims mitered molding after glue-up [S19][S28]. "Because the side of the plane and the sole are square to each other, each face of the corner remains square" [S19].
• suits: the final-fitting stage of joinery after a saw or machine has done the rough cut; drawer, door and case fitting; rabbet and tongue-and-groove work; fine furniture and cabinetmaking where the job is "sneaking up" on a fit, not stock removal [S19][S21].
• kit-fit:
  • pairs with: tenon saw (this corpus's Tenon Saw entry notes cheek and shoulder cuts "cleaned up with a shoulder plane or router plane afterward") [T-cross]; marking gauge and knife line [S19]; paring chisel [P-cross]; rabbet plane; bullnose plane; chisel plane; router plane; a backing block [S3]; a straightedge fence clamped to the work for small rabbets [S19].
  • router overlap: shoulder plane for narrow floors, walls, cheeks and corners; router plane for broad, depth-controlled recess floors referenced from surrounding surfaces [S6 cross-link][S29].
  • rabbet overlap: shoulder plane for precision fitting and corner access; a suitable rabbet, fillister or bench-rabbet plane for efficient formation or repeatable width and depth [S5][S9].
  • alternatives: a paring or bench chisel for shoulder trimming — freehand, with less built-in squareness control [B-cross][S17].
• not-for (project-keyed): general face smoothing; long unsupported surfacing; bulk stock removal with a tightly set fine mouth — Rogers reports the narrow mouth clogs on sustained rabbet-style work [S16][S19].
• access: a specialized, optional purchase, dependent on joinery workflow, available substitutes (chisel, rabbet plane, router plane), hand size and preferred size — Rogers favours small planes; Lie-Nielsen recommends its large one [S16][S18][S21]. Check sole-to-side squareness with a machinist's square when buying [S21]. It carries real sharp-edge and slip hazards (see dangerous). (The earlier "not a beginner tool … not physical danger" label is removed.)
• revival: a buying guide featuring Bill Anderson makes the case — "they last forever… end grain is a shoulder plane's happy place" — and treats restoring a vintage example as a project in itself [S21]. Current makers (Lie-Nielsen, Veritas) and an active vintage market show present availability [S5][S13][S18].

anatomy

• sole and side walls — ground flat and square to each other, which Veritas calls "an essential feature for a shoulder plane"; both sole and side register against the work in use [S5].
• the blade — full width, set parallel to the sole and just proud of the working side: Veritas instructs that the adjacent blade edge project slightly from the body on the working side so the plane makes a crisp intersection and a very slight undercut [S24][S26]. Bed and bevel vary by model (Lie-Nielsen No. 073: 18° + 25°; Veritas medium: 15° + 25° = 40°) [S5][S18]. The Veritas manual also covers cutter squareness and blade-bed deflection [S26].
• the mouth — adjustable on many models via a movable toe [S5].
• the lever cap — bronze with captive-nut tension on Lie-Nielsen; a pivoting-knob cap on Veritas. Snug, not torqued down [S5][S18][S24].
• depth and lateral adjustment — captive-nut adjuster (Lie-Nielsen); set screws bearing on either side of the blade (Veritas) [S5][S10].
• removable toe (some models) — on convertible models the nose comes off for bullnose or chisel-plane work; Veritas notes limited access with the toe removed [S10][S13][S24].
• grip features — Veritas notes that traditional shoulder planes can slip from the hand and designed through-holes to reduce that risk [S5].

Subtype fields for matching: working_side, sole_use, side_use, bed_angle, bevel_orientation, mouth_adjustable, toe_removable, bullnose_convertible, chisel_convertible, lateral_adjustment, blade_side_projection, supported_operations.

variations (living)

Market observations are dated; check current pages before buying.

• Small shoulder plane — e.g. Lie-Nielsen No. 041, 5⅝ in. long, 5/8 in. wide; the size Rogers considers genuinely useful [S18][S16].
• Medium shoulder plane — e.g. Lie-Nielsen No. 042 (7¾ in., ¾ in.) or the Veritas Medium (7 in., 11/16 in., 15°/25°); Veritas's Canadian page showed a mix of "no longer available" and priced variants when the reviewer checked (2026-08-02) [S5][S18].
• Large shoulder plane — e.g. Lie-Nielsen No. 073 (8¼ in., 1¼ in.), US$350 at the reviewer's check, 2026-08-02; Lie-Nielsen calls it "the best size to start with" — the maker's recommendation, which Rogers's small-plane preference contradicts [S18][S16]. Veritas lists a large shoulder plane for breadboard tenons, shoulders and cheeks, with multiple blade options [S28].
• Vintage Stanley Nos. 92, 93, 94, 96 — collector market; No. 93 convertible to bullnose per collector sources [S13].
• Record 073 / 041 / 042 — discontinued in the 1990s; the design basis for Lie-Nielsen's line [S1][S18].
• British infill shoulder planes (Spiers, Norris, Mathieson, Preston) — the premium nineteenth- to early-twentieth-century tier, still collected [S1].
• Veritas shoulder planes with set-screw lateral registration — the adjustment features of US 7,117,602 [S10][S5].

trades

• woodworking / cabinetmaking — joinery fitting: mortise-and-tenon, rabbets, dadoes, drawer and door fitting, mitered molding [S19][S3].
• lutherie — neck-joint fitting with paring chisels and a shoulder plane [P-cross].
• Japanese woodworking — the kiwa-ganna occupies an overlapping niche by a skewed-blade mechanism [K-cross][S11].
• No source located placing the shoulder plane in timber framing or non-woodworking trades.

lineage

Three separate relationships, not one descent chain:

• Historical interpretation (attributed). Joel Moskowitz argues that the classic metal shoulder plane developed from metal rebate planes: Robert Towell of London made metal infill rebate planes in quantity in the 1820s–30s, and around the 1850s the body was rounded, finger holds cut, and the bed lowered, giving a distinct shoulder-plane type; he names James Syme of London as "probably" the first maker of shoulder planes [S1]. This is a named specialist's interpretation from his examined collection, not a universal survey.
• Functional continuum (not genealogy). Shoulder, bullnose and chisel planes sit on a continuum from more to less forward support ahead of the cutter. The tradeoff: "a shoulder plane has extra length in front of the cutting edge to help register the cut and keep it square and straight as you start into the work, while a bullnose doesn't, so is more likely to wander" [S4]. The Bullnose Plane and Chisel Plane have their own entries.
• Specific convertible products and patents. Some bullnose shoulder planes convert to chisel-plane use by removal of the toe; other shoulder planes, bullnose planes and chisel planes are dedicated designs and do not form a universal conversion sequence. Some vintage and current shoulder planes have a removable nose for bullnose work (Stanley No. 93 per collector sources; Record 073) [S13]. US 7,117,602 (assigned to Lee Valley Tools Ltd.) describes a full shoulder-plane embodiment and an alternative bullnose shoulder-plane embodiment; claim 6 covers the bullnose embodiment's conversion to a chisel plane by removing its toe while retaining its lever cap [S10]. A 2006 patent cannot prove nineteenth-century genealogy, and it does not claim a single shoulder plane that becomes a bullnose and then a chisel plane.
• related tools:
  • Moving Fillister Plane — a rabbet plane with integral fence and depth stop; its own entry documents the fillister family [S9].
  • Japanese cousin — kiwa-ganna (際鉋), "edge plane," named in this corpus's Kanna entry as a "skew-bladed rabbet/shoulder plane for cutting into inside corners" [K-cross]. It addresses the same into-the-corner problem with a skewed blade. Details of its geometry and the paired right/left convention rest on search synthesis and are held LOW until a direct source is read [S11].
  • Router plane — see identity; overlapping for narrow floors, distinct for broad depth-referenced floors. A Sawmill Creek thread (Derek Cohen, Bruce Haugen) holds that "a router plane can't be used to trim the shoulders of a tenon" [S6 cross-link, forum LOW–MEDIUM].

Petroski lens — attributed, not universal. Moskowitz writes: "With one exception every metal plane design I know of has a precedent in a wooden plane design. The exception is the shoulder plane. There is no wooden version of a shoulder plane" [S1]. Joel Moskowitz argues that the classic metal shoulder plane is unusual because he knows of no wooden-plane precedent for that form. An 1883 patent (US 277,556) did allow a wood or metal stock for a different shoulder/rabbet-truing design, so the claim stays attributed and limited to the classic form [S1][S23]. Moskowitz also gives three reasons the rebate plane suited shoulder work poorly — bed angle too high for end grain, mouth too wide for fine shavings, body too boxy to grip for cuts in both directions — which are his design reading, not a documented failure event [S1].

history

• origin: no firm invention date or single inventor was located. The documented account is Moskowitz's (see lineage): Towell rebate planes 1820s–30s; shoulder planes emerging around the 1850s; Syme "probably" the first maker [S1, attributed specialist history]. A collector-retail page says shoulder planes "probably didn't appear much before the mid-1800s" — consistent but derivative [S12, LOW].
• the patent record — formal titles corrected.
  • US 127,842 (1872) documents a plane designed to work into the angles made by tenons and shoulders, although it does not use "shoulder plane" as its title [S25].
  • US 269,967 (January 2, 1883), formally titled Bench-Plane, expressly says it concerns "that class of planes known as shoulder-planes" — evidence the class was named and known by then [S25].
  • US 277,556 (May 15, 1883), Daniel M. Fielding, Decatur, Illinois, also formally titled Bench-Plane, describes a two-iron stock "adapted to" truing shoulders or rabbets, the stock of wood or metal, reversing to the opposite blade for grain. DATAMP notes it is "not known to have been produced" and cross-lists it under rabbet and shoulder planes [S23][S25].
  • None of these is claimed here as the first shoulder plane worldwide. (An earlier version called US 277,556 the "earliest patent bearing the tool's exact name, 'Shoulder Plane'"; its formal title is Bench-Plane, and US 269,967 predates it.)
• named makers and dated production:
  • Stanley (Nos. 92, 93, 94, 96) — early-twentieth-century shoulder planes; collector sources describe the No. 93 as steel-bodied, two-piece and convertible to bullnose, with a fine-thread adjuster [S13, collector guide, MEDIUM]. US 645,220, Bench-Plane (Justus A. Traut, March 13, 1900), patents a coarse-and-fine cutter adjuster for low-angle planes — a different-pitch feed screw acting between a fixed guide and a slide. It is not a shoulder-plane-form patent. Secondary tool history associates that adjustment family with several Stanley models; any exact No. 93 attribution needs a separate model-history source [S14][S27].
  • Preston — per Moskowitz, "the first maker of shoulder planes to offer an adjuster," with a cast burlap-pattern rear grip. Record bought Preston's planemaking in the 1930s and made shoulder planes until the 1990s. Lie-Nielsen's No. 073 is based on the Record 073, and its smaller models on the Record 041/042 [S1][S18].
  • Spiers (Stewart Spiers, Ayr) — per Moskowitz, popularized the rounded infill shoulder-plane body; Norris a comparatively late entrant; the infill trade's heyday "from the last quarter of the 19th Century up until World War I" [S1]. A c.1930 Norris 20E, 1¼ in., from Moskowitz's collection is "the most common size found" [S1]. A secondary source says late-1930s Norris production was cottage-scale [S15, title-level, LOW].
• the modern patent record. US 7,117,602 (application US 2005/0060897), inventor Terry Saunders, assigned to Lee Valley Tools Ltd., filed August 9, 2004 (priority to an August 2003 provisional), granted 2006 [S10]. It covers shoulder-plane adjustment features — set screws bearing on opposite sides of the blade for repeatable lateral re-centering, a pivoting depth knob that doubles as a lateral nudge, and a repositionable lever-cap knob — and, in claim 6, a bullnose shoulder plane convertible to chisel-plane configuration by removing its toe without removing the lever cap. It states the problem directly: shoulder planes "are, by nature, very difficult to hold and to manipulate, since no features can permanently project to either side of the body." Specified embodiment: 15° bed + 25° bevel = 40° cutting angle, ductile cast iron, A2 blade Rc 60–62 [S10, patent HIGH within scope].

✦ human side

• a preserved professional disagreement on the tool's value. Bob Van Dyke (Connecticut Valley School of Woodworking) names the shoulder plane one of his three must-have hand planes, for "refining and straightening surfaces, adjusting a shaped edge, and precisely dialing in the fit of a joint one shaving at a time" [S3]. Shannon Rogers (The Renaissance Woodworker) bought shoulder planes early "because pundits recommended them," found them "rarely" used for shoulder trimming, prefers a rabbet plane for most work, and considers only small shoulder planes genuinely useful — "medium/large ones are too bulky and difficult to control" [S16]. Both are named working teachers; the disagreement is kept.
• technique from a named teacher. Van Dyke: testing setup on scrap by comparing two shavings from either side of the iron for equal thickness; referencing off the already-good opposite shoulder; tapering a correction from the high end to one final full-width pass; clamping a backing block flush with the shoulder against exit tearout [S3].
• the luthier's fit. This corpus's Paring Chisel entry names the shoulder plane as the neck-joint fitting partner to the paring chisel in guitar and violin making [P-cross].
• a forum debate on technique. Sawmill Creek threads debate chisel versus shoulder plane for tenon shoulders; some prefer a chisel because it can deliberately undercut a shoulder slightly [S17, forum LOW–MEDIUM].

✦ proof of existence

• patents (formal titles): US 127,842 (1872), US 269,967 Bench-Plane (Jan 2, 1883, naming "shoulder-planes"), US 277,556 Bench-Plane (May 15, 1883, Fielding; not known to have been produced), US 645,220 Bench-Plane (Traut, 1900, a low-angle adjuster, not a shoulder-plane form), US 7,117,602 Shoulder plane (Saunders, assigned to Lee Valley Tools Ltd., 2006) [S10][S23][S25][S27].
• maker attribution (attributed): James Syme of London, "probably" mid-nineteenth century, per Moskowitz's examined collection piece compared with a Towell rebate plane [S1].
• dated production: Norris 20E (c.1930) and Preston adjustable shoulder planes (c.1910–1920), both from Moskowitz's collection; Stanley No. 93 early 1900s onward [S1][S13].
• current manufacture: Lie-Nielsen Nos. 041/042/073 and Veritas shoulder planes (listings as checked 2026-08-02) [S5][S18][S28].
• no museum accession record for a shoulder plane was located; Moskowitz points to a 1996 exhibit ("The Museum of Woodworking Tools," antiquetools.com) as a lead [S1].

references

Grades per the reviewer's 2026-08-02 scheme: patents and manufacturer manuals HIGH within scope; attributed specialist history MEDIUM–HIGH as interpretation; magazines and named teachers MEDIUM for technique; forums LOW–MEDIUM; internal corpus entries are cross-links, not evidence.

• [S1] Joel Moskowitz, "On The Early History of Shoulder Planes," Tools for Working Wood (2009), https://toolsforworkingwood.com/store/blog/88/title/On%20The%20Early%20History%20of%20Shoulder%20%20Planes — Towell/Syme account, Preston/Norris/Spiers history, the no-wooden-precedent observation. (attributed specialist history, MEDIUM–HIGH as interpretation; not proof of universal firsts)
• [S2] Wikipedia, "Shoulder plane." (discovery source only)
• [S3] Bob Van Dyke, "Shoulder Plane Setup and Use," Fine Woodworking. (named teacher, MEDIUM for technique)
• [S4] Search synthesis (woodhungry.com, corroborated by Wikipedia) — bullnose registration-length distinction. (LOW–MEDIUM)
• [S5] Veritas Medium Shoulder Plane, Lee Valley, https://www.leevalley.com/en-ca/shop/tools/hand-tools/planes/shoulder/48430-veritas-medium-shoulder-plane — "specialized rabbet plane," dimensions, sole/side squareness, grip through-holes, mouth, 15° + 25° geometry, set screws, listing state; and Lie-Nielsen product pages. (manufacturer, HIGH within scope; listing state as of 2026-08-02)
• [S6] Router Plane entry in this corpus, citing the Sawmill Creek Cohen/Haugen thread. (cross-link; underlying evidence is forum, LOW–MEDIUM)
• [S8] Block Plane entry in this corpus. (cross-link)
• [S9] msbickford.com, "Fences and Depth Stops: Rabbet Planes vs. Moving Fillisters" — title-level only. (LOW)
• [S10] US 7,117,602 B2 / US 2005/0060897 A1, Shoulder plane, Terry Saunders, assigned to Lee Valley Tools Ltd., https://patents.google.com/patent/US20050060897 — adjustment features, alternative bullnose embodiment, claim 6. (patent, HIGH within scope)
• [S11] Search synthesis (Covington & Sons, Japan Woodcraft Association, Workshop Heaven) — kiwa-ganna mechanism. (LOW, not fetched in full)
• [S12] oldwoodworkingtools.com, wooden rabbet plane page. (collector/retail, LOW)
• [S13] oldwoodworkingtools.com, "Stanley No. 93 Shoulder Plane" guide. (collector guide, MEDIUM)
• [S14] Garage Journal forum + New Britain Industrial Museum, Traut biography. (secondary, LOW–MEDIUM)
• [S15] "Infill (Norris) style planes," Journeyman's Journal (2023), title-level. (LOW)
• [S16] Shannon Rogers, The Renaissance Woodworker, "Shoulder Planes???" and "Rabbet Plane 101." (named teacher, MEDIUM)
• [S17] Sawmill Creek threads, "Difficult Tenon Shoulder Made Easy" / "Rabbet vs. Shoulder Planes." (forum, LOW–MEDIUM)
• [S18] Lie-Nielsen No. 041/042/073 shoulder planes, https://www.lie-nielsen.com/products/small-shoulder-plane-1-073?node=4169&path=joinery-planes — Record/Preston design basis, 18° + 25°, construction, adjustable mouth, care; No. 073 US$350 at 2026-08-02. (manufacturer, HIGH within scope)
• [S19] Chris Gochnour, "9 Reasons to Own a Shoulder Plane," Fine Woodworking #187 (2006). (named craftsman, MEDIUM for technique)
• [S20] (withdrawn — synthesized Woodsmith/Woodworkers Journal cut-depth guidance; no longer used)
• [S21] Wood and Shop buying guide featuring Bill Anderson. (named teacher/buying guide, MEDIUM)
• [S22] Woodsmith, "Shoulder or Rabbet?" (magazine, MEDIUM)
• [S23] DATAMP, US 277,556 record. (collector patent database; the patent itself HIGH within scope)
• [S24] Veritas, "Setting the Blade for Shoulder and Bullnose Planes," https://www.leevalley.com/en-us/discover/post-purchase/shoulder-and-bullnose-planes/setting-the-blade-for-shoulder-and-bullnose-planes — slight working-side projection, scrap tests, cutter retraction, set screws, mouth, overtightening warnings. (manufacturer instructions, HIGH)
• [S25] Handplane Patents Database, shoulder-plane patents, https://www.handplanepatents.com/tag/shoulder-planes/ — full text and formal titles of US 127,842, US 269,967, US 277,556. (patent transcriptions, HIGH within scope)
• [S26] Veritas Large Shoulder Plane manual, https://assets.leevalley.com/Original/10091/50273-veritas-large-shoulder-plane-c-01-e.pdf — serious-injury blade warning, working-side cutter position, geometry, cutter squareness, blade-bed deflection, clamp-force limits, storage. (manufacturer manual, HIGH)
• [S27] US 645,220, Bench-Plane, Justus A. Traut, 1900, https://www.handplanepatents.com/no-645220-bench-plane-justus-a-traut-1900/ (patent, HIGH within scope)
• [S28] Veritas Large Shoulder Plane, https://www.leevalley.com/en-ca/shop/tools/hand-tools/planes/shoulder/50273-veritas-large-shoulder-plane — breadboard tenons, shoulders, cheeks; size, mass, grip. (manufacturer, HIGH within scope)
• [S29] Veritas, "Troubleshooting and Techniques for Shoulder and Bullnose Planes," https://www.leevalley.com/en-us/discover/post-purchase/shoulder-and-bullnose-planes/troubleshooting-and-techniques-for-shoulder-and-bullnose-planes — grips, toe-removal access, shaving jams, light cuts, dado-bottom use, maintenance. (manufacturer instructions, HIGH)
• [B-cross] Bench Chisel · [P-cross] Paring Chisel · [T-cross] Tenon Saw · [K-cross] Kanna (cross-links)

The reviewer's corrections (14)

• BLOCKER — 1. Separate historical lineage from a modern convertible configuration — Exact claim: “Shoulder Plane / Bullnose Plane / Chisel Plane” forms an ancestor/descendant chain, and the Saunders patent “directly confirms the lineage tree” by removing first a long toe and then a short one.
• BLOCKER — 2. Correct the unsafe cutter-projection rule — Exact claim: “letting the iron project beyond the plane's registering side rather than sitting flush … can damage the work.”
• BLOCKER — 3. Replace the “near-empty” safety class — Exact claim: “dangerous … an honest, near-empty gap” and “the real access barrier is joinery vocabulary … not physical danger.”
• BLOCKER — 4. Correct the early patent record — Exact claim: “earliest patent bearing the tool's exact name: US Patent 277,556, ‘Shoulder Plane,’ … May 15, 1883.”
• SHOULD-FIX — 5. Read and correctly scope US645,220 — Exact claim: “US Patent 645,220 … full text was not independently read” and remains a primary-document gap.
• SHOULD-FIX — 6. Correct the one-line operating orientation — Exact claim: A shoulder plane is “pushed on its side rather than its sole.”
• SHOULD-FIX — 7. Stop defining the entire family by one modern architecture — Exact claim: Shoulder planes are universally “full-width, low-angle, bevel-up” metal planes.
• SHOULD-FIX — 8. Qualify the rabbet-plane contrast — Exact claim: Rabbet planes are categorically higher-angle, bevel-down, wide-mouthed, fenced/depth-stopped long-grain volume tools, whereas shoulder planes are low-angle, bevel-up fine end-grain tools.
• SHOULD-FIX — 9. Replace the “adjacent, non-overlapping” router-plane rule — Exact claim: Shoulder and router planes are “adjacent, non-overlapping,” and a shoulder plane cannot substitute for a router plane on recess-floor work.
• SHOULD-FIX — 10. Attribute the “no wooden ancestor” claim and narrow it — Exact claim: “UNIQUE AMONG METAL PLANES” and “every other metal plane form has a wooden-plane ancestor except this one.”
• SHOULD-FIX — 11. Fix the modern patent assignee and claim language — Exact claim: The Saunders patent's location is inferred from proximity to Lee Valley, while “the patent text itself does not name Lee Valley as assignee.”
• SHOULD-FIX — 12. Remove unsupported exact rules and market claims — Exact claim: Joint-trimming cuts should be “roughly 0.002–0.003 in.”; the Lie-Nielsen large plane is “the best size to start with”; prices and availability are presented without a durable access date.
• SHOULD-FIX — 13. Regrade sources and remove circular evidence — Exact claim: Sibling corpus entries are graded HIGH, Wikipedia MEDIUM-HIGH, dealer/blog history HIGH, and search-synthesis sources support consequential claims.
• MINOR — 14. Remove process residue — Exact claim: The entry includes reconnaissance history, Priority Queue/Parking Lot status, research delegation, image tickets, repeated search failures, and “no archaeological evidence.”