The Handplane Book

by Garrett Hack

The Handplane Book is a complete guide to one of the best known and most collectable hand tools. It covers all the basics, including how to buy a plane, tune it up, and use it. Fascinating background information on the development and manufacture of handplanes shows the rich heritage of this versatile tool. Focusing on planes from the golden age of the handplanes (19th and early 20th century), it also profiles tools from many sources around the world.

Genres: Woodwork, Reference, Crafts, Nonfiction

272 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1997

Reviews

[Christopher Hachet]

For a hand plane fanatic like me, this book is like crack cocaine. Amazingly illustrated....

[Tim Curtis]

Really beautiful book on handplanes.

[James]

Classic woodworking tool porn with instructions. There are better user books though, see Woodworking Magazine's Handplane Essentials or Hand Tool Essentials: Refine Your Power Tool Projects with Hand Tool Techniques. For a serious look at using molding planes see Mouldings in Practice.

[Barry]

Astoundingly exhaustive. I'm not a collector, so this book would have probably served me better as a reference vs a cover-to-cover read, which I tried to do. I ultimately skimmed the last two chapters. Still, Hack does a marvelous job navigating the reader through the world of planes. The history section was particularly enjoyable, since its info isn't anything I've read elsewhere, namely in Schwarz, although Odate does have some, albeit with an Eastern bent.

Although I got this book from the library, I'm considering buying the book if (when, ahem) my plane collection is expanding and I need succinct, expert advice that's not the cacophony of the interwebs.

[Edgar]

This was a pretty useful book about the different types of hand planes and their purposes. It also explains the art of sharpening and maintaining the plane. Unfortunately it didn't have much information about new models of hand planes only antique expensive top of the line hand planes made before say 1940. It is unlikely that I'll ever buy an antique hand plane, so it would have been nice to have more information about current planes even if the author doesn't consider them to be as high of quality.

[Michael]

Eye candy, comprehensive reference book

[Scott (Ozziespur)]

Excellent book and a must own for anyone interested in handplanes.

[Blrotramel]

Fantastic book for the beginning woodworker, like myself. An incredible resource for buying, tuning and setting, and using planes, I cant recommend this highly enough.