Block Planer (140)

Name: Block Planer (140)
Brand: Harden
SKU: 614614

Item No. 614614

Price on request

A block plane is the one you use one-handed, and at 140mm this is the small, light version — the plane that lives in a tool bag rather than on a bench and comes out for the last five per cent of a job.

What it is genuinely good at is end grain. End grain is the hardest surface on a piece of timber and it tears out badly if you cut it with the wrong tool, which is why a block plane is set up differently from a bench plane and is worth owning even if you already have one. Trimming the end of a door stile, cleaning up a mitre so it closes tight, easing the end of a shelf, flushing a proud dowel or a plug — those are block plane jobs. It is also the tool for chamfering an edge quickly and evenly, and for taking the sharp arris off timber that people will be handling.

The body is ABS, which is what makes it light and inexpensive. That is an honest trade-off rather than a hidden one: an ABS plane is easy to carry all day and cheap enough to own several, but it does not have the mass of the steel-bodied planes, and mass is what carries a plane through hard grain. For light trimming that hardly matters. For flattening a board or a long edge joint, buy the 235mm steel plane instead — this is not that tool.

The blade is 65Mn, a manganese spring steel. It takes a hard temper, holds an edge well for the work this plane does, and sharpens back readily on a stone.

A block plane rewards a fine setting more than any other plane. Wind the iron back until it cuts nothing, then advance it a hair at a time until it lifts a fine shaving; on end grain especially, a deep setting does not cut faster, it just tears. Skewing the plane slightly as you push it slices the fibres rather than pushing them, and makes a noticeable difference on end grain. Work in from both ends of an edge rather than running off it, or you will break out the far corner.

Carpenters and joiners keep one in the bag. Shopfitters and second-fix carpenters use them constantly for scribing and fitting. Furniture makers use them for final fitting, and maintenance carpenters for sticking doors and drawers. It is also a common first plane, and a sensible one — small, controllable and forgiving.

We stock the 250mm block planer too if you want a longer sole. Ask on WhatsApp and we will price both and deliver island-wide.