Stanley 75 Bull Nose Rabbet Plane

[lowell holmes]

Has anyone of you used a Stanley 75 hand plane successfully? I have two of them. You would think they would be good for cleaning up a rabbet.
I have never been able to get thin continuous shavings with one.
I'm curious.
Stanley75.jpg

[Tony Zaffuto]

Patrick Leach says they're good for cleaning paint off of window sashes!

I acually have one, and try as I have, I, too, have not been able to get a thin shaving, let alone a continuous shaving from it. Ironically, I bought it from Patrick, but only to clean up over-paint on baseboard.

[Mel Fulks]

The 90 (or is it 95) is more precise. I've used them for smoothing out bumps in sash pieces that ended up in a sash ,instead of being tossed and replaced. Cut the end 1/2 inch with a chisel first. Before all the 'thermo pane' type windows traditional sash were a big deal. Probably had other quick fix uses in other items,too.

[Jim Koepke]

Strange, mine came to mind today while cutting a dado/rabbet with a shoulder plane.

Mine has never impressed me in my attempts to use it.

jtk

[Frederick Skelly]

I have the Millers Falls version and I can't get it to work well either Lowell. Very jerky, uneven cuts. It must be operator error, but I can't figure out how to handle it any better.

[James Pallas]

I'm no sure this is absolutely correct. This is how the use of the 75 was explained to me by an old timer years ago. It is not a rabbet plane, it is made for cleaning up humps. The front part of the sole or shoe is not made level with the sole of the plane. You set it for a very light cut the front will ride over a hump or up on it to keep the cut light so it doesn't dig in and just cuts the hump. I tried it and it does work for that and in that fashion. Mel's comment makes a lot of sense for sash Windows and such.
Jim

[Bill White]

I have found that mine is best used for very light trimming as James stated. Not intended for continuous ribbons of wood. Have not tried it for paint removal as yet.
Bill

[Allan Speers]

I'm no sure this is absolutely correct. This is how the use of the 75 was explained to me by an old timer years ago. It is not a rabbet plane, it is made for cleaning up humps. The front part of the sole or shoe is not made level with the sole of the plane. You set it for a very light cut the front will ride over a hump or up on it to keep the cut light so it doesn't dig in and just cuts the hump. I tried it and it does work for that and in that fashion. Mel's comment makes a lot of sense for sash Windows and such.
Jim

Jim, this makes a lot of sense.

I have the MF version, and have never used it. I always intended to grind the front down level, but while I know that I'd never actually get around to it, now I know that I don't NEED to never actually get around to it!

Maybe it's good for small knots. - but even then, it would benefit greatly from a tougher blade.

[glenn bradley]

Interesting conversation. I have used my Veritas version for years and never thought it unwieldy or unusable(?). Now I'll be questioning myself every time I use it .

[Patrick Chase]

Has anyone of you used a Stanley 75 hand plane successfully? I have two of them. You would think they would be good for cleaning up a rabbet.
I have never been able to get thin continuous shavings with one.
I'm curious.
Stanley75.jpg

Bullnose planes are very similar to chisel planes in that they're incredibly finicky to set up. The toe doesn't provide much registration or support even when present, and obviously none at all when removed.

The setup is finicky because it's a balancing act between two undesirable behaviors:

1. If the blade doesn't extend below the sole then the plane won't start to cut (at least not on a flat surface), for obvious reasons.

2. If the blade does extend below the sole to any significant degree then it will tend to "dive", and take an increasingly deep cut until it finally gets stuck. You can see this very clearly by drawing the geometry: The back of the plane rests on the freshly cut surface, but the fact that the blade is extended means that it will try to cut deeper than that surface, leading to an ever deeper cut. The people who put toes on planes to begin with knew what they were doing :-).

In between is a VERY narrow range of settings where the plane will shave high spots and maybe almost take a continuous cut on a flat surface

I've had some luck by starting cuts with the blade extended but then slightly retracting the blade just as the base starts to register on the newly cut surface, but that's an epic pain in the you-know-where, and is only useful in a dire emergency. In the same vein you can sometimes fake it by weighting the toe of the plane at the start of the cut but then shifting back to the heel once it's established.

IMO it's absolutely critical that the toe of a bullnose plane be co-planar with the rest of the body. If it's lower than the body (such that there's a gap under the toe when you set the plane on a flat surface) then it won't help at all as it's too short to "forgive" such a gap as a longer plane might. This is one case where the "flat sole society" unquestionably have it right.

[James Pallas]

Bullnose planes are very similar to chisel planes in that they're incredibly finicky to set up. The toe doesn't provide much registration or support even when present, and obviously none at all when removed.

The setup is finicky because it's a balancing act between two undesirable behaviors:

1. If the blade doesn't extend below the sole then the plane won't start to cut (at least not on a flat surface), for obvious reasons.

2. If the blade does extend below the sole to any significant degree then it will tend to "dive", and take an increasingly deep cut until it finally get stuck. You can see this very clearly by drawing the geometry: The back of the plane rests on the freshly cut surface, but the fact that the blade is extended means it will try to cut deeper than that surface, leading to an ever deeper cut. The people who put toes on planes to begin with knew what they were doing :-).

In between is a VERY narrow range of settings where the plane will shave high spots and maybe almost take a continuous cut on a flat surface

I've had some luck by starting cuts with the blade extended but then slightly retracting the blade just as the base starts to register on the newly cut surface, but that's an epic pain in the you-know-where, and is only useful in a dire emergency. In the same vein you can sometimes fake it by weighting the toe of the plane at the start of the cut but then shifting back to the heel once it's established.

IMO it's absolutely critical that the toe of a bullnose plane be co-planar with the rest of the body. If it's lower than the body (such that there's a gap under the toe when you set the plane on a flat surface) then it won't help at all as it's too short to "forgive" such a gap as a longer plane might. This is one case where the "flat sole society" unquestionably have it right.

Patrick, I agree with all you say above concerning bullnose planes. I don't believe the 75 is in fact a bullnose plane. The toe was intentionally higher than the sole as stated in Patrick Leaches Blood and Gore and the old timer that used the plane and taught me. It is intended as a trimming plane and functions more like a chisel plane with a square side. It is intended to work off a referenced surface and trim humps and such. With the blade set close to even with the main sole of the plane it does work ok and it fits in a very small space. I don't think I'm an expert, only what I have learned from others
Jim

[bridger berdel]

I filed the sole on mine coplanar with the toe. It did improve the performance of it in my hands, but not by enough to make the plane worth the hassle compared to using a chisel.

[Bill Houghton]

I filed the sole on mine coplanar with the toe.

My uncle made the same correction, but did it by filing the body where the front/top piece rested on it, pointing out, when he returned it to me, that this involved the removal of less metal.

I also added a palm rest by shaping a chunk of hardwood so that it was higher than the top of the cutting iron, which sticks up (sorry, no picture; don't know what I did with the photo I took). It made it easier to push, but I still got rid of the plane after I got a low angle, bevel-up bullnose plane (Record, and later a Stanley). They're just better planes.

[lowell holmes]

Somehow I ended up with two 75's. I've had no luck with either plane. Apparently, some of you have the situation where the front is a bit higher than the base. On both of my planes, The front and back are aligned, not offset.

The last time I used mine, I was working on an entrance door that has three leaded glass panels. I have three parallel openings and I wanted to clean up the narrow mortises for the panels before bedding the panels. I ended up paring with a chisel. It's not a big deal, but the nature of the beast is that such things should be cleaned up.

[Bill Houghton]

Another evergreen question. I've sold a couple - interestingly, the first one went to a painter. I guess painters do like them for cleaning up paint lumps.