It’s English, Jim, but not as we know it

Britain and the USA have been described as “two countries separated by a single language”. This is especially noticeable in the case of tools. Spanner or wrench? Stanley knife or box cutter? And what, exactly, is a tire iron?

Wood planes are usually named for the job they do. A smoothing plane smooths the surface of a piece of wood; a jointer plane straightens the edges of boards so that they can be closely joined together. So a rebate plane cuts a rebate — a step-shaped thinner portion — in the edge of a plank. The distinctive feature of a rebate plane is that its body has openings to allow a full-width cutter to be fitted, so it can plane right into the corner of a rebate.

The original name for a rebate in Britain was a rabbet, from the French word for planing. This is what the first English settlers in America would have called it. In Britain the name changed (as names do) to rebate, but it remained rabbet in the New World — just as the Australian accent is thought to be a remnant of the way English people spoke when they first arrived in Botany Bay; the accent changed in Britain but it didn’t down under. So rabbet and rebate are synonyms and a rabbet plane is the same as a rebate plane.

A fillister, or filletster, plane also cuts rebates. An adjustable fence guides the plane so that the rebate is of a certain width. When a rebate plane is being used, the rebate width is controlled either by a straight batten clamped along the board or just by eye. A nicker — spur in North America — cuts the wood’s grain in the corner of the rebate.

A housing, or dado, plane cuts a rectangular trench in the surface of a board. It is a rebate plane with a nicker on both sides and usually has a fence.

A shoulder plane is a rebate plane used for trimming the end grain at the shoulders of a tenon. It has a finer mouth and a lower set cutter (iron/blade). This type of plane is called a cabinet maker’s rabbet plane in North America.

A bull-nose plane is a rebate plane with the cutter nearer the front so that blind rebates can be planed more easily.

A chisel plane has the cutter at the very front of the plane.

One of the planes Stanley still produces is the No. 78 Duplex rabbet and filletster plane. The fence is removed to make it a rabbet plane and the cutter is moved to the forward seat to convert it to a bull-nose rabbet plane.