BADGER PLANE
Some rebates or ‘rabbets’ in a small boat are best cut using a chisel, for example where the edge of one clinker plank sinks into another nearing the stem or transom. But for the longer, wider and straighter rabbets of a more substantial vessel one of the several types of rabbet plane often does the donkey work. The largest rabbet plane is the badger, and the fact of it having sprung from that hive of edge tool industry once servicing the Firth of Clyde shipyards is no coincidence.
This example was made around 1920 by Alexander Mathieson & Son of the Saracen Tool Works, Glasgow. Its closed handle represents a small improvement on the usual open type, but in other respects this badger displays all the essential features of the species which centre on its double iron.
You’ll notice the iron is skewed by about 18 degrees. This steers the plane against the shoulder of the rabbet, helping to keep it running true, while also achieving a cleaner cut when working across the grain. The iron’s doubleness comes from the second or cap iron clamped a fraction above the edge whose job is to break the emerging shaving, thereby eliminating tearing and leaving a smoother surface. Besides planing square-sided rabbets the badger plane may also be used to cut the bevelled field of a fielded panel, so finish is important.
Also note that the corner of the iron emerges flush with the side of the plane, hence the tiny opening in Mathieson’s ‘Best Waranted’ beech stock protected by an inlaid copper wear plate. This ensures the iron reaches into the very apex of the rabbet. Since the iron is fixed by a wedge fitting behind projecting abutments in the stock, the skewed iron is also rotated by 10 degrees from vertical so its cutting edge beds down parallel with the sole. Despite superficial resemblance to the workaday square-ironed wooden jack plane, the geometry of the skewed badger is exceptionally precise.
While the badger is pictured cutting a 1in (25mm) rabbet, a common single-iron rabbet plane lies among the shavings. Either plane could be used to cut this rabbet, but for heavy or prolonged work on a large vessel the stability and momentum conferred by the badger’s 5lb (2.3kg) bulk are welcome.
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