Grooves

[nuk]

Before metal plow planes... how did they make grooves like along the bottom of a drawer or box?  Seems a little narrow/long for the saw/chisel method I've seen suggested for dadoes.  Did they just have/use dedicated wood body plow planes, similar to the vintage molding planes I've seen around?

[Handplanesandmore]

Wooden rabbet or dado plane.

Simon

[bandit571]

They made a set, usually...to mill Tongue & Groove joints......often you will find just the Plough Plane that cuts the groove...

   
Which is fine...change the width of the iron to match the groove you need....

   
Set the fence to where you need the groove to go...there are no depth stops to fiddle with...when it stops cutting, it's done....this one uses wedges to adjust the fence..

   
Others use a series of wheels  on screw threaded arms....

A Mr. G. Roseboom of Cincinnati, OH.  made this one about 1864-65?   Set up to plough a 1/4" wide groove.....keep a candle handy, to wax things up to slide along better...

   
( hand-held camera issues..)

[Bill_Houghton]

I've seen some folks make dedicated plow planes for that purpose only, with a fixed fence/fixed blade width.  As I recall, the writers describing them asserted that such things existed back in the days of wooden plane bodies; no idea if that's true or imagination.

[adamcherubini]

Before metal plow planes... how did they make grooves like along the bottom of a drawer or box?  Seems a little narrow/long for the saw/chisel method I've seen suggested for dadoes.  Did they just have/use dedicated wood body plow planes, similar to the vintage molding planes I've seen around?

Yes!
1) wooden plow planes preceded metal planes by about 2000 yrs
2) grooved drawer bottoms are modern and not great. 18th c drawers were more typically rabbeted at the bottom edge with bottoms nailed up from under neath. Reason is probably wider surface for smoother operation, less wear to the drawer blades (divider).
3) you can cut grooves pretty efficiently with a chisel alone. Saws help with dadoes but aren’t 100% required.
4) can’t think of a metal plane that is not a copy of an earlier wooden plane, so pretty much every hand tool we have now, romans had.

Hope this clears things up

[nuk]

1) wooden plow planes preceded metal planes by about 2000 yrs
...
4) can’t think of a metal plane that is not a copy of an earlier wooden plane, so pretty much every hand tool we have now, romans had.

Most of the wooden 'plow' planes I've seen pics of were somewhat elaborate... like earlier versions of the metal body planes, with threaded rods and wooden nuts/wheels... but maybe 100-500 yr earlier, not what I'd typically think of as 'Roman' era.

3) you can cut grooves pretty efficiently with a chisel alone. Saws help with dadoes but aren’t 100% required.

I'll have to do some digging on YT for that. Probably not something I would want to do on anything resembling a regular basis, but I wouldn't mind trying it once for experience.

[wmickley]

Most of the wooden 'plow' planes I've seen pics of were somewhat elaborate... like earlier versions of the metal body planes, with threaded rods and wooden nuts/wheels... but maybe 100-500 yr earlier, not what I'd typically think of as 'Roman' era.

The older plough planes had a single iron and a fixed fence. They were not called "drawer bottom planes" until the 21st century.
Planes that had a movable fence and multiple irons were called universal plough planes. I made two ploughs before owning a universal plough; they work quite well, and for repetitive work are preferable to a universal plough.

[wmickley]

The older plough planes had a single iron and a fixed fence. They were not called "drawer bottom planes" until the 21st century.
Planes that had a movable fence and multiple irons were called universal plough planes. I made two ploughs before owning a universal plough; they work quite well, and for repetitive work are preferable to a universal plough.

Here is a Simple plough from Roubo:

[Cooler]

Chisel.  But I think a chisel + router plane would be better.  This guy cuts dadoes three ways with hand tools only.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eljCzinSTkQ


And here is a hand-carved wooden router plane.

https://www.jimbodetools.com/products/18...ane-69774u

[Scoony]

Drawer bottom planes is one option. This is one I made based from a set of match planes. First pic is a in-progress pic. 

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