1½" Wide Woodie Jointer Purpose?

[cputnam]

I have such a beast, bought as a learning platform. It is my 1st double iron wood plane. Just wondering why such a narrow beast would be built?

[bandit571]

Doors?  Door jambs?

[Derek Cohen]

Curt, that sound good for joining edges of boards, especially narrower ones. A wide jointer (<2") would be less well-balanced.

One of my favourite planes for edge jointing of narrow boards is a vintage Stanley #62 (LA Jack), partly because it is relatively narrow (2"), but especially because it is light and has a low centre of effort. It sucks to the surface of the edge and is easy to control. Another favourite is a HNT Gordon Trying plane, for very similar reasons.

Regards from Perth

Derek

[bandit571]

My...such a lovely sales pitch.....not much help to the OP question.....all wood bodied jointers were made LONG before them new-fangled low-angled planes.  

IF a carpenter did a lot of narrow edge work, he would have a narrower plane....rather than carry around a wide bodied jointer....less weight in the tool bag, after all..

[Derek Cohen]

Hey Ebenezer ... Merry Christmas ..


By the way Steven, with regard to “the new-fangled low-angled planes”, the Stanley #62 in question dates from 1905. It is nearly 115 years old. Incidentally, how old are you?

Regards from Perth

Derek

[Bill_Houghton]

I've seen narrow jointers, and have assumed that they were built for workers who used them exclusively on nominal 1" or so boards.

If your trade is defined tightly, and you never work any edges wider than that, why carry the extra weight, and why pay the extra money?