LN block or rabbet block?


estesbubba

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It was a honest question. I'm buying some hand tools but don't want to be a collector. If some are truly useful I don't mind spending the money. Bought myself a set of chisels and a glass plate with sandpaper to go along with them and a shiny new plane.

 

IN all seriousness I use mine a lot for fitting joinery, usually after coming off the table saw or band saw.  The fact it is rabbeting allows me to get right into corners.

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I have both standard and low angle blocks, shoulder planes, and router planes, but I cut a lot of joinery with machines.  :D

 

If you're planning on buying other joinery planes, skip the rabbet block.  It will do most that a standard block will do, but is not as comfortable to hold.  The open sides of the rabbet block annoy my fingers in regular use.  You also have to be very aware of the edges of the iron being in exactly the right place, as you you may tear up something you don't want to if the iron is proud of a side.   This makes sharpening the iron to a perfect 90 really important, as you can't skew the blade to align the edge with the sole without screwing up the side alignment, as you can with a closed sided plane.

 

99% of my joinery tuning is done with a router or shoulder plane.    The router makes it super easy to keep faces parallel, the tall form of the shoulder planes are much easier to hold when up against an edge, and the mass helps on end grain. 

 

Need to tune joinery with a standard block, yet you don't have a shoulder or router plane?   Simply relieve the area the plane can't touch with a chisel...   For many years, I cut my tenon shoulders with a standard blade and table saw crosscut sled, then cut the tenon faces vertically.  Cutting the shoulders slightly deep left a nice relief area for easy tuning.

 

To me, the only real advantage to the rabbet block are the knickers, which I keep extended on mine, as I don't use it where my closed sided blocks get used.

 

I prefer a HIGH angle cut on my closed blocks for stuff like chamfering and edge breaking, as there is far less risk of tearout in places that would be very visible and difficult to fix or hide.

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My $0.02

 

I have both the LN low angle block and rabbet planes. Although the block plane has the adjustable mouth and the rabbet has a smaller/fixed throat... the ability to "get up against the wall" with the rabbet is just something the block plane can't do and I actually use the rabbet more often. I can ease an edge just as easily with the rabbet as well as clean up a groove/rabbet but you just can't get that done with a plain block plane. If I could only keep one it'd be the rabbet.

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If you're planning on buying other joinery planes, skip the rabbet block.  It will do most that a standard block will do, but is not as comfortable to hold.  The open sides of the rabbet block annoy my fingers in regular use.

 

The comfort issue is a good one to bring up, I bought my LA block plane when I tried one at a Lie-Nielsen event. It fit my hand perfectly.

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==>"get up against the wall" with the rabbet is just something the block plane can't do and I actually use the rabbet more often.

If you're going to make full-sized furniture and use primarily hand-tools or use hand-tools to fit power tool joinery, then you really need a couple of planes – I’ll call this the ‘starter set’: shoulder plane, router plane, block plane and a bench plane or two (just the LAJ if you're a Normite)… Assuming you get the shoulder and router plane, then the RBP becomes largely redundant at fitting joinery and a BP makes a better block plane than a RBP.

 

I’ve got a very nice LN-RBP, and almost never use it… In fact, I’ve got three LN planes on my ‘to eBay list’ for the coming year: the RBP, LA-Jack and the standard-angle adjustable-mouth block plane. All three are essentially 100% overlap with other planes in the till – these planes get used maybe once or twice a year…

 

 

I'm not saying don't get a block plane --- evry shop needs at least one block plane -- probably two.  The most used plane in my shop is the LN-102 LA apron plane…

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