Offcuts: More GIANT Planes and the Jointer That Tied a Town Together

Offcuts are short posts that I occasionally include at the ends of the newsletter.

Long-time readers will remember the largest wooden plane in the world. Back in 2007, Woodwell Woodworking Tools/Mujingfang tried for a world record with a 9-feet 2.5-inch long Hong Kong-style jack plane made out of huali rosewood. It weighs 1,880 pounds with a 128 pound iron. It’s impressive, but nowhere near the record. This plow, on the other hand, has got to be the largest of its kind. It’s 15.75 inches long, made from maple, with 30.5 inch arms. It weighs 19 pounds and has an iron that was described as “larger than any wrecking bar I’ve seen.” A normal plow looks tiny next to it! Plane Talk has a few more details. It’s unknown who made it or what a plow of this size would be used for. Any ideas?

Photo: Wikipedia

The Allegory of Good and Bad Government is a series of frescos painted by Ambrogio Lorenzetti in the Italian town of Siena between 1338 and 1339. The paintings are a hodgepodge of metaphors representing the moral principles Lorenzetti thought should underpin a healthy society. In one of the frescos, a rope passes from the scales of justice through the hand of a woman who is seated with a wooden jointer in her lap, and then into a procession of men representing the city’s officials. The plane is marked “Concordia,” or harmony. What makes the Concordia plane interesting is that it’s one of the first known representations of a long jointer. It must have been a well-established tool at this point if people understood it was plane used to join things together (as opposed to flattening or smoothing). Why it has two wedges is unknown.¹

Interested in more Offcuts?

• Offcuts: Plane Murders and a Brass Ribbon Plow Plane
• Offcuts: Italian Pull Planes and Inuit Planes From the Canadian Subarctic
• Offcuts: Modern Laminated Plane Irons and How Our Work Speaks Through Time
• Offcuts: More GIANT Planes and the Jointer That Tied a Town Together