Block plane

A block plane is a small woodworking hand plane which typically has the iron bedded at a lower angle than other planes, with the bevel up. It is designed to cut end grain and is typically small enough to be used with one hand.

According to Patrick's Stanley Blood and Gore, Stanley marketing materials states that, "A Block Plane was first made to meet the demand for a Plane which could be easily held in one hand while planing across the grain, particularly the ends of boards, etc. This latter work many Carpenters call 'Blocking in', hence the name 'Block' Plane." Tradition also claims that the block plane gets its name from its traditional use to level and remove cleaver marks from butchers' blocks that were built with the end grain facing up.

A block plane is frequently used for paring end grain. This is possible because block planes have their blades set at a shallow bed angle, allowing the blade to slice through end grain more efficiently. For this to work the plane is frequently held at an angle sometimes as much as 45 degrees to the direction of travel. The angled cutting edge slices the wood fibers as they pass from one end of the cutting edge to the other.

A block plane has many other uses in woodworking. Typically, it is used for cleaning up components by removing thin shavings of wood to make a component fit within fine tolerances. Chamfering (angling square edges) and removing glue lines are some of the other uses woodworkers find for it.

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Stanley Block, Ph.D., CFA, C.C.M., is a Professor of Finance and holds the Stan Block Endowed Chair in Finance at Texas Christian University (TCU) in Fort Worth, Texas. He is coauthor with Geoffrey Hirt of numerous books in finance, including Foundations of Financial Management and Fundamentals of Investment Management. The first-mentioned text has sold over a million copies. He has published approximately fifty articles in such journals as Financial Management, the Journal of Financial Services Research, the Journal of Portfolio Management, the Journal of Accountancy, the Financial Analysts Journal, and the Journal of Finance. He is past president of the Southwestern Finance Association and a former director of the Financial Management Association. He serves as a consultant to a number of companies throughout the world and has held board of director positions with three publicly traded companies. At TCU he has twice won the award as the outstanding instructor in the MBA Program; the Dean’s Teaching Award; and the Distinguished Teacher Award for the M.J. Neeley School of Business in the year 2002. In 2006, he was selected for the Chancellor’s Award as the University’s Outstanding Professor.

Block received his bachelors degree from the University of Texas at Austin in 1961. He received an MBA from Cornell University in 1964 and a Ph.D. from Louisiana State University in 1967.