A hand plane is a tool for shaping wood. When powered by electricity, the tool may be called a planer. Planes are used to flatten, reduce the thickness of, and impart a smooth surface to a rough piece of lumber or timber. Planing is used to produce horizontal, vertical, or inclined flat surfaces on workpieces usually too large for shaping. Special types of planes are designed to cut joints or decorative mouldings.

Hand planes are generally the combination of a cutting edge, such as a sharpened metal plate, attached to a firm body, that when moved over a wood surface, take up relatively uniform shavings, by nature of the body riding on the 'high spots' in the wood, and also by providing a relatively constant angle to the cutting edge, render the planed surface very smooth. A cutter which extends below the bottom surface, or sole, of the plane slices off shavings of wood. A large, flat sole on a plane guides the cutter to remove only the highest parts of an imperfect surface, until, after several passes, the surface is flat and smooth.

Plane or planes may refer to:

A tool is any item that can be used to achieve a goal, especially one that is not consumed in the process. Informally the word is also used to describe a procedure or process with a specific purpose. Tools that are used in particular fields or activities may have different designations such as Instrument, Utensil, Implement, Machine, or Apparatus. The set of tools needed to achieve a goal is equipment. The knowledge of constructing, obtaining and using tools is technology.

Tool use by humans dates back millions of years, and other animals are also known to employ simple tools.

Anthropologists believe that the use of tools was an important step in the evolution of mankind. Humans evolved an opposable thumb — useful in holding tools — and increased dramatically in intelligence, which aided in the use of tools. Because tools are used extensively by both humans and wild chimpanzees, it is widely assumed that the first routine use of tools took place prior to the divergence between the two species. These early tools, however, were likely made of perishable materials such as sticks, or consisted of unmodified stones that cannot be distinguished from other stones as tools. The beginning of the Stone Age marks the era when hominins first began manufacturing stone tools, and evidence of these tools dates back at least 2.6 million years in Ethiopia. One of the earliest distinguishable stone tool forms is the hand axe.

Sir Stanley Ernest Bailey, CBE, QPM (30 September 1926 – 9 August 2008) was a senior British police officer. He was chief constable of Northumbria Police from 1975 until 1991.

Bailey was born in Somers Town, London, and during World War II was conscripted to work in the coal mining industry as a Bevin Boy. In 1947 he began his career with the Metropolitan Police.

The hunt for the Cannock Chase murderer was led by Bailey, Staffordshire’s assistant chief constable at the time.