HNT Gordon RECOMMENDED HAND GRIP FOR A55 PLANES

Home Page | Previous Page

The tote handle on your A55 plane is shaped so that predominately push with the palm of your hand which is where the power from your upper body down through your arm is concentrated. At bench height your fore arm should angle down slightly toward the bench and your wrist should be straight for an efficient transfer of power down to the blade edge. If you look at both of these pictures and line up the forearm you can see that the pushing force ends up at the cutting edge. The advantage of this is that it helps starting the cut particularly with the smoothing plane which has a short front area before the blade. If your tote handle is shaped properly you will be able to get a clean start with your cut with very little downward force on the front of the plane with your other hand. This allows you to use your other hand for the very important task of guiding and squaring the plane up for the desired cut.

In these two pictures you can see a couple of ways to hold your plane. For squaring an edge I would tend to hold the plane as in the top picture and for smoothing a flat surface I would use the plane like in the second picture.

If your plane has handles that are designed properly and you hold the plane the way it should be held you will find that the plane will perform accurately, with ease and importantly without stressing your body parts.

Many modern planes have poorly shaped tote handles which leads to having to push them with a bent wrist, undesirable pressure points and with excessive downward pressure to make them cut. This leads to fatigue and less accuracy in your work. You can follow these guide lines to test if you have properly shaped tote handles on other planes you may own.

Please Note: The above pictures are only recommended ways of holding this style of plane. You may have your own way of doing it which is just as good. The way that gives you the best results is the best way.