How to Make a Rabbet Plane

We love these ancient ideas! This one is a century old, but still a fun and interesting craft project for making your own tool.

Here is how the reader of a very old magazine presented it: “A rabbet plane is very little used, but, when it is wanted for a piece of work, it is wanted badly.”

While doing an unusual piece of work I needed a rabbet plane, and, having none, I made a plane as shown in less time than it would have taken to go out and buy one.

The body of the plane is made from a piece of 2-by-4-inch pine, 1 foot long. A 1-inch chisel was used for the bit. A place was marked on one side of the wood to be cut out for the chisel, and a 1-inch hole bored through, the narrow way, so that one edge of the bit cut through the bottom, forming a slit for the edge of the chisel. After cutting a groove for the chisel blade and turning in a long wood screw to hold the chisel in place, as shown, you’ll have a functional rabbet plane.