How to Use a Router Plane

Sharpen your router plane flat cutter head on a metal sharpener to ensure it's ready to cut. Use your router in conjunction with your other woodworking tools like a saw and chisel. Make a precise groove or dado with a router plane by cutting a trench with a hand saw to the desired depth, removing the waste inside of the trench with a chisel and finishing the groove or dado to the precise and exact depth needed with your router plane. Gently push the router plane inside of a holder forward through the trench until the desired depth is reached.

Use your router plane with a flat cutter to make half-lap joints on small pieces of wood with precision and ease. Place the router plane into a metal holder and mark the spot on the wood that you want to cut to. Set the depth stop on on the router if your router is equipped with a depth stop and you have to make multiple half-lap joints. Gently push the router plane from the edge of the wood to the stopping point, following your mark on the wood until your desired depth is achieved.

Use a router plane with a flat cutter to fit oversized tenons into their appropriate mortises. Clamp your tenon to your workbench or table. Place a piece of scrap wood that is equal in thickness to the tenon beneath it to level the clamp. Insert your router plane into the hole in the center of your holder and gently move the router plane back and forth to thin the cheek of the tenon. Remove the clamp, flip the tenon over and re-clamp it to the work bench. Thin the other side of the tenon cheek until you achieve a perfect fit into the mortise.

Sharpen your spear-point router plane cutting head and insert it into your router plane. Use the spear-point cutter to make a dovetail socket that can be used to connect a wooden rail and leg. Cut the sides of the socket with a dovetail saw and remove the resultant wood ash and shavings with a chisel. Balance the router plane on top of the leg and clean up the floor of the dovetail socket to the desired depth with the spear-point router plane.