Bullnose planes

[Petey83]

I recently treated myself to a lovely veritas bullnose plane with the PM-v11 blade. Now I know the bullnose is often unloved and seen as not very useful and a small shoulder plane would be better but I have to say i am rather liking it. I do not own a shoulder plane at present (a medium sized one is on the list) so cannot directly compare and in fairness i have not used the bullnose for any of the intended jobs but as a small narrow block plane I have found it wonderful.

The fact it can do double duty as a small chisel plane as made it great at tidying up glue squeeze out and its small size with the nose on mates it handy for things like trimming timber draw runners that have had some movement.

 

[mbartlett99]

I quite like em myself - handy little thing. I like the Veritas ones too, slightly cheaper than the Clifton/Lie Nielsen with handy little features. BTW don't get the large Veritas unless you reaslly mean too - I bought without reading the measurements and its huge! The joys of shopping online.

 

[D_W]

Nice planes for stopped rabbets. That's the only place I've ever used them - they get you relatively close to the edge on cleanup.

Your side of the pond is loaded with good vintage cheap bullnose planes, though they do sometimes require a little care. A friend gave me his dad's slater bullnose - it had no iron and he was going to throw it out. They are very easy planes to make an iron for because the iron is small enough to be heated by a small torch.

 

[worn thumbs]

If I were to be limited to say three planes,my Stanley No90 would be one of them.I can't imagine trying to make very much without it.

 

[Cheshirechappie]

I recently treated myself to a lovely veritas bullnose plane with the PM-v11 blade. Now I know the bullnose is often unloved and seen as not very useful and a small shoulder plane would be better but I have to say i am rather liking it. I do not own a shoulder plane at present (a medium sized one is on the list) so cannot directly compare and in fairness i have not used the bullnose for any of the intended jobs but as a small narrow block plane I have found it wonderful.

The fact it can do double duty as a small chisel plane as made it great at tidying up glue squeeze out and its small size with the nose on mates it handy for things like trimming timber draw runners that have had some movement.

The first vintage plane I ever bought was a bullnose, which I too used as a block plane (and still do!). Mine doesn't have the removable nose, but for such jobs as a chisel plane is said to be useful I've always used a chisel - not necessarily because that way is any better, but just out of now-ingrained habit. The little bullnose plane fits the hand so nicely, and is such a comfortable weight, that I prefer it to a block plane for many trimming jobs. It's not brilliant at trimming up the end-grain of a board because the register surface of the nose is so short, but for many other tasks, I just find it a lovely little tool. The narrow mouth means no hogging cuts, but in fairness it's a fine adjustments and finishing plane anyway.

Mine came from a small antique shop on Watergate Street in Chester back in the late 1980s, and I think I paid what I then considered a very princely sum of £28. It's by Edward Preston, a fact I didn't really appreciate at the time - but do now. It's a design everybody else has copied - and for good reason.