The plane is a cleverly hafted cutting edge, the function of which is to skin or shave the surface of wood. Used to finish and true a surface by removing the marks of a previous tool (adz, ax, or saw), a plane leaves the surface smooth, flat, and straight. The plane and the related spokeshave are unique tools because both depend upon a constant depth of cut that is given by the slight projection of the blade beyond the sole, or base, of the instrument.

The plane is an anomaly for which no line of descent has been identified. Pliny the Elder ascribes its invention to Daedalus, the mythical Greek representative of all handiwork.

It has been suggested that the Paleolithic unifacial (flat) scraper is the remote ancestor of the plane. While it is true that localized planing of a very poor sort, such as removing high spots, can be done with such a scraper, the difference in design and action between the two is too great to proclaim the scraper the forerunner of the plane. The adz seems a more likely progenitor. Early adzes were beveled (sloped) on the outside, although later, with better hafting and longer handles, the bevel was moved to the inside. The blade and handle of an outside-beveled adz could be used in a plane-like fashion to lift a shaving; however, the control of the blade projection, or depth of cut (or thickness of shaving), is critical to the concept of the plane and is met in only one other tool, the spokeshave.

The earliest illustrations of wood finishing, the surfacing of pieces of furniture, are Egyptian and show the surfaces being scrubbed with flat objects that appear to be abrasive stones or blocks riding on abrasive sand. Presumably, the surfaces had been dressed by an adz, and the marks of this tool needed to be erased. Stone scrapers are not in evidence, and, although the adz is shown, it is being used as an adz, not as an improvised plane.

The Romans were the first known users of the plane, the earliest examples coming from Pompeii. In a manner of speaking, these planes are full-blown, without a prehistory and without even vague antecedents. The modern plane differs in details but not in principle or in general appearance.

These Pompeian planes were of comfortable size, about 20 cm (8 inches) long and 5.7 cm (2.3 inches) wide. The blade was relatively narrow, about 3.8 cm (1.5 inches) as opposed to the modern width of about 5 cm (2 inches). The sole was made of iron, one-quarter-inch thick, that was bent to form a shallow box filled with a wooden core; it was cut away at the back to form a handgrip, while the mouth was cut out about one-third of the way from the front. The cutting blade, or plane iron, was held in position by a wooden wedge tapped under an iron bar placed across the mouth. Frontier posts in Great Britain and Germany have yielded nearly a dozen Roman planes, ranging in length from 33 to 43.2 cm (13 to 17 inches). Three constructions are represented: iron sole with a wooden core, all wood, and wood reinforced with iron plates at the sides of the mouth.

Planes can be divided into two main categories: the first, typified by the common bench plane, consists of a straight iron and a flat sole and is used for working flat surfaces; the second includes a variety of planes defined by the profile of the iron and sole. If the iron has a concavity, a projection or molding is created in the workpiece; if the iron has a projection, a groove is dug. Generally speaking, planes with profiled irons and correspondingly fluted soles are molding planes. Some of the Roman planes had irons for cutting rectangular grooves.

After the decline of the Roman Empire, the plane apparently fell into disuse. Practically no planes, and only a few other tools, have survived from the period of 800–1600 ce. Secondary sources, such as illuminated manuscripts, legal documents, carvings, and stained-glass windows, do provide some information, but they lack details.

By the late 17th century the plane was firmly reestablished in the craftsperson’s tool kit. Bench planes, or common planes, were used for surfacing panels or for creating straight edges on boards so that two or more might be joined into a wide panel. Boards were sawed or split (riven) from the log and were, consequently, quite rough. The first planing operation was done with the roughing, or fore, plane, which was of medium length, possibly 40.6 to 45.7 cm (16–18 inches). This fore plane had a slightly convex iron that removed saw and adz marks but left hollows that needed to be leveled by straight-iron planing. If the workpiece was long, a long-bodied trying, or jointing, plane having a length of about 76 cm (30 inches) was needed to remove large curves in the wood. Short planes—a common length was about 23 cm (9 inches)—were called smoothing planes for the final finish they produced.

Planes with straight irons and flat soles could easily be made by the craftsperson. Taste and fashion in 17th-century wood carving, however, prized decorative features such as moldings and beadings, which led to a proliferation of plane types and established plane making as an industry.

The indispensable common (straight iron) plane was improved in a number of details throughout the years. In Roman planes the wedge holding the iron was jammed against a cross bar in the mouth of the plane. This feature, awkward because it impaired the free escape of the shaving, was eliminated in the 16th century by seating the wedge in tapered grooves.

Another improvement was the invention of the top iron, apparently an English innovation of the late 18th century. This top iron, or chip breaker, used an inverted plane iron placed over the cutting iron to limit the thickness of the shaving and help it to curl out of the mouth. Now called the double iron, it is a feature of all but the smallest of modern planes.

As advanced metallurgy and machine tools allowed good castings to be accurately mass-produced, wooden planes were gradually displaced in Britain and the United States by cast-iron bodies with wooden handles.

The 19th century saw much effort in Britain and the United States aimed at eliminating the wedge, which required the use of a hammer to adjust the iron. Various methods for the easy removal and accurate setting of the iron culminated in the screw and lever adjustor for the iron and the cam-actuated cap. This final evolution was completed about 1890, and changes since that time have been trivial. Despite their advantages, continental Europe has not been partial to iron-bodied planes with screw and lever adjustments, and such tools cost much more than the still common wooden plane with wedge and hammer adjustment.

The spokeshave, which may be likened to a short-bodied plane with a handle on either side allowing the tool to be pulled toward the operator, has left little in the way of a record. The term was first used about 1510, but the earliest known example seems to be only half as old. Both the English word and the German Speichenhobel suggest that it was originally the specialized tool of a wheelwright that became generalized for use on convex surfaces. As with the plane, the cutting blade (iron) projects only slightly from the short sole to regulate the depth of cut.

The drawknife is a handled blade that is pulled toward the operator. It is a rather questionable relative of the plane, for, though it lifts shavings in a similar manner, it lacks the positive thickness control of the plane. The tangs at the ends of the modern knife are bent at right angles in the plane of the blade. While it is used in much the manner of a spokeshave, the drawknife is actually a roughing tool for the quick removal of stock. Skill is required in its use because the depth of cut is regulated by the tilt of the blade, and the grain of the wood tends to assert itself. The drawknife appears to be an older tool than the spokeshave and has undergone a change since the Viking times when it was first used. Under the Vikings the handles were bent at right angles to the plane of the blade, and the tool seems to have been used for smoothing axed or adzed timber in medieval Scandinavia, Russia, and elsewhere.