THE YOUNG FARMER'S MANUAL. 389 



than the jack-plane, for dressing stuff truer than can be done 

 with the jack ; a jointer, for making straight work, and a smooth- 

 ing-plane, for smoothing boards when it is not necessary to joint 

 them. 



568. Select planes that are made of good white beech, in pref 

 erence to any other wood. Apple-wood and cast-iron planes 

 shove much harder than beech planes, because they set so close 

 to the stuff which is being planed. See that the grain of the 

 wood runs up and down, and not parallel with the face of them. 

 Before they are used they should be thoroughly soaked in linseed 

 oil, to render them more durable and heavy, as a workman will 

 usually be able to plane more easily with a heavy plane than with 

 a light one. 



569. The face of a good plane must always be very true, not 

 hollowing, nor rounding, nor winding. They are very liable to 

 wear untrue, when they must be "faced off" with a jointer, 

 similar to the manner of dressing out a gate stile. (See Par. 

 240.) New planes are very apt to be winding on the face. 

 When they are so they must be faced true. 



570. Planes with double irons are best, because with them we 

 can plane smoothly cross-grained or eaty timber. But it is not 

 practicable to do so with a plane having a single iron. The 

 adjustable iron or cap is designed to break the shaving when 

 planing, by turning it at so short an angle that slivers cannot be 

 torn up as they often are with a single iron. In planing straight- 

 grained timber, a single iron is preferable. 



PUTTING PLANES IN GOOD ORDER 



571. Is a job that every wood-mangier is not able to perform. 

 If the irons or bits are not ground correctly and whet on a fine 

 stone, no man can plane well. Fig. 154 represents a view of 

 the face side of a jack-plane iron. Hold it in grinding so that 

 the grindstone will revolve towards the edge, and grind the basil 

 at an angle of about twenty degrees, if the stuff to be planed is 

 hard and knotty. (See Fig. 152.) Set the bevel square at the 

 desired angle, and try the angle when grinding. Grind it about 



