Rabbeting by Hand

Cutting rabbets by hand can quickly and easily be done with vintage and modern planes alike. Both just take a little know-how.

- Logan Wittmer

1-2 A pair of wooden planes look similar, but the one on the left is technically a shoulder plane, and the one on the right is a rabbet plane. The rabbet plane has a skewed blade, more open mouth, and a large opening for shavings to eject during use.

I would consider a rabbet joint an essential woodworking joint to know how to cut. It’s as equally valuable building the case of a chest as it is building down and dirty drawers. In the modern shop, many craftsmen will load up a dado blade in the table saw or a rabbeting bit at the router table. However, cutting a rabbet is easily done with some simple hand tools. Of course, there are many ways to skin a cat—a back saw and chisels, a router plane, amongst others—here, we’re going to concentrate on rabbet planes and using them to create accurate rabbets.

Rabbet Planes of Old

Take a stroll through any antique store worth its weight in gold, and you’re bound to come across someone selling a variety of molding planes. Often, you'll find rabbet (shoulder) planes such as Photo 1 mixed into the bunch. And, it makes sense. Often, rabbets are used in conjunction with molding planes to create a variety of profiled moldings. But you really have to know what you’re looking at to avoid picking up the wrong plane and getting confused. The two planes in Photo 1 look the same (except the width), but one is a shoulder plane, and the other is a rabbet plane. The difference has to do with the blade angle and the escapement for the shaving.

3 A pair of lay out lines show you where your rabbet is going to be cut and help guide your progress.