Most of my mortise-and-tenon work is handled with machines. I like to make my mortises on the hollow-chisel mortiser and tackle my tenons at the tablesaw with a dado stack. I always aim for a fit that is just a little bit too snug that I can just barely get into the joint because there can be a variation in the width of the stock from piece to piece–leading to slight variations in the size of the tenon off the tablesaw. It’s a delicate balance, though. If the tenon won’t fit into the mortise at all, I’ll have too much work to do with hand tools and I really risk getting my joinery out of square during fitting.

My favorite tool for trimming tenons while keeping them super square is a large shoulder plane. It does the job really well since there is so much mass to it and it has a nice, wide blade. However they can be expensive, and if you’re just getting into the craft, spending $250 on a big shoulder plane might not be in your budget. There’s a really good solution for a lot less money–a vintage rabbet plane like the Stanley #78.

With its full-width blade, a vintage rabbet plane is basically the same thing as a shoulder plane and they are pretty easy to find for around $30 to $40. They were never used very often, so they tend to be in really good shape and they don’t take a lot of effort to tune up.

In use, the main difference between a shoulder plane and a rabbet plane is workholding. A shoulder plane allows you to grip the tool right above the blade and use a bench hook to hold the stock. The rabbet plane is a two-handed tool and requires you to clamp the workpiece in a vise. Get that blade sharp and you’ll be fitting tenons easily.

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	Tune Up a Shoulder Plane Sharpen the blade and clean up the tool to ensure top performance when trimming tenons and rabbets
	Ep 5.1 – The shoulder plane and the smoothing plane Mike shows you how to set up and use two of his most used planes
	Rabbet Planes Are Real Shop Workhorses These versatile tools clean up machine cuts and fine-tune joinery for a perfect fit