Parts of a Hand Plane – Labeled Bench Plane Diagram

All 16 parts on the diagram

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The plane 6

Handle The rear grip. It pushes the plane ahead.
Knob The front grip. It guides the plane.
Sole The flat bottom of the plane.
Toe The front end of the sole.
Heel The rear end of the sole.
Mouth The opening in the sole. The cutting edge comes through it.

Cutting parts 6

Plane iron The steel blade that cuts the wood.
Plane iron cap It is screwed to the iron and curls the shaving upward.
Lever cap It clamps the iron and its cap to the frog.
Frog The sloping seat that carries the plane iron.
Adjusting nut It moves the edge of the iron up or down.
Lateral adjustment lever It tilts the cutting edge to the right or left.

Four planes 4

Block plane A small plane with no plane iron cap.
Smooth plane The shortest of the three bench planes.
Jack plane The bench plane of middle length, for general work.
Jointer plane The longest bench plane. It planes the truest surface.

How this list was compiled: Every name checked on 2026-09-30 and kept only where at least two of these use it. (1) US Navy, Tools and Their Uses (1971), full text at https://archive.org/details/ERIC_ED132362 : the handle and the knob; the sole, its mouth, its toe and its heel; the plane iron and the plane iron cap; the adjusting nut and the lateral adjustment lever; smooth, jack and jointer planes and the block plane. (2) W. Noyes, Handwork in Wood (1910), public domain, https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/20846 : its numbered list of the parts of the iron plane: plane-iron, plane-iron cap, lever cap, frog, brass adjusting nut, lever for lateral adjustment, handle, knob, bottom or sole, toe, heel, throat. (3) Wikipedia, Plane (tool), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plane_(tool) : mouth, iron, lever cap, depth adjustment knob, knob, cap iron or chipbreaker, lateral adjustment lever, tote, frog, sole; block, smoothing, jack and jointer planes. Licence: own work

The drawing: Drawn for this site on 2026-09-30 from plain geometry; no maker's tool, nothing traced. Licence: own work

How it works

A hand plane shaves wood with a blade that comes through an opening in its flat bottom. The second view takes the cutting parts apart. The third shows four planes by length.

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The body

The flat bottom is the sole. Its front end is the toe and its rear end is the heel. The mouth is the opening in the sole that the cutting edge comes through. The knob at the front guides the plane, and the handle at the rear pushes it.

The cutting parts

The plane iron is the blade. The plane iron cap is screwed to it and curls the shaving upward. Both lie on the frog, and the lever cap clamps them there. The adjusting nut moves the edge up or down. The lateral adjustment lever tilts it right or left.

Tote is another name for the handle, and cap iron or chipbreaker for the plane iron cap. The quiz takes them all.

Questions and answers

What are the parts of a hand plane called?

The body has a sole with a toe, a heel and a mouth, a knob at the front and a handle at the rear. The cutting parts are the plane iron, the plane iron cap, the lever cap and the frog they sit on.

What is the blade of a hand plane called?

The plane iron, or simply the iron. The name comes from the days of wooden planes.

What is the frog on a hand plane?

The sloping seat inside the body. The plane iron and its cap lie on it, and the lever cap clamps them to it.

What is the difference between a jack plane and a jointer plane?

Length. The smooth plane is the shortest of the three bench planes, the jack plane is in the middle and the jointer plane is the longest. The longer the sole, the flatter and truer the planed surface.