Synopsis: If you have a router, do you really need a router plane? Dan Faia says yes. Router planes, which are more like shoulder planes than routers, are invaluable for cleaning up and trimming tenon cheeks and other joinery, hinge mortises, inlay mortises, and more. But to do its best work, this small plane must be properly tuned. Because its primary purpose is cutting a surface parallel to its sole, the cutting edge must be parallel to the sole. Learn how to get it that way, and how best to use this handy plane.

The router is one of the most common tools in the modern shop. You probably have one (or three). So you might wonder why anyone would need a router plane. After all, isn’t a router plane just an obsolete, less-versatile ancestor of the router? In short, no. Router planes were never meant to perform those tasks…