The Record 040 Plough Plane
For me, the Record 040 is an unsung hero of joinery planes. We all know that grooves are essential, from making drawer slips to straight forward panel construction, ploughs are what we need. But many plough planes are quite big and unwieldy for small work, don’t even get me started on multi-planes! For a home woodworker making furniture scale projects I really rate the Record 040. It had a limited run and was only made from 1935 until 1943 and was superseded by the 043 which is a superior plane. But just because something is superior or better doesn’t mean the older version isn’t capable.
You’re not limited to just the Record brand, I’m reasonably sure both Marples and Rapier offered their clones of the 043 which I’m sure were just as good. There is even a new version that is imported by Workshop Heaven. It looks like a nice tool as well. I just like the value and history that comes with older tools. Mine was between £20 to £40, I can’t recall the exact amount and checking on e-Bay today there are plenty of excellent examples for £30. You’d soon spend that on cutters for an electric router! That’s something to ponder if you’re doing this at home. Plough planes are quick to task, I’d likely still be faffing about with PPE and extraction whereas with the plough I’d already be done before flipping a switch.
I would dearly love to see Lie-Nielsen or Clifton make a version of this plane. Lie-Nielsen kept the design of the Record shoulder planes alive and Clifton are in the royal bloodline for Record tools! But I do understand that bench planes seem to be where it’s at and I’m grateful for what they offer.
As you can see, next to my wooden plough, the 040 tiny. This really allows the driving hand to be low and close to the work, it’s almost impossible to go wrong! What you don’t get on these planes is shiny depth adjustment knobs and the like. This is not an essential for me, but I think that most people seem to appreciate hand tools that work more like engineering equipment or power tools. Neither approach is wrong but it’s easy enough to sight the depth of cut on the skate and go to work. I like things that are simple, there’s less to go wrong!
If you are looking to buy one just be sure that it’s all there. The worst bit is the lever that secures the iron. It’s not captive and can go missing. Mine comes with imperial cutters, 1/8”, 3/16” and 1/4”. You can get metric ones too and it will cope with a groove up to 1/2”, but at that point I’d most likely opt for a full size plough. You can currently get replacement irons from Toolnut in the UK and even if you can’t find replacements it’s not all the world to have a go at making some from 01 tool steel. What are you waiting for?