After several attempts I’m finally reliably creating cross grain rebates with a decent surface. My saviour has been the Stanley 46. Once I took the time to set up a few irons. It pretty much just works.

The design of the slitter for the 46 is far superior to the Stanley 45 and the record 778. You can move the slitter up and down in a small slot before fixing it with a screw. That allows you to sharpen it and then fix it to the desired depth. No work grinding it down to a sane height as you have to with the 45 and 778. One small niggle is that there is a sweet spot for tightness on my 46, turn it a little more, and the slitter slips on the screw and goes loose. It could just be my plane, but both slitters on both sides had that issue.

I have also found that I can retract the slitter without having to reset the plane. On the 45 and 778 I needed to raise the depth stop to retract the slitter. With the 46 I can loosen the sliding section of the body, bring it back to the fence, and have enough space to loosen and move it with a small screwdriver. This makes it far more likely the depth of different rebates will meet and match if you are working around the edge of a board.

The big advantage of the 46 is that it is a skew plane. That this results in less tear out confuses me. As I understand it, skewing the plane reduces the effective cutting angle, which to my mind, should increase the amount of tear out… But it also changes the cutting action to more of a slice. I can only assume the slicing action is more important than the cutting angle. This plane leaves behind a very clean surface on wood the 45 and 778 tear apart.

When sharpening 46 irons make sure you get the inside corner completely sharp, and don’t have a little chip missing from the point at the corner. If you do, it will start stepping the edge of your rebate, or mysteriously stop cutting entirely. I dinged the corner of the first Iron I was using without realising it, and was very confused as to why I suddenly couldn’t get a good rebate.

This is where I’m leaving things for rebates. I’m happy with the lid for my little tool chest. So it’s on to fitting hardware and dust seals.

Stanley 46

My workholding solution for cross grain rebates.

Stanley 46

The 46 slitter at the depth I found worked best in pine.

Stanley 46

You can just make out the screw used to loosen/tighten the slitter on the left beneath the rod. In this picture the sliding section has been moved out, allowing me to adjust without losing my depth setting or adjusting the fence.

Stanley 46

The slitter from the other side, you can spot it behind the depth stop.

Stanley 46

The slitter removed for sharpening.

Stanley 46

The skew angle of the plane. It makes a huge difference when it comes to cross grain tearout.

Stanley 46

A first test rebate, far better than anything I could get with a 778 or 45.

Stanley 46

I’m working with 3/8th stock again. I’m finding its not really enough for the fence to register well. You have to keep a careful eye on the plane to get a straight rebate wall.

Stanley 46

My tool chest lid. These rebates turned out to be fairly effortless once I had the right tool for job.