Sash Fillester Plane *LINK*

My guess

jimreed@tallahassee


>is that a sash fillister is used for cutting rabbets on window sash sides and muntins. The plane has a fence and a depth stop which are set so that the same rabbet can be repeated with precision.

Speculating somewhat

Bill Houghton, foggy mornings in Sebastopol, CA


>I think this is right, but I'm no expert.

In classic hand tool woodworking, one edge and one face of the stock was planed true, and the two surfaces square to each other. These two surfaces were then used as the gauge against which all other work was done. A sash fillester would have been used, as Jim Reed says, to plane the rabbet for the glass - meaning that the inside of the sash would have been the "true" face against which the work was done.

That's a pretty tool, and I think you may be able to use it as a general purpose rabbet plane, which is a very useful tool. Am I correct from your e-mail tagline that you're in the Netherlands? If so, you may be not too far, by American distance standards, from at least one other member of this forum, Marc, who lives in Luxembourg.

Re: Sash Fillester Plane

Warren in Lancaster, PA


>A fillister plane is a rabbet plane with a fence; a moving fillister has an adjustable fence. The fillester plane makes a rabbet on the near edge of a board as the fence rides on the near edge . A sash fillister plane is set up to make a rabbet on the far edge of a board with the fence riding on the near edge. In this way it is somewhat more like a plow because there is a gap between the fence and the cutter. While the fillester plane has its depth stop on the opposit side from the fence, the sash fillister plane has the depth stop between the fence and the cutter.

I usually make sash with planes that make both the molding and the rabbet in one pass, but before I had such planes I used a molding plane and a regular fillister. This is not as accurate because the molding is referenced from one edge while the rabbet is referenced from the other. The sash fillister would reference the rabbet from the show side, the same as the molding.

Re: Sash Fillester Plane

Wendell @ Murphy, TX


>Jim kingshott's video "Specialty Planes" shows how various joint cutting planes are used. He uses the making of a window casing for his example. He covers the use of moving fillesters and sash fillesters as part of this operation. It's been a while since I've watched the video but for my memory the other posts have pretty much covered how the particular plane you have is used. Warning this is a dangerous video, I was "forced" to buy a moving fillester, a side rabbet, and Record #43 & #44 plow planes after wathcing this video :) You've been warned :)

Wendell