Roman iron-soled carpenter's plane
Cepillo de carpintero con suela de hierro
- Date
- c. 50 CE · confidence low
- Place
- Pompeii, Campania, Italy
- Credited to
- Roman carpenters
- Field
- Tools
⚠️ Disputed: the sources disagree.
What it is
A wooden-bodied plane with an iron blade held by a wedge and an iron-lined sole to resist wear. Examples from Pompeii, Silchester, Saalburg and Vindolanda identify the first bench planes.
The Romans had wooden planes with metal soles and all-metal ones; the Egyptians did not know them (they used the adze). There are hints of earlier Greek planes, but the well-dated finds are Roman.
What it led to
- flat, smooth surfaces on Roman furniture, doors and floors
- European wooden box-and-wedge planes until the 19th century
- the Bailey and Stanley metal plane