Wooden Planes is a monthly newsletter that tells the stories behind history's most iconic hand tool. No gimmicks, no pop-ups, no AI slop. Just good stories.
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Newsletter

June 27 2025 | 7 minute read

Dyed With English Dragon's Blood

Plus, murdered with a fore plane

May 5 2025 | 11 minute read

What Was in Sandusky's Secret Plane Making Room?

Making planes with machines in the US and England in the 1800s

March 28 2025 | 9 minute read

The Tiniest Planes You'll Never Use

Plus, blame this famous book for the myth that ancient Egyptians used planes

February 28 2025 | 8 minute read

The Planemaker Who Walked Beneath the Water

Plus, a gold ribbon plow plane

January 21 2025 | 11 minute read

If the Vikings Didn't Use Planes, Why Did They Write Poems About Them?

The mystery of a 'mad, vehement' plane

October 31 2024 | 10 minute read

'A hot fire from all sides': Planemakers in the American Revolutionary War

A bridge between centuries

September 10 2024 | 5 minute read

Everybody's Making Planes (2024)

Plus, did the Ohio Tool Co. pay its convict planemakers?

January 4 2024 | 6 minute read

Everything We Know (and Don't Know) About Dated Dutch Planes

Plus, Walter Rose on the lineage of plane ownership

December 1 2023 | 8 minute read

How Many of These 36 Butcher Marks Are Counterfeit?

A tale of 19th century trademark piracy

October 25 2023 | 7 minute read

The Assassination of the Duke of Planes

Plus, an Italian pull plane?

October 16 2023 | 5 minute read

The Planemaker in Internment Camp 3

Plus, Krenov on planing, and watch how they make laminated plane irons

July 31 2023 | 8 minute read

The Ultimate Guide to Making Perfect Moldings

Plus, how to time travel (really)

July 13 2023 | less than 1 minute read

Bonus: A Guide to the Makers of American Wooden Planes Is Now Free Online

This book is the ultimate reference guide to thousands of planemakers

June 30 2023 | 9 minute read

I Trained an AI Chatbot on Antique Plane Research

It was a train wreck

May 30 2023 | 6 minute read

How to Run a Plane Factory in 1853 (It Was Surprisingly Complicated)

Plus, the wooden plane song and Inuit planes from the Canadian subarctic