A hand plane is a tool for shaping wood using muscle power to force the cutting blade over the wood surface. Some rotary power planers are motorized power tools used for the same types of larger tasks, but are unsuitable for fine-scale planing, where a miniature hand plane is used.
Craftsman No. 5 jack plane
A hand plane in use
Roman planes found in Germany, dating to the 1st to 3rd century AD
Hand planer
A tool is an object that can extend an individual's ability to modify features of the surrounding environment or help them accomplish a particular task. Although many animals use simple tools, only human beings, whose use of stone tools dates back hundreds of millennia, have been observed using tools to make other tools.
Carpentry tools recovered from the wreck of a 16th-century sailing ship, the Mary Rose. From the top, a mallet, brace, plane, handle of a T-auger, handle of a gimlet, possible handle of a hammer, and rule.
Prehistoric stone tools over 10,000 years old, found in Les Combarelles cave, France
Bicycle multi-tool
A Bonobo at the San Diego Zoo "fishing" for termites