In your toolbox, in your shed, wherever you store your tools, you may well have smoothing plane. This is a standard, number 4 smoothing plane. You may find that it’s not sharpening anymore. There are a couple of quick ways to adjust the plane and re-sharpen the blade.

On top of the plane is a little lever. This is called the cap iron. You can lift that up and down. That now comes off the slots and comes off. You now lift the blade assembly out. This is the cap iron, with the slight curve on top. There is your plane blade which you can now sharpen and reinsert into the plane.

If you need to adjust this cap iron, there is blade here, which should be about 1/16”, or 1.6mm. The end of the cap iron is designed to go into that large screw.

You undo it, adjust the cap iron, re-tighten using this as your screw driver. Insert back into the plane body, making sure it’s engaged in the slot. Put the cap iron back on and tension it with the lever. You can now adjust for the cut you want, whether it’s a very smooth cut, or a very coarse cut, by adjusting this lever here.

Hopefully, that makes your planing a lot smoother.