Stanley Block Plane 220G

A block plane is designed to cut end grain and is typically small enough to be used with one hand with the cutting blade (also known as an iron) bedded at a lower angle with the bevel up compared against other planes. It is frequently used for paring end grain, possible because its blade had been set at a shallow bed angle. This allows the blade to slice through end grain more efficiently; furthermore, for this to work, the plane is frequently held at an angle sometimes as much as 45° to the direction of travel, so that the cutting edge slices the wood fibers as they pass from one end of the cutting edge to the other.