No. 85 Rabbet and Fillister Plane

A rabbet or rebate is a recess cut made on the edge or face of a board to fit another piece of wood in the grove to form a joint. The No. 85 is the tool to make this recess. The plane has two iron beds; one in the middle of the plane with a depth of cut lever and a forward iron bed that was adjusted manually. On one side is a spur that will score the fibers before the iron removes the wood. A depth-of-cut shoe will limit the cut to the desired depth. A fence can be mounted on either side and adjusted to any width within the 1-1/2 wide iron.

From the time this plane was introduced until around 1967, the only known change to this plane would be the trademark stamp on the iron. Like the other planes, the trademark would start with the no-touch/touch “Since 1868” triangle. In 1949 the “Solid Tool Steel” trademark was introduced and would be in use until Millers Falls stopped putting the trademark on the irons around the 1967 timeframe. At this same time when the trademark was eliminated, the adjustment slots on the iron were also eliminated and the plane no longer had an adjustment depth-of-cut lever.

Another change we see in the sixties is the substitution of the thumb screw on the lever cap. The original screw had a round top. The new style is a flat thumb screw with either a stretched diamond surface or two parallel groves across the flat.

You can also find this plane under the Craftsman name with the model number 3730, and later in the sixties as the number 107-37039. A Stiletto brand was also produced as the number S78.