The scrub plane is a type of plane

Plane (tool)

A hand plane is a tool for shaping wood. When powered by electricity, the tool may be called a planer. Planes are used to flatten, reduce the thickness of, and impart a smooth surface to a rough piece of lumber or timber. Planing is used to produce horizontal, vertical, or inclined flat surfaces on...

 used to remove large amounts of wood from the surface of lumber, such as when eliminating cup or twist in the first stages of preparing rough stock, or when reducing the thickness of a board significantly. Scrub planes generally have a short soles, a relatively narrow but thick blade, a very wide mouth, and a deeply curved edge (of about a 3 inch radius) to make a deep, gouging cut.

A scrub plane is generally used in diagonal strokes across the face of a board, rather than parallel to the length of the board (along the grain) as with most other bench planes. In thicknessing or preparing rough stock, the scrub plane is usually followed by the jack plane

Jack plane

A jack plane is the general-purpose bench plane, used for general smoothing of the edges, sizing of wood and jointing edges. Jack planes are about 12-15 inches long, and the blade can have either a slightly circled edge for smoothing stock, or a curved edge for jointing stock.In preparing stock,...

, jointer plane

Jointer plane

The jointer plane is a type of hand plane used primarily to straighten the edges of boards in the operation known as jointing. A jointer plane may also be used to flatten the face of a board. Its long length is designed to 'ride over' the undulations of an uneven surface, skimming off the peaks,...

, then smoothing plane

Smoothing plane

A smoothing plane or smooth plane is a type of bench plane used in woodworking. The smoothing plane is typically the last plane used on a wood surface - when used properly, the finish it gives will be far superior to that made by sandpaper or scrapers...

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Its function in modern woodworking has been largely replaced by power tools such as the thickness planer

Thicknesser

A thickness planer is a woodworking machine which is used to create boards that are of an even thickness throughout their length and flat on both surfaces....

. A scrub plane can still be useful for planing boards too wide to fit through a thickness planer.