# Why are "Thicknessers" called "Planers" in the US ? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [January 28, 2013, 9:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-thicknessers-called-planers-in-the-us/648657 "2013-01-28T21:34:32Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 1\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Dereknocue67](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/6de8d8/32.png) [@Dereknocue67](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dereknocue67)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2013, 6:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-thicknessers-called-planers-in-the-us/648657/41 "2013-01-30T18:25:04Z")
> [@Bones\_Daley](#): > > The thickness planer cuts a duplicate of the surface on the reverse side of the board …it does NOT , of and by itself, create a plane surface. > > If the reverse side of the board is warped, or twisted, then the thickness planer will produce a warped or twisted face on the freshly machined side. If the reverse side of the board is plane to start with, then, of course, the thicknesser will produce a plane surface on the freshly machined side. > > My beef with the nomenclature is that you cannot take a roughsawn board, feed it straight into a so-called _PLANER_ [US] , and get a plane surface. Hence the reason why we don’t call them "planers " over here, and why we call the machine which actually generates an initial plane surface a “planer” (which in the USA you term a joinTer) > > I just know somebody is going to jump in and explain that you \*\*\*can \*\*\*actually generate an initial plane surface using a _PLANER_ [US] and yes, you can, but it’s a bit of a longwinded procedure … I agree which is why I said it “creates a flat and level surface on one side of the board in relation to the flat and level surface on the opposite of the board that was created with the jointer.” [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-thicknessers-called-planers-in-the-us/648657.md?page=2)