Feeding Platform

• Lack of a feed table can cause those annoying little marks called snipes. Putting together a level ramp and feed station in front of the woodworking device, as well as on the lee side, should be the first priority in getting wood to pass smoothly through a planer without any marks. These ramps must be level and in line with the platform of the planer, so make sure that tool is installed correctly.
  
  

Continuous Feed

• One suggestion to eliminate molding snipe is to use a continuous feed. Instead of placing one board at a time in the floor model planer, pushing it all the way through and then pausing a while until you start the next board, run the boards back to back, so the pressure never lets up off the wood until every piece is run through the planer.
  
  

Adjust the Machine

• Many professional woodworkers use a planer machine with a four-moulder head. When properly adjusted, this powerful tool can do an excellent job of shaping moldings, but the machine has to be set just right and the wood stock has to be close in size to the finished product. In other words, the machine works best when it doesn't have to remove a lot of extra wood and the variable settings are correct.
  
  

Snipe Bill Plane

• Before power planes, most moldings were planed by hand. One 19th century catalog published in 1816 featured 68 different types of molding planes, five of which were officially known as snipes bill planes. These were usually sold in pairs and employed in shaping angled cuts in the wood. During the 18th and 19th centuries, wood from North American forests grew abundantly and was harvested and crafted by woodworkers to form elaborate moldings. During those years, both American and British companies excelled in producing beautiful hand-planed moldings. The name may have come from the woodland bird with the unusual looking bill.