dave in fairfax wrote in message ...

Good question but you've been distracted by the two differnt
places of use for the planes, face and side. Jointing is done to
the side of the board with a shooting board.

Respecfully, I think you miswrote here.

Jointing is done to the side (edge to clear) of a board, or
to the edges of two boards clamped together which are to be
edge-joined to make a panel. This is sometimes done with a
jointer fence attached to the plane, but so long as the boards
are clamped together face-to-face or back-to-back the fence
isn't needed as any beveling of the jonted edges will be
suplimentary (e.g. match) to give a flat panel when edge
glued. However a long plane is a big help so as to not
crown the edges from end to end. A long straght edge used
as a guide WOULD make it possible to joint with a short plane,
a 4 1/2 for instance, but I have never seen that done or
even heard of it.

Beveling can be done with a fence on a jointer plane and the
combination of the #6 fore plane with the # 286 jointer fence
(I think that is the right number) was popular among boatwrights.
My guess is the shorter #6 (as oppesd to a #7 or #8 made it
possible to bevel the edges of longish planks while also slightly
crowning them to conform to the complex curvature of the side of
a boat.

I admit to never having used a shooting board, but have seen them
used and typically a shooting board is used to clean up a saw cut
and trim to exactly the correct angle a crosscut of some ilk,
such as a miter cut. Thus a shooting board typically is used to
guide the plane while trimming the endgrain of the board.
A shooting board may be used is used in place of a miter trimmer
or a discsander with miter gague for doing the corners for picture
flames and such.

I don't see how a shooting board could be used to edge joint
a board, though I have heard jointing referred to as 'shooting
the edge' of the board, by Roy Underhill.

... Flattening the
face of the board is where the length begins to matter. In
theory, a longer plane won't follow the ups and downs of the board
but will span them instead. For this a #6 or better will be
necessary if it's a long board. The plane needs to be of decent
size compared to the board, but if the board is short, say under
3', even a #5 will work adequately.

No disagreement here.

--

FF