Cabbage Cutters and Planes

A wooden plank with a hole cut into it for an adjustable steel blade is called a cabbage plane or cabbage cutter. In America, it dates back at least to the eighteenth century. Sometimes the planks were carved with a date, a fancy cutout hanging hole, initials, or even a heart at one end. Such a tool is much safer to use than a chopping knife when slicing and shredding a large, unwieldy, and heavy head of cabbage. In fact, many were made with a box enclosure for the cabbage to use in passing it back and forth over the very sharp blade.