Also known as ‘buzzers’, power planers use rotating blades to remove chips of wood as you move them along.
A hand planer uses a stationary blade and takes a lot more muscle power to move, as well as a lot more of your time.
Hint: Use a piece of scrap wood to rest the nose of your planer on when putting it down. Make sure the blades don’t touch the work surface as they could get blunted or soiled. If you make this a habit you won’t have to wait for the blades to stop spinning before putting your planer down.