Jay,

You know where I'm going with this. Ha!

In The Berner Oberland, and much of Bern in general, planing is extremely refined and important.
Planing is, in fact, the first step of timber layout when laying out a frame or log wall. The timbers are planed to incredibly precise dimensions and angles so that the scribing process is simple, and so that joints can be expected to fit wonderfully withou the need to cut housings.

In the Oberland, they have made an art of planing. Literally. They have wide planes with blades maybe as wide as 6" (gasp) and take off long, smooth shavings. Then they make things out of these: Cheese forms, baskets, buckets, and some artistic items. It is very difficult to make the shavings needed, especially for the cheese forms which need long, wide shavings -5 or 6 inches wide and maybe 4 feet long of a constant thickness. These have to be consistent so they can be bent into a constant circle.

My favorite is the 'Fügeboum' which is a giant jointing plane. This is about 6 feet long and cuts a rabbet. The point is to make a very flat surface along the length of the timber.
two corners are planed to precise dimensions, then the ridge between smoothed off.