OldTools Archive

Recent Bios FAQ

270454 scott grandstaff <scottg@s...> 2020‑04‑08 Re: Old Bony
I can't see why it has such a wide blade for such a narrow job.

Theories
The plane is truly gigantic for a tongue plane
It cuts a 3/8" X 5/8"  tongue onto ~1 3/4" stock.

    I don't think this was a home shop or even a one man custom 
furniture shop tool.
  I think this one was industrial.
   In industry there are always certain jobs that really suck. And if 
you work there long enough and have to do that job often, a custom tool 
-will- be made.

I must have made 10 custom tools for Noranda Gray Eagle mine. You just 
get tired of doing things the hard way.   (Wait until I'm good and dead, 
and mine is closed down, and a couple generations go by. Any of those 
tools that survive? Nobody will know what 'n hell I was thinkin! hahahaaah)

   So I expect this plane was for maybe an upright grand piano factory 
or maybe something to with fancy railroad cars? Elaborate bars or churches?
Keokuk is right on the river. So river steamer parts might have even 
been the need!!
Whatever it was, overlarge pieces of stock needed to be 
joined................ frequently.

   The plane is very well made. Since it has a hardware store mark I am 
guessing a custom order.  I wonder if Sandusky (not far away) had a 
custom shop? Where you could order "off the menu" tools?
Or one of the other big planemakers where you could order something 
special?

   A local craftsman of expert skill could have been enlisted, but the 
arms and screws do not look casual.
  http://users.snowcrest.net/kitty/sgrandstaff/images/oldtools/tongueplane5.JPG

  I'm sure the bone lining was all about "the last one didn't last long 
enough, this time we are making sure it holds up"
  And man they weren't kidding! Look how much bone there is. Even the 
top of the tongue is paved in bone.

http://users.snowcrest.net/kitty/sgrandstaff/images/oldtools/tongueplane4.JPG

So again custom factory plane shop,
or maybe ordered from the factory plain, and then locally inlaid after 
the plane was made?

The bone pieces themselves are huge. Solid straight workable bone is 
hard to get this big.
     yours scott



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    Scott Grandstaff
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Recent Bios FAQ