OldTools Archive

Recent Bios FAQ

99454 "Stevenson, Ted" <tstevenson@i...> 2001‑11‑08 Bio
Greetings, Galoots:
    I've been lurking for a month or so, but it's so dark and lonely
under the porch I decided to step into the light and be counted.
    I found OT when I began looking around on the web to get some
information about what turns out to be a Type 2 #7 that I've been toting
around for decades (with a bunch of other user tools acquired over don't
ask me how many years at yard sales, etc.). I'd purchased a R. Hock
replacement blade and discovered (as I now knowPatrick Leach reports in
B&G) that it was too thick to work properly without filing the mouth.
"Hmmmmm. Better find out what I've got here before I start filing," I
thought to myself. I came across the Type flow chart and identified not
only the #7, but a Type 4 #8 that I'd likewise been toting around for
eons. Anyway, filing will not be done on the Type 2; I'll go back to
trying to flatten the (not original) iron.
    As a woodworker, I've been involved off and on (more off than on)
since the mid-60's. I was apprentice to a harpsichord builder, starting
in '70, who recreated (as much as possible) the building tradition of
the 18th Century, materials, processes, structure, even decoration. For
better or worse, that didn't last, but it was interesting . . .
    Some miscellaneous cabinet jobs and spates of restoring Civil
War-era houses have been interspersed with mostly publishing work for
the last quarter-century. Five years ago, I got interested in wooden
boats (as I know a number of you are), and have been working on a
Shellback Dinghy for a good part of those years. (It's built now; all
that remains is about 100 hours of filling, sanding, painting, rigging.
Oh dear!) Other boatbuilding and furniture projects are lining up to
occupy the next few years.
    I'll end (for any brave souls who've read this far) with a
What-is-it? question. Once I started looking over my 'old tools,' I took
out and dusted off an old #3 bench plane that had been bequethed to me
by a retired carpenter friend. I'd been using it as a scrub. On
dismantling it for a good cleaning, I figured I'd "type" it using the
flow chart. But no luck. The only identifying mark on the entire tool is
on the iron (Stanley Sweetheart logo). The body has no cast ID of any
kind, BUT, the frog/bed mounting system -- and the form of the frog
itself -- are apparently identical to the BedRock design (as found on
B&G). That is a sloped (20 degree?), grooved, fully machined bed that
meets the tongued, fully machined frog. There is a single frog-adjusting
screw engaging a stud screwed to the frog proper, just as illustrated at
http://www.supertool.com/StanleyBG/bedprop.htm. The difference is that
the frog is retained by two screws into the bed, as with a Baily design.
Anyone know what this might be?
    Regards,
    Ted

--
Executive Editor, ISP & ASP channels
internet.com Corp. - The Internet & IT Network
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tstevenson@i...
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Recent Bios FAQ