A new addition to the steel block plane collection (C$12), and in seemingly great condition.
The TWIX company of New York state (Long Island City) made a couple of pressed-steel block planes. The one described below has a blade adjustment mechanism, but others had none. This steel block plane is one of the longer ones, at 7¼”. The entire housing seems kind-of compact, as the walls of the plane maintain their height for a good length of the plane. The lever cap therefore sits quite low in the plane, allowing limited access to its thumbwheel. This compactness also makes the knob on the front of the plane oversized – this is also one of the few steel block planes which use a wooden knob.
This is a unique plane in many ways, not least of which the depth adjustment mechanism used. A sled-based system, it used a tab integrated into the planes “frog”, which meshed with a horizontal slit in the blade. To facilitate lateral adjustment there is also a vertical slot on the top of the blade. Unusually, the TWIX trademark is oriented toward the back of the plane (which makes little sense, as it is covered by the lever cap).
Here you can see the combined depth and lateral adjustment mechanisms. The depth adjustment mechanism is a simple knurled knob which is attached to a machine screw which moves the sled. The lateral adjustment mechanism is also very simple, using an integral lever with a tab, which can be moved from side-to-side. The tab meshes with the vertical slot in the blade, adjusting it left or right. The blade is then held in position by the clamp screw.
This is an odd, yet lovable kind of plane…. and its shape kind-of reminds me of a steam locomotive with a large spark-arresting funnel. There were a number of variants of these planes, but it seems hard to find much out about the company TWIX.
working by hand 