Birdsill Holly – the first metal block plane

Many people likely think the first true metal block plane was the Stanley No.9½, which appeared in 1872, but it wasn’t the first block plane. The first cast iron plane produced in North America was that of Hazard Knowles, in 1827. The first cast iron block planes were actually produced by Birdsill Holly in the 1850s. Born in 1820 in Auburn NY, at the age of 10 Birdsill Holly first apprenticed to a cabinetmaker, then a machinist. Although only having a 3rd grade education, Holly was a natural inventor. In 1848 together with Horace C. Silsby and Washburn Race Holly formed the company Silsby, Race & Holly Co. located in Seneca Falls NY. There he was the visionary behind the manufacture of hydraulic machinery and steam-powered fire engines.

The bench plane from Birdsill Holly‘s patent (US9,094)

The planes produced by Holly were very interesting, but honestly they seemed like a bit of a sideline because the company did not manufacture the planes for very long, only 1852-1859. In 1852 Holly received a patent (No.9094) for a “Hand-plane”, with improvements to metal hand planes, and began producing planes. The bench planes had a novel design with the base basically in the form of a flat iron. Instead of the blade being held in the plane by a wooden wedge, this new design used a metal sleeve with a locking screw. The underside of the sole in these bench planes sometimes incorporated relief holes to reduce friction, and other times offset corrugations, one of the first manufactures to incorporate this technology.

The bench planes were followed by what is arguably the first true metal block plane. The block plane had a tapered, boat-like shape, with a “shoebuckle” lever cap design. The lever cap essentially had cutouts in it, and pivots on the same type of metal rod found in simple block planes. A metal wedge or pin made or cast iron or brass would be slid in to hold the cutter down. Later versions had a brass screw cap to lock the lever cap against the cutter. There are very few of these block planes, and likely they were never commercially manufactured. However the plane design did contribute heavily to the development of the Stanley No.110 block plane, one of Stanley’s earliest designs. The 110 was essentially a complete rip-off of the Holly’s plane, but was completely legal as Holly has never patented the design. The other amazing thing about this block plane is that fact that it had 15° bed angle.

The Holly block plane

In 1859, around the time plane manufacturing ended, Holly created his own company, Holly Manufacturing Company in Lockport NY, where he worked on fire protection systems. In 1877 Holly formed Holly Steam Combination Company, working on a steam heating system. By the end of his life in 1894 Holly had amassed more than 150 patents. These block planes, if you are fortunate enough to find one, sell for upwards of US$1000 these days.

What steel was used in vintage plane blades?

Modern planes come blades made of exotic types of steel, but what about vintage planes? For instance, what sort of steel did the Stanley’s use?

The short brochure “Read this before you use STANLEY PLANES”, describes the blades. It appears that for several generations the steel used In Stanley Plane Cutters was made for Stanley in one of the steel mills in Sheffield, England and was known as “Composite” Steel. It was comprised of a cutting edge of “very high carbon, crucible steel, alloyed with tungsten, manganese and other elements in ideal proportions”, and a softer backer made of lower carbon crucible steel. Both were welded together when cast, and made of the best quality Swedish pig iron.

A Stanley composite steel blade

It is hard to know exactly how long Stanley made these composite blades. There is no mention of composite steel in the 1906 Stanley catalog, just “English Steel”. Examining the various catalogs over the years, it is not until No.129 published in 1929 that there is any mention of composite steel. In Catalog No.34 (1915) it describes the use of “the finest quality English steel”, and by Catalog No.34 (1942) is had changed made in Sheffield, England from “the very best grade of Swedish iron”.

Sargent planes of the VBM type, short for Very Best Made, had blades made of the Very Best Tool Steel, whatever that seems to mean (it was a phrase used by many tool companies). Union planes were made out of “a superior grade of heavy steel”. A 1939 catalog from Swedish company E.A.Berg talks about “best quality Swedish steel”, compound-steel, and “Swedish Charcoal Steel”, but fails to discuss specifics. Maybe it was a proprietary blend, or perhaps they just felt that people wouldn’t be interested in the “chemistry” side of things.

Record took great effort to make sure its blade steel was special.

Record made it well known that their blades were made using Tungsten steel. The concept is explained in Planecraft, first published in 1934. The tungsten combines with carbon to form tungsten carbide, a metal used in machine tools for high speed cutting of metals. Basically “a plane iron containing the correct amount of Tungsten is harder and more resistant to wear, and will take a keener cutting edge, and hold it for a longer period than would an ordinary steel.“. The tungsten also helps create a very small grain size, making a blade more resistant to shock.

Why did so much of the blade steel seem to come from Sweden? Swedish iron ore deposits contain small percentages of the element vanadium, which makes steel produced from it a natural alloy. The presence of vanadium allows production of a tough, fine-grained steel whose high tensile strength is not crippled by brittleness.