The decline of wooden planes (iii)

While the use of wooden planes declined in North America, the same could not be said elsewhere. In the great bastion of plane-making, England, the preference was more for an amalgam of wood and steel: the infill plane. Not that the idea was anything new. Turn back the clock 2000 years to the times of the Romans, and one will find metal planes with a wooden core. So whilst North America surged ahead with the notion of completed metal planes (apart from the handles), across the Atlantic, infill planes evolved. These planes pre-date those in the the America’s likely appearing in the late 1700’s, as high-end mitre planes. The method of construction involved joining plates of iron using dovetails to form a “box”, which would be filled with wood held in place by screws or pins. These mitre planes may have been the fore-bearers of the block plane, being used to shear end-grain fibres. The method of construction differentiated these planes from their cross-ocean brethren, as casting was still in its infancy.

Apart from North America, and the U.K., metal planes did not largely impact wooden plane makers on mainland Europe, or Asian countries like Japan, where wooden plane manufacturing is still alive. It is hard to understand why metal planes did not take off in Europe as they did eventually across the channel. Tradition? In the Germanic countries there has always been a long tradition in the use of wooden planes. In Germany, where horned wooden planes are king,  there are companies like E. C. Emmerich, and Ulmia which today still manufacture a large number of wooden planes. In France, there were tool companies like Goldenberg. The Japanese also continue to produce simple wooden planes that work exceptionally well. Recently, wooden planes have made a comeback in North America through the likes of bespoke makers like J Wilding.

The decline of wooden planes (ii)

The second reason the use of wooden planes declined is the introduction of metal planes. On August 24, 1827, a patent was assigned to Hazard Knowles of Colchester, Connecticut, for “Plane stocks of cast iron“. This is the earliest known patent, but of course this doesn’t preclude other metal planes having been invented at an earlier time.

Patent No.4859X (1827)

This one patent in itself did not lead to an overnight demise of wooden planes, but it did contribute to an evolution of metal plane patents. (There is a possibility that there were more patents related to iron planes, but an 1836 fire in the Patent Office, resulted in only 2,845 patents being saved – all patents with an X are pre-1836).

Some of the benefits of metal planes over their wooden brethren was the fact that cast iron provided a more wear resistant sole than wood, but even more important were the improvements in the alignment and adjustment of blades. It is much more difficult to maintain consistency using a wooden wedge to hold the iron in a wooden plane. A patent by William S. Loughborough in 1854, furthered the cause. This patent (No.10,748) described a means of fastening the blade on a metal plane, touting the benefit of being able to easily adjust the throat opening.

Patent No.10,748 (1854)

The patent of 1859 (No.23,928) was for an improved bench plane (actually looks more like a skew-smoother), and described the idea of a screw to maintain the lever cap, and an adjustable parallel fence. The Loughborough was manufactured by George and John Telford. Their ad (1867) below shows plow, filister, and smoother planes.

New York State Business Directory (1867)

Telford did not survive beyond the late 1860s. The Metallic Plane Co. of Auburn NY, manufactured places from 1867-1880. In an advertisement for PERFECT METAL PLANES, by E.G. Storke in 1870, the virtues of the metal plane were extolled.

“Perfect Metal Planes
Have long been sought, and are at length made, and prove a great BOON to WOOD-WORKERS. They are light, CHEAP, and durable. Work very EASILY and PERFECTLY on hard, soft or eaty timber, or on end-wood, and are very convenient. The CUTTING IRONS, now generally so poor, are, by us, all WARRANTED SUPER-EXCELLENT, TRY THEM.”

None of these small companies lasted long, but that was probably due to an inability to advertise the benefits of their product, rather than a deficient product. It was to take the larger companies like Sargent and Stanley to usher in the age of the metal plane.

 

The decline of wooden planes (i)

The decline of the wooden plane in North America began around the 1850s, and was partially due to an expansion of the population, and in urban regions, resulting in increased demands for processed lumber. Machines were developed to replace some of the more time-consuming manual methods of processing lumber – sawing, moulding, and floor board planing. Imagine a floor board cut using vertical sawmill, e.g. muley saw, with a width anywhere from 12-16″, and a length way beyond 12 feet. The resulting rough side used as the top of the floor  would have to be planed by hand. The sides would have to be hand planed to form a rabbet joint, allowing for a “ship-lap” joint between floor boards. The introduction of the Woodworth Planing Machine (developed by WIlliam Woodworth, Poughkeepsie, NY)  in the 1820s revolutionized the processing of lumber for floors, and mouldings. This planing machine evolved into a series of forms, each adapted to a particular product.

Patent 5315X, W. Woodworth, “Planing and Matching Machine”, Dec.27, 1828

Of course, more machinery meant less demand for wooden hand planes. Yet, machinery was not the only harbinger of the wooden plane’s demise. There was also the rise of metal planes.

A tale of two wooden planes.

People often think that just because a plane is vintage, then it automatically must be valuable, right? Unfortunately the reality is not so. Sometimes, planes were, like everything else, mass-produced so their value is limited – except of course in a historical context. Here are two examples.

The first plane is a 16″ wooden razee jack plane made by Greenfield Tool Co. of Greenfield Massachusetts (1851-1883).

Fig 1: Greenfield razee jack plane

 

This plane is a more mass-produced entity, with less regard to quality. This is evident in three areas of the plane. Firstly there are a series of vertical cracks in the toe of the plane, the largest of which travels towards the strike button, and continues through to the mouth of the plane- indicative of a weakness in the structure of the plane body. Secondly looking at the recess in the blade bed to hold the chip-breaker bolt-head, it seems somewhat poorly constructed. The closed handle offers another indication, where the inner edge shows a lack of finishing. These were likely utilitarian planes, not meant to last 100 years. Wooden plane bodies could always be replaced, blades could be re-used.

Fig 2: Defects in the Greenfield jack plane

 

These planes were often made of beech. Were the plane body made of straight grain (vertical), the sole of the plane will not wear easily, but had a tendency to crack. Were the plane body made of flat grain (horizontal), it will wear quicker, but not crack as easily. This plane has flat grain, so it shouldn’t have cracked as badly as it did, suggesting that the wood was not entirely dry before the plane was built, and blows to the strike button caused cracking over time. The plane may have some value as it sports  the less common closed type tote which is rarely seen on a jack plane.

Fig 3: Pearce No.109 jack plane

The second plane is a J. PEARCE NEW YORK No. 109 jack plane with an open-style tote. This “2nd” line of bench planes was sold to New York tool stores and wholesalers by H. Chapin’s Union Factory (1828-1865). Now this plane could be older, but its construction is much better. It is likely also made of beech. There are very few defects in this plane. The most prominent damage to the mouth of the plane is caused by wear, resulting in shavings that would not be very fine – which may be okay if used as a roughing plane. This can be fixed by replacing the section with a hardwood inlay. There are also some minor radial cracks in the body – the body is composed of a a block of quarter-sawn wood with the tree rings radiating out from the top-left corner of the toe.

Fig 4: Defects in the Greenfield jack plane

Both these planes are worth somewhere between $10-20. Actually the tapered blade of the Pearce No. 109 may be worth more than the plane itself. At some point I will restore both planes, and post the process.