Hey guys,
I had a visit from my Uncle Dave this past weekend, and he dropped off some more old tools for my growing collection. Among them was the plane shown below. I hadn't seen anything like this before and searched and searched on Google trying to figure out what it is, and finally discovered that it's called a pattern maker's plane, but that's about all I've been able to determine.
As many of you may recall me mentioning before, my grandfather was a master pattern maker who worked for Bagley & Sewell in the late 30s and early 40s. Bagley & Sewell was one of the preeminent manufacturers of paper making machinery located in Watertown, NY. Over the past several years, I've had some of his tools come into my possession, handed down from gramp to my 2 uncles to me. While this particular plane did not belong to grampy, but I found it interesting that this turns out to be a pattern maker's plane.
Anyway - here it is, and I would be interested to know if anyone has any insights. I could not find any badges or marks that might indicate a manufacturer.
The whole set. Each sole and corresponding iron is stamped with a number, 1 through 5
It's hard to see, but the initials "RS" are scratched into the right side.
This is the back side of the cap iron. It almost looks to me like this might be a modification by the craftsman that owned it. The numbers stamped on the back are truncated which leads me to believe maybe it was made from a piece of material from the scrap bin. Maybe the original used a regular wedge in place of this cap iron?? It's interesting to note that I've found that pattern makers seemed to make alot of their own special purpose tools. I have a number of items from my grandfathers tool chest like twist drill bits ground into a taper reamer and also into brad point bits with a very fine needle point.
Anyway - if anyone has any insights on this plane, or on pattern making in general, I'd be very appreciative for your thoughts.
Thanks!
Chris
I had a visit from my Uncle Dave this past weekend, and he dropped off some more old tools for my growing collection. Among them was the plane shown below. I hadn't seen anything like this before and searched and searched on Google trying to figure out what it is, and finally discovered that it's called a pattern maker's plane, but that's about all I've been able to determine.
As many of you may recall me mentioning before, my grandfather was a master pattern maker who worked for Bagley & Sewell in the late 30s and early 40s. Bagley & Sewell was one of the preeminent manufacturers of paper making machinery located in Watertown, NY. Over the past several years, I've had some of his tools come into my possession, handed down from gramp to my 2 uncles to me. While this particular plane did not belong to grampy, but I found it interesting that this turns out to be a pattern maker's plane.
Anyway - here it is, and I would be interested to know if anyone has any insights. I could not find any badges or marks that might indicate a manufacturer.
The whole set. Each sole and corresponding iron is stamped with a number, 1 through 5
It's hard to see, but the initials "RS" are scratched into the right side.
This is the back side of the cap iron. It almost looks to me like this might be a modification by the craftsman that owned it. The numbers stamped on the back are truncated which leads me to believe maybe it was made from a piece of material from the scrap bin. Maybe the original used a regular wedge in place of this cap iron?? It's interesting to note that I've found that pattern makers seemed to make alot of their own special purpose tools. I have a number of items from my grandfathers tool chest like twist drill bits ground into a taper reamer and also into brad point bits with a very fine needle point.
Anyway - if anyone has any insights on this plane, or on pattern making in general, I'd be very appreciative for your thoughts.
Thanks!
Chris