Plane Chatter

Stereotype Plane

In Ben Franklin's day, printers assembled individual pieces of type to make their printing plates. This worked well for limited editions, but the type metal wore down after a while and limited the number of copies that could be made. As printing volume increased, the chore of resetting the same text by hand became onerous. A better way was devised. A mold was made from the handset type, and type metal was cast into this mold. By this "stereotype" process, as many printing plates as needed were produced.

The stereotype plate as it came out of the mold had to be trimmed to fit the press. The back was planed to ensure flatness and its rough edges sawn off. The edges were planed, using stereotype planes on an iron shooting board. This equipment was described in Knight's dictionary.1 These planes are almost always of metal. One is shown in Sellens.2

The plane of Figure 1 was acquired as a "whatsit" at a Connecticut auction in 1973, and remained a puzzle for some time. The tool was well made (but not by a professional planemaker). The stock was made of hardwood, in two pieces, to simplify forming the wedge mortise. The sole and the side opposite the tote were sheathed in a single sheet of steel, and the upper beveled surface was covered with a similar sheath. Flathead screws held these on. These heads showed wear consistent with use on a metal shooting board. The skewed and untapcrcd iron, 1/8 X 11/16-inch in section, is sharpened at thirty degrees. The tote is of the shape seen in other printing planes.

This tool is believed to be a wooden version of a stereotype plane, but we welcome confirmation (or disputation). Have you seen similar tools?

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From Robin H. Wyllie, Nova Scotia: "In the September column, the possibility of a through hole providing a second escapement for a tongue plane by H. Wilson is discussed. However, close examination of a virtually identical plane by John Miller found that the form of the lower portion of the wedge actually directs shavings away from the left side of the through hole.3

"The only advantage of the hole becomes apparent in use, when it provides an excellent grip for the left thumb. That this was its sole purpose is borne out by the 1/8-inch chamfer around the left edge of the through hole, and some indication of usage wear on the forward part of same."

Wyllie adds that Wilson succeeded Miller at 38 Clayton Street and was probably his former apprentice. G. Eastwood of York made similar planes, suggesting that the thumb-hole was a regional characteristic. he found no instance of such an escapement in other plane types (barring the oversize rabbet openings in Continental rabbets). Can you find a similar escapement in your planes?

In a telephone conversation with John Jones, a veteran sashmaker in England, he denied seeing a meeting rail of the form produced by the Ohio Tool Co., (no. 1353/4), which was pictured in the December column.4 He might have taken this tool for a sash bar plane, barring the absence of spring. Mr. Jones added that he has a meeting rail plane whose profile adds a rabbet to the rail. Intruders had found that it was possible to open the window lock by slipping a knife between the usual meeting rails, and the modified form prevented this.

John Walkowiak pointed out an interesting plane on eBay (no. 3215189880). It is a tool variously called a Z^plane or a double-chamfer plane,5 but with the addition of a fence, which could be mounted on either side of the V. This undoubtedly improves its performance as a chamfer plane. It seems strange that this form is not more common.

Notes

1. Knight's American Mechanical Dictionary reprint of 1876 edition), reprint (So. Dartmouth, Mass.: MWTCA and E.A.I.A., 1979), 2,379.

2. Alvin Sellens, Dictionary of American Hand Tools (Published by Alvin Sellens, 1990), 355.

3. The Chronicle, 55, no. 3 (2002): 126.

4. The Chronicle, 55, no. 4 (2002): 168.

5. J. M. Whelan, The Wooden Plane, (Mendham, N.J.: Astragal Press, 1998), figure 8:16A.

First and foremost, Sue Kinsey is the wife of longtime EAIA member, Ted Kinsey. For the past fifteen years, Sue has been an interpreter at Genesee Country Museum in New York. She has done open hearth cooking for many years, and has accumulated a lot of nineteenth-century kitchen utensils and cookbooks. Growing heritage vegetables to use in period recipes is also a gardening interest of Sue's.

Copyright Early American Industries Association Jun 2003
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