Toolemera Blog

Chopped n Channeled Block Plane

There has been a whole lotta discussion lately about the new Veritas block plane. Some love it, some hate it, some beat their savage chests (must keep this blog G rated) and cry 'woe! the death of fine tool design draws nigh!". I consider the Stanley #55 or even the #444 and say "nay!"

Yes, again I say "Nay!". The 55 and the 444 are good examples of design gone mad. Clumsy to hold, too many googaws n gadgets. Funny to look at and impossible to love unless you are a diehard Stanley collector. At last, someone has taken the bull by horns and solved the problem of what to with the new Veritas Block Plane.

Mitchell, aka The Part Time Woodworker, has seen fit to produce an adaptation of this very block plane that exemplifies industrial design at it's finest. If function dictates form, then adaptation of function must further alter form. I am pleased to offer to you The Part Time Woodworker's adaptation of the Veritas Block Plane...

Till next, Gary

DELTA Bandsaw Prototype

On occasion, protoypes of particularly famous tools show up. Sometimes we know for sure that this is a prototype because it's labeled so. Sometimes it's wish fulfillment on the part of the collector. By prototype we mean it's truly one of a kind and of the earliest manufacture. Sometimes we have photographic evidence that is proof positive of the accuracy of the claim to "prototype" for a well known tool or piece of machinery.

This is one of those instances. I came across this photograph on an online auction. It looked interesting and was certainly a good buy, so I bought it. Although there are no brand name marks on the print, my guess is somewhere in the 1940's. If anyone is an expert in dating the fedora, please chime in. On close examination, it became clear to me that this was one of those rare instances of documentary evidence of the development of what has become the most recognizable design for a bandsaw, the Delta Bandsaw.

My guess is that this is a photograph of the inventor of the Delta Bandsaw, I. B. Delta (known to his friends as Mr. OSHA, witness his use of blade guards, eye & hearing protection as well as the classic nine fingered hold). Clearly proud of his work, you can see he has dressed for his portrait, complete with his favorite fedora, pipe, three-piece suit and tie. No overalls or sweaty workshirts for this photograph. I am also guessing that the tools hanging on the wall behind Mr. Delta are the very same tools used to make this prototype. Keyhole saws of various toothing, clamps, a brace and a level. What more could he have needed to produce this prototype? It's the answer to that age old quandry: How do you build a piece of machinery if you don't have machinery? The answer is here before us in this important piece of Tool History.

If anyone, and I do mean anyone, has further information regarding this photograph, please contact Delta directly. They are anxious to learn of any first-person accounts of the taking of this image.

 

Till next, Gary

................................................>>>>

News Flash! Raymond McInnis of WoodworkingHistory.com fame, sent this item from a new post at his site. We know now that this was a Popular Mechanics "Forty Tools You Can Make' feature from 1941. At least I got the year right. Once again, what was thought to be a prototype ended up being anything but one. Please don't send any emails to Delta concerning this bandsaw. Send them to Populat Mechanics instead.

 

Gary

Granfurdeus Begats

While sifting through old documents, I came upon this little bit of history that I wrote up a few years ago concerning the famous British Planemaker, John Green and the connections to one Phillipson and Thomas Granford. Herewith in full is...

Granfurdeus Begats

I was curious about the relationships between Grandpa Furdeus (at one time thought to be Thomas Grandford) and Thomas Phillipson after comparing the similarities between the planes. After a bit of investigation, herewith are my discoveries...

Granfurdeus Begats

Yeah and did Thomas Granford take unto his trade Robert Wooding in  1699.  Wooding did marry Elizabeth in 1708. Fortune refused to shine  upon his house and poore Elizabeth died in 1710. Wooding, ever the bon vivant, did take unto his marriage  bed Ann Gibbons, now Ann Wooding, in  the year 1713 (this being the year in which he did take Thomas  Granford's business of the Shoppe of the Three Planes, locke stocke and  barrele). Robert ate a bad sausage (sic) and passed away in 1728. In  that year, 1728 did Ann Wooding take unto her self an apprentice, Thomas  Phillipson. Following this did she take James Clark and Robert Fitkin as  apprentices too. Yeah and Ann Wooding was a lusty mistress!

Thomas Phillipson took unto himself nine apprentices between 1740 and  1759. Verily only four are known to have been planemakers. Thomas must  have been a difficult and demanding master! So did he put forth unto the  Planemaking World Edward Hill (1754), John Green (1756), John Day (1759)  and J. A. Wealthdale (1744). As did his wife, Susannah. Oh! Susannah!  did take five apprentices of her own of which naught is known. Verily  did the mistresses of planedom go through many an apprentice.

John Green, once attaining his fullness, made planes under many Naymes  and of many Playces... John Green of London and John Green of London,  John Green of York, John Green again of York. Then did John Green, no  not that John Green, the other John Green, did take as to an apprentice  Richard Bywater (1799), John Burton (1794) and Joseph Watson (who knows  whence he came).

Upon the Death of John Green (no not that John Green, The John Green),  did William Ferrand, known as John Green the former's Cousin and Robert  Wilkinson, who had worked for John Green the later did purchase at a  reasonable price the holdings of John Green. It doesn't matter which  John Green. Just be assured that it was one of the John Greens. In the  true fashion of Honesty in Business did Ferrand and Wilkinson make and  issue planes bearing the stamp of John Green, tho he be long mouldering  in his grave.

Of note is Thomas Phillipsons introduction of the Phillipson Pattern  chamfer termination, so unlike that of his predecessors. His chamfers  did stop abrubtly without the grace of the single or double gouge  reliefe of those who came before him. Howsoever this labour saving  fashion did catch on with his apprentices and Yeah even with  compatriots, many of whom adopted said termination in their vain efforts  to earn gold from the shirt tails of he who traced his lineage to  Granfurdeus.

Thus ends the Begats of Granfurdeus.

Till next, Gary

Old Tools & Old Tradesmen

Every now and then I take the time to look back through some of the photographs in my collection. It's hard enough finding early images in good shape, let alone those that feature trades and industries. My particular interest is wood, although leather workers creep in there too. Here and there I can turn up an image of a tradesman and the toolchest that held the tools of his trade. Ok, so that last sentence was a bit repetitive.

I thought I would revisit a few images that normally live over at The Toolemera Press website (cheap advertising at it's best). Here are a few that I particularly like. Some cabinet cards, an ambrotypes, a Carte de Visite, a cyanotype..

I hope you enjoy them as much as I do

Till next

Gary

 

Sometimes a Great Notion

Every now and then I come across an image that sticks in my head. Something that causes me to pause, to consider the ramifications of hand tools and the effect they can have on our lives, something that leaves me wondering... why didn't I think of that? Here is just such an image for your consideration. I can't remember just where it came from, but I hope that the originator of the photograph steps forward to claim ownership. Or perhaps not.

Rather than discuss the intrinsic and deeply philosophical implications of this particular image, I will instead leave you with this question for today:

When was the last time you needed to saw a bowling ball in half, and how did you accomplish this task?

Till next
Gary

PS: I checked the Disstonian Institute in order to identify this Bowling Ball Saw. Unfortunately, I could not find it listed. If anyone knows of a catalog that displayed this model, please contact me.

PPS: Seems it's Tom Price recycling bowling balls into black pens. Let's all send Tom our used bowling balls, now that we know what to do with them.