The first corrugations and adjustable throat

[James Taglienti]

If anyone ever wondered who pioneered adjustable throats and corrugations on iron planes, it was these guys in the 1860's. Nelson and Sidney Palmer, and Elliot Storke, respectively. Evidently it was decades before Stanley decided to copy the corrugations. I am amazed that there aren't more examples of bench planes with adjustable throats.
Sadly this plane makes a poor user because the blade support is nearly nil. The front knob is nearly bulletproof and the throat adjustment works wonderfully. Evidently they sunk all of their money into milling the toes of their planes because the frog is worse than bad- it is nonexistent. The blade is supported by about 3/8" of steel by the mouth and a flimsy cross rib at it's rear. I have never gotten chatter from a tapered iron before, but this plane made that experience possible.
Still it is interesting in a historical sort of way. Once I used it, however, the attraction factor switched from "That thing probably works great" to "rubbernecking at a car wreck."

[Mark Casper]

Interesting...I just saw one of these at a local auction a couple of weeks ago, except this one had an all-metal front knob. I had never seen one of these planes before then. Thanks for posting.

[James Taglienti]

yea, they made those too... how much did it go for, if you recall?

[Mark Casper]

I definitely recall since I was bidding on it against one other person. My last bid was $135, and he got it for $145 + 10% buyer's premium and tax. So his final cost was about $170.

[James Taglienti]

holy macaroni

[Phillip Pattee]

Can you post a picture of the frog? I am interested in the design, and wonder why they would put so much thought into the mouth, tapered blade, and knobs, but so little into the frog and bedding of the blade.

[James Taglienti]

Here is the invisible frog. It is an even bigger joke than i remembered. No wonder these guys went belly up... Stanley didn't even attempt to buy them out.

[Sam Takeuchi]

Maybe if you could make a hardwood filling there to form a bed, it might do a pretty good job. Kind of like infill frog.

[Phillip Pattee]

Holy cow:eek:. What a joke. I was asking myself just how bad could that frog be? You could just use your hand to hold the blade and do about as well.

[Steve Clardy]

I don't see a frog. Lol

[James Taglienti]

It is really frustrating. The plane itself has great balance, it is short and wide like an infill smoother, it accepts any iron, sole is dead flat, etc- but it is damn near impossible to get a reliable cut. I would modify it but it will lose value - Sam had a pretty good idea of just sticking a wood block in there, i might try that.

[Joe Rogers]

That (the wood block fitted to fill out the frog area) was my first thought too. If carefully done it would be self retaining and easily removeable if a sale was in the offing. I would definately try it.
JR

[Ken Werner]

Very interesting plane James, thanks for showing the photos. Unless the plane has other value to you, perhaps selling it to the highest bidder and putting the money into a quality user is what I'd do. The infill idea is cool.