Jim Koepke or Other Wood Plane Experts/Collectors

[David Weaver]

.. I was planning on making a small wooden smoother at something higher than common pitch (like 55 degrees) post this habit of making infills, but earlier this week, someone on the oldtools list listed a tidy little 7" long coffin ssmoother at what appears to be steeper than common pitch for $10. Seller thought it was maybe user made, but seller described it as having the mark W. Scott on the front, which I think may be william scott. (I bought it already and am waiting for it - I can't get a good QS beech billet for $10, and I haven't seen a beech tree anywhere on the property).

This (maker info) is of interest to me because he made planes in the city where I live now, otherwise I wouldn't care as long as the plane can be made to work well.

Do the books have any info on him? The info on the internet is pretty scarce. All I can find is something of the sort of 1810-1840, made planes in two different locations and had a severe distaste for the supply of beech around here.

[John A. Callaway]

got a link to this old tools list. I tried google, found a webpage, but no classified listing section?

[David Weaver]

It's an email list. You have to subscribe to the mailing list from the page. It's a more focused discussion than here with a higher average post quality, but a totally different medium and lots fewer posts. People sell stuff on it from time to time, sometimes cheap.

I got the plane this evening when I came home from work. I think the seller may have been right, it's got W. scott all over it, so probably the user and not the maker. Nice plane, though, with a mathieson iron and very tidy chipreaker - small and steep.

[Larry Williams]

Can you post a photo? The steep bed angle combined with a double iron to me suggests a craftsman made plane but I'd like to see it.

[george wilson]

There was an 18th.C. cabinet maker in Williamsburg named Scott. I'd really like to see detailed shots of the plane,especially the beveled edges. The iron often isn't original,and it may be an 18th.C. plane.

WHERE ARE YOU LOCATED???

[David Weaver]

George - I'm in Pittsburgh.

I think the mortise is a bit of of square, and the mouth follows it on. I'll get some pictures of it. W.Scott is stamped all over the nose in every direction, and even on the back of the wedge.

[greg Forster]

Interested in the photo. I have a WScott molding plane and his imprint is
in very small letters.
There is a book (Amazon has) on Planemakers of western Pennsylvania, including Pittsburgh

[greg Forster]

I have a WScott molding plane. His imprint is in very small lettering

Amazon.com has book Planemakers of Western Pennsylvania including Pittsburgh

[Jim Koepke]

I remember most of what I have read on planes. Not sure that makes me an expert.

I am not too familiar with wooden body planes other than the ones in my shop.

jim

[David Weaver]

Yeah, this is near certainly marked by the user. W. SCOTT in capital letters, not small, and upside down, all over the place. I think, looking at the chamfers, that it may be a later and cheaper plane, but not sure. I'm less interested in wooden planes when it goes beyond using them.

I also noticed when using it that the wedge is well made, but it gets in the way at the end of the fingers (for lack of a better word) and I'll have to clean it up some for that. Could be shrinkage, don't know.

The iron is almost certainly not the original iron for the plane, as the one cheek has a tiny crack just at the top - at one time, the iron must've been tight, and this one's not remotely close to tight - it has plenty of room to move around, and no evidence of having been ground or belt sanded on the sides or anything.

ah well, false alarm. thought I might've sneaked another interesting plane after getting the cheap long JT brown jointer last month or whenever that was.

[Larry Williams]

From the photos I can't tell what the bed angle is. Can you measure the angle?

[David Weaver]

Larry, it's just a degree or two less than 55, between two planes that I have that I made that are 55 and 50, and closer to the 55.

[David Keller NC]

David - Your plane rather closely resembles the products of W. Marples - I've one at home with an intact label.

These types of smoothers are, of course, very very similar, but there are small dimensional differences that sometimes allow one to make an educated guess as to the manufacturer.

[David Weaver]

That would probably explain why the bevels look like they're machine done and more modern, and why the terminating cuts for the bevels are sort of "quick and dirty" looking.

[Larry Williams]

David,

Three things lead me to suspect your plane is craftsman made. The first is the grain orientation. While I've seen diagonal annular rings in professionally made old planes, I've never seen the wood turned so the bark face is up. The combination of extreme diagonal grain and the upside down orientation just doesn't appear to be professional. The second thing is the gouge cut relief for the cap iron screw nut. I can't recall ever seeing that before, these relief gains are rectilinear and not rounded. The third thing is a double iron at middle pitch. I've only seen that in a couple craftsman made infills and both those were Slater kits. While I am aware of one catalog listing of double iron planes at York pitch, every single professionally made old double iron plane I've seen is at common pitch. Common pitch in Great Britain was usually 47 1/2º and 45º in the US.

While probably not professionally made, the workmanship appears crisp and neatly executed.

[David Weaver]

Thanks for the assessment, Larry. I never noticed that it was upside down, the camera flash makes the grain a lot easier to see, otherwise it just looks dirty on the end.

I suppose it's convention with all professional makers that the bark side is the harder wood, and always down? I have no beech to tell how much harder it might be. The only place I've ever seen that mentioned elsewhere is in a WPINCA book that has a short section on planemaking, and mentions to always orient beech planes with the sole closest to the bark of the beech.

[David Keller NC]

Part of the reason for orienting the wood stock bark-side down for the sole and preferentially using the outside of the tree is that the rings are much closer together, and thus have more summer-growth wood as a total percentage than closer to the center of the tree, which has more spring growth as a percentage. In most species, summer growth is considerably harder and more dense than the spring growth.

[george wilson]

It looks like a fairly early plane from what I can see. The bolder chamfering is found on 18th.C. planes. Late in the 18th.C.,double irons were available in Philadelphia,and your plane was made for the double iron. I'd say fairly early 19th.C. Maybe 1830???

The iron is a late 19th.C. type with those tall bevels. 18th.C. irons had round tops. then,they got lazy,and beveled off the top with 2- 45 degree bevels. The bevels steepened later in the 19th.C.,and into the 20th.C..

True,the wood was used upside down,but they were pretty frugal,and probably wouldn't have rejected a plane with the mortise cut in by the time they discovered it. The folding rule we made copies of was mis- numbered totally wrong in a spot,but they sold it anyway,maybe as a second. We numbered the copies correctly!!