New guy with "new" plane

[Clark Christenson]

I've enjoyed lurking on this forum for the last year or two and have certainly learned a lot. Hopefully this thread can start sharing some of that knowledge.

Just yesterday I found a unique plane and decided that the $8 investment was worth it. There isn't any name or obvious markings on the beech plane body.

http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y179/bcaleem/Plane/IMG_0860_zps02b8b797.jpg

Dimensions are 12" long, 3" wide and 2 3/4" tall.

The convex sole is what originally drew me to this plane, the radius is about 16".

http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y179/bcaleem/Plane/IMG_0862_zps253307b3.jpg

After lightly cleaning it the marks of a knife or similar hand tool soon become apparent.

http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y179/bcaleem/Plane/IMG_0861_zps1b277fc5.jpg

The throat is, I think, a bit large but I really don't know anything about these hand made planes.

http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y179/bcaleem/Plane/IMG_0863_zps96b1880e.jpg

After cleaning the iron and a quick search online, "HUMPHREYSVILLE MFG" became "legible". From what I have found they stopped making plane irons about 1905.

http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y179/bcaleem/Plane/IMG_0867_zpsa3961105.jpg

Taken apart for all to view:

http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y179/bcaleem/Plane/IMG_0870_zps9b84e40a.jpg

What I have gathered so far is that this is a hand-made beech plane. Technically I think it is a molding plane for the shallowest of concave arcs. The tote is partially broken and the iron itself is still in decent shape (it's actually sharp). I didn't take a picture of it but the iron is tapered and becomes quite thick at the cutting end, notably thicker than a standard Stanley plane iron.

Knowing how little I know, this could all be wrong! What can you experts tell me about this plane?

Clark

[Jim Koepke]

Clark, Welcome to the Creek.

Looks like it would work great as a scrub plane. For scrub use a large mouth is desired.

Not sure if molding planes took on the profile the sole of yours has. It may have been a specialty molding plane for some type of work that came into the realm of being done by a machine soon after this plane was made.

jtk

[Stewie Simpson]

Welcome to the forum Clark. Could you tell us what angle that plane iron is bedded at.

Its a bit of a shame that the rear tote (handle) has been later cut down in height. It would be most uncomfortable to use the plane the way it is now.


Stewie;

[Thomas Schneider]

Clark, Welcome to the Creek.

Looks like it would work great as a scrub plane. For scrub use a large mouth is desired.

Not sure if molding planes took on the profile the sole of yours has. It may have been a specialty molding plane for some type of work that came into the realm of being done by a machine soon after this plane was made.

jtk

Did they make scrub planes with a convex sole? I'm not sure how well that would work.

[Warren Mickley]

I think your plane started life as a single iron strike block plane, without a handle (tote). This would have been a flat sole plane with maybe a 40 degree bed. Then some user decided to make a tote on the plane and made saw cuts diagonally along the sides of the tote and just above the sole. Also a vertical cut just behimd the blade. Then the rest was carved out. The alterations are considerably more crude than the rest of the plane; note the neat chamfers on the front and sides, sloppy chamfer in back of blade. The iron probably is not original to the plane. It is from a double iron plane and the original iron probably had no cutout.

[Stewie Simpson]

Hi Warren. The closer I look at the back end of the plane the more likely I feel the original plane length was much longer, possibly of a fore plane length of 16 - 18 inches. And at some stage during its lifetime its back end has been cut off to end up at a length of 12 inches. The back of the plane has then been razee'd out and a new tote carved within.

I also agree with you that the original shape of the sole would have been flat. If we are indeed correct, then the front of the mouth as seen now has been altered after the sole has been reshaped. As it should by nature not be a straight line, but an outward curve very similar to that seen on the back of the mouth. The use of the key holed iron suggests it would have originally been mated with a capiron. The plot indeed thickens.

Stewie;

[Clark Christenson]

Thanks for the all the observations! I am amazed at how many things you pick up on that I, with the plane in hand, completely miss.

I hadn't thought of a scrub plane at all and that certainly makes some sense. Nice job Warren picking up on the now obvious differences in craftsmanship between the front and back halves of this plane. The ham-fisted work is now plain to see and does explain the short tote. With all this in mind, there are two questions that still interest me.

1. Is there anything notable about the Humphresville iron or were they just another company that made plane irons and I should simply put it to use?

2. What should I use this plane for? If I were to make the tote adult sized would this plane work well for something or should it be sold to someone as a decoration?

Clark

EDIT: It appears that the iron is bedded at an angle between 30-35.

[Stewie Simpson]

Hi Clark. Thanks for the update on the bed angle. 30 - 35 degrees is unusually low for a woodie.

[David Weaver]

I think it's probably a boat building or architectural plane of some type. I don't know who else would bed a plane like a strike block plane like that.

My money's on warren's answer about how it got that way. If the handle went higher, it'd terminate in the iron, and there'd be no reasonable closed or open handled pattern that could be made by continuing it.

[Joe Tilson]

Could it have been designed or reworked to make shallow flutes of some kind?