Another "What Are These Planes?" thread.

[Allan Speers]

Time to fix up & weed out the herd. I have two that are a bit puzzling.


#1: A coffin plane with a wide concave bottom:

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/31826742/%20Curved%20Coffin%20-%20A%20%20%20%20.jpg

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/31826742/%20Curved%20Coffin%20-%20B%20%20%20%20.jpg

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/31826742/%20Curved%20Coffin%20-%20C%20%20%20%20.jpg


Is this intended for wide molding? Maybe for making staircase railing?

Why is the curve so non-symetrical?

[Allan Speers]

#2: This one really has me stumped, other than having once been a home for powder post beetles:

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/31826742/%20Mystery%20Plane%20-%20A%20%20%20%20%20.jpg

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/31826742/%20Mystery%20Plane%20-%20B%20%20%20%20%20.jpg

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/31826742/%20Mystery%20Plane%20-%20C%20%20%20%20%20.jpg

[Steve Voigt]

The top one looks like a spar plane. They were often user-made, out of old coffin planes, so that might explain the irregularity of the curve.
The bottom one appears to be a panel-raising plane. Is there a mortise for a nicker?
Neither is a terribly unusual plane...

[John Vernier]

That panel raiser looks to be quite old, too - the round-topped iron was going out of style by 1800. A lot of panel raisers didn't have nickers, although a nicker seems like an obviously good idea. I suppose you had to pre-score the cross grain cuts with a cutting gauge.

[Stew Denton]

Hi Allan,

Another name for the 1st plane that Steve mentioned, the spar plane, is a "forkstaff."

Stew

[Allan Speers]

Thanks, guys.

Now that I know what to look for, I see spar plane SETS, with one have an offset curve like mine. Maybe this is primarily for oars, where the shaft a little flat on 2 sides.

I'm a little puzzled why the panel raiser is so simple. No slitter and no moveable "fence" as in the two I own and use. I guess it was built for one specific door type.

I have found a pic of this exact plane online, and John is correct that it's from the 1700's.

No idea when those beetles were from! :o

[Zach Dillinger]

Can you get a pic of the tote on the panel raiser?