Stanley #193

[Russ Hauser]

What is the purpose of this plane? Don't want to buy it, just curious.

http://tinyurl.com/yomnnz

Russ

[James Mittlefehldt]

If you want to read one of Patrick Leach's most over the top descriptions of a plane go to superior tool works and check out Patrick's Blood And Gore. Apparently this plane, along with the 194 and 195 was made to bevel fibreboard. I am not really sure why you would want to plane fibre board let alone bevel it but there you are.

Sorry there is no link it is beyond my meagre computer skills.

[John Todd]

Yep, Patrick doesn't think alot of these planes. The link can be found at: http://www.supertool.com/StanleyBG/stan13.htm

[Randal Stevenson]

Yep, Patrick doesn't think alot of these planes. The link can be found at: http://www.supertool.com/StanleyBG/stan13.htm

So what your saying is someone should buy that plane and send it to Patrick as an April 1st joke?

[Jim Koepke]

Even the wood is painted hardwood. Not good for use on an old #3 or 4.
It might be good to carry in the car for personal protection.
Whack some mole up the side of the head with that and surely it would hurt.

jim

[Stephen Jackson]

I guess that one has to wonder who is actually bidding on this "plane!!!!!
Do they intend to use it, or maybe they're short of a doorstop??????

[Matt Ranum]

It would be a conversation piece in a cabinet thats for sure.

[Bruce Haugen]

"So what your saying is someone should buy that plane and send it to Patrick as an April 1st joke?"

Some friends of mine and I did just that with a highly customized POS #5 about 12 years ago or so. I understand he still has it on display. I truly was a piece of work...

Bruce

[Bill Houghton]

Our current struggles with available wood are not new - in the early part of the 20th century, a time many of us see as golden for the quality of the wood available, there were a lot of new materials around to substitute for wood off the stump. Fiberboard was one of them, and it was seen (by some) as an exciting new material. When LOML and I go to Crater Lake in Oregon, something we do every couple of years, we stay in cabins that have fiberboard walls above wainscoting milled onsite. The fiberboard has randomly spaced v-grooves, clearly cut with a tool like this, and, I have to say, they're incredibly clean cuts.

Fiberboard as a decorative surfacing material has, to put it mildly, passed its prime, but these tools were a response to a perceived market need at the time they were produced. That we now find them objects of ridicule may demonstrate our attitude toward fiberboard as much as our attitude toward the tools themselves; but they were appropriate technology for the period of production. Another idea that seemed good at the time - like harvest gold kitchen appliances, or bell bottom pants.

If you want to see an example of how bad fiberboard can be, visit Cave Junction in Oregon and go to the upper floors of their lodge. The main floor is stunning, but, one short flight of stairs up, you get the impression that you've entered a particularly poorly built prison.

[Larry Welker]

No interest (ok very very little) in original use. Anyone here make period furniture? My use is simple, just used to cut the small V's in desk dividers or repurposing period knife boxes into chisel storage boxes.

[Jim Koepke]

Howdy Larry and a belated welcome to the Creek. Just noticed this originated as a post from 2008.

My guess is the original makers of "period furniture" didn't have a #193 to cut V's on their work. Most likely they used a V or parting gouge.

It is also fairly easy to do with a knife and a straight chisel.

jtk

[Larry Welker]

Right you are, but would they if they could? Thanks for the thanks, I don't get much time to answer blogs etc. I have been making the occasional visit here for years.

[Jim Koepke]

Right you are, but would they if they could? Thanks for the thanks, I don't get much time to answer blogs etc. I have been making the occasional visit here for years.

Would they if they could? That may be answered by looking back at what they could do.

In the 18th and early 19th woodworkers used wooden planes. These were made to perform the jobs that were needed at the time. There were the standard jointer, jack and smoother along with plow, dado, rabbet and moulding planes. There doesn't seem to be many (if any) survivors in the form of V cutters. If this is going across the grain, it may have been cleaner and quicker to make a V groove with a knife or a rabbet plane held at an angle.

jtk