History Question

[Dave Bow]

I have a question for anyone with knowledge of antique planes. I have a wooden jointer plane that I found in my mother's basement. I found a stamp on the nose this week showing Greenfield Tool Co. Greenfield, MA. Does anyone have any information on the company's history? A google search has only gotten me a catalog from 1872 with only a couple of pages shown. Thanks for anything you may have.

Dave

[Justin James]

You did say anything . . .

In business in Greenfield MA from 1851-1883 (maybe later--some conflict about this). Pretty common, even I have one.

That's all I got, wish I could help more.

[Roger Bell]

I have a repro of the 1872 catalog. Available from Astragal Press. I dont know mcuh about the company, other than they were large, were around for not that long, and most of their stuff is considered "common" rather than "rare" since they really cranked them out. I have a few of their H and Rs myself.

The company was founded in 1842, reorganized in 1852 when it became known as "Greenfield". The company went under in 1886. This according to Ken Roberts, a well known authority, who wrote the intro to the repro catalog I have. The catalog shows a single jointer plane style, probably just like yours. The jointer comes in several lengths. For example, their 26" jointer sold for $1.70. An internet inflation calc. shows the value of $1.70 as $27.60 in 2006 dollars.

As I understand it, labor was pretty cheap back then. Materials were less so.

[Dave Bow]

Thanks for the info. If you happen across any other info, I'd love to hear about it.

Dave