Posted 10 years ago
aroch
(1 item)
I think it is made of beech wood. 10 inches long toe to heel. Horn is suited for a left hand, so a right hander plane. Iron says, Cast steel Garantie" with a lion in the middle. It is ground round. No pitting really. Maker stamp is non existent, possibly due to so much bumping on the back to adjust iron. Anyone know anything about it's history?
I don't know the maker but I can assure you the iron being ground round was intentional and quite important. It is just as important today if you are doing a period restoration on a piece.
Unless the iron has a really drastic curve to it, it wasn't used for forming. I also wonder where the term coffin plane came from?? Unless it was used by a coffin maker. This is a common smooth plane although it looks like it can be reversed for push or pull use. Asians pull their planes and the rest of us push them. They also use pull saws which are a must have if you are working with wood. There are a couple of books that explain the curve of the iron. A reverence for wood by Eric Sloane and he also published on antique woodworking tools. There is another author (Beale or Bealer I think) who wrote Working with wood the old way. All of the books are out of print but can be found online. Very few ever use old tools or techniques now so there is no big demand for the books.
I never happened to hear the term but believe it or not I have worked in coffins. I was going to build my own but decided cremation was quicker and easier. A much smaller plane would have been used for an ogee, usually a molding plane. Only thing I can imagine using a smooth plane on with an iron that leaves a concave cut would be crown molding. That would even be difficult.
Years ago plane irons weren't cheap and during war years many companies went out of business because of the lack of materials. People sharpened their own as best they could with what they had to do it with. As a result they would use a arc motion as they put the iron into the wheel rather than a straight across square movement. The result was a slightly rounded iron rather than a square edge. You can run your hand over an old hand planed piece and feel the ripples. If you put a straight edge on the piece and shine a light under it then you will see where the grooves are. A modern piece no light will show under the straight edge. Naturally there are hand planed reproductions but they are normally easy to spot.