In a world where bigger is normally thought better, such is not the case with wooden planes. Most tool dealers would sooner burn the long bench planes than to lug them around hoping to find someone to adopt them and provide them with a loving home. The vast majority of these bench planes are found in a condition that only a mother could love. But, the planes pictured to the right are in a condition that anyone, including the most cold-hearted powertool fiend, would gladly adopt, if given the opportunity.
The planes range in sizes from the smoother (unfortunately its wedge is MIA) at the lower left to the jointer at the top, with a fore, and two jacks below the jointer. The planes are all french-fit into their original custom box that's made of birdseye maple trimmed with walnit and brass plates. The wedges are very unusual in their shape - they are like a common molding plane's wedge only much wider.
Each plane has an elaborate strike near the toe so that the stock won't be injured when it's whacked with a mallet to loosen the wedge for iron removal or adjustment. The top of each wedge has a diamond-shaped strike so that it can be hit to drive the wedge home instead of hammering the wedge itself as is normal. The totes are bolted to prevent them from splitting, but this wasn't any guarantee that they wouldn't split as one of the jack's tote, the only one that's open (doesn't return on itself like a saw handle does), did split and was repaired. The stocks are made of select second growth beech, where the growth rings are very coarse to make the stocks dimensionally stable and less prone to wear.
This unique set of planes is definitely from the hands of a professional planemaker, but they are unmarked. They may be the work of Ezekiel Smith, who worked in Worcester, Massachusetts during the mid-19th century, as they were found in Worcester a long time ago. Regardless of whomever made them, these are the finest set of matched bench planes ever to have surfaced. Several contemporaries of Smith advertised similar sets of planes, although only in the four sizes and without the mention of a box. In 1870, The Taber Plane Co., of New Bedford, Massachusetts, advertised planes such as these at over twice the cost of their common equivalents, when furnished with American-made irons, and over three times the cost when fitted with English-made irons.
pal, February 21, 1998