Infill style Patternmaker's Plane

This is the Patternmaker's plane that followed me home from
Rockford. You'll see from the photo that it has seven bottoms
of differing radii and seven matching irons.

A patternmaker would use this type of plane to shape wooden patterns
in cases where a gouge would take too long for the job at hand. The
bottoms are like rounds, each with it's radius stamped into the toe
of the bottom. Thes particular bottoms are beech. The handle and infill
style knob ar mahogany. The handle is laminated mahogany for strength.
The body and cap iron of the plane are brass.

When the cap iron is removed and the iron released, the sole can be removed.

This photo shows how the soles are attached. Most of the Patternmaker's
planes that I've seen use this method. Finding planes with odd types of
attachment mechanisms is a bonus.

At the meet, there were four patternmakers planes.
An unusual number for a show of this size. One was
a wooden bodied plane, one made from a Stanley
Transitional Jack, one was a converted Stanley #5
(The Stanley #5 conversions are one of the more common types.)
This is a type that I've also seen before. To tell the truth,
I'm not sure whether this is a user made plane, or a
commercial one. There are no markings of any kind except for the
Radius markings on the irons and "shoes". The irons are marked
with crude engravings, and the Shoes are stamped,
this having been done much later.

This one was my choice because of the details. Note the tiny bead
around eash shoe, and the attention to detail on the infil style knob.
The casting is very well finished, but not done in a manner which
would suggest that it was commercially manufactured.

In the end I bought it because I liked it best, and it fits nicely
in the bottom draw of a Gerstner. My second favorite had 18 shoes
and irons. It was the transitional version. It belonged to our very own
Slav Yelasijevich, host and founder of the Chicago Artisans and Trades Society. I'm not sure if he still owns it.

 

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