O U T S K I R T S
P la n e
V ie w s
Below:
The VeritasK
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60
block plane refines the
feel and operation of
a small plane that fits in
the palm of the hand.
The lever cap integrates
cleanly with the plane’s
body, made of a rust-
resistant alloy of iron
and nickel. The speed-
lines and hollows arc
for grip.
S T O R Y BY
Glenn Gordon
The new wave oftoolmakers has
not merely been reproducing
classic old tools but refining them
to improve fheirperformance.
Right:
Bridge City’s muscular
shoulder planes, of
bronze or stainless steel,
are capable of extremely
fine adjustment and
control. Their sinuous
contours, swellings and
sculpted hollows exert
an almost erotic appeal
on woodworkers.
Among the thousands of beautifully made
patent models that filled the warehouses of
the u.s. Patent Office during the Industrial
Revolution’s great flowering of invention
were many for woodworking hand tools
of no little ingenuity. Refinements in design
made possible through advances in manu-
facturing in steel and iron in the later 19th
and early 20th centuries brought substantial
improvements to tools whose form and
function, though long established, had not
until then been standardized and produced
in factories.
In the United States the preeminent
manufacturers of the new and continuously
improved Bailey or Stanley metal plane and
its offshoots were the venerable Stanley
Works in New Britain,
C T ,
and the Millers
Falls Company in Millers Falls, m a . In
England, mostly in the steelmaking city
of Sheffield, were tool works whose names
are still familiar to woodworkers today—
Record, Norris, Spiers and Marples. With
the growing popularity of portable power
tools after the Second World War, how-
ever, the quality of the hand tools made
by these old-guard manufacturers went into
02H american craft apr/mayio
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60
photo courtesy of Lee Valley Tools.
