A few weeks back I was fortunate enough to attend the Brown Tool Auction and Sale. Well actually just the sale because the auction took place on Saturday and I was only able to get up to Harrisburg late on Friday. I met some old friends there in Kari Hultman and Mark Hochstein and made many more new friends. There is not really much to be said that can’t be said like this:
Check out the 6 foot long jointer plane!
This is kind of a blend between treadle and great wheel lathe. More footage of it on my YouTube account here.
I love the Victorian styling of this treadle scroll saw
Planes,
and braces,
and benches, oh my!
A peek inside a Joiner’s chest.
Not a woodworking tool, but a tool nonetheless. I just thought it was cool and made me think of HG Well’s The Time Machine or some other Victorian science fiction story.
I did not escape unscathed and this is what you all really want to know… what’d you get???
Here is my booty. I have several smoothing planes but they are all in rough shape. This one is simply beautiful. All I had to do was sharpen the blade. Check out the mouth opening…
The other plane with the upright blade is a veneer toothing plane that I got for a song and I think might be useful for working really crazy grain.
Finally this last little beauty is a Snipe’s Bill plane. I was looking for a set of right and left hand planes but only could find this one. There is a lot of mystery surrounding these planes and their uses but I think Don McConnell has gotten it right in his statement that these planes were used to start a cut on a piece of molding by registering in the gauge line. This could be really useful when laying out the initial rabbets on a stick of moulding when that frustrating moving fillister fence won’t stay locked in place.
More to come on this oddball molding plane as I work with it. In summary, ebay is a great place to find old tools but you never really know what your going to get. The Brown show is guaranteed to give you quality tools and oftentimes the story of their provenance to add to your enjoyment.
1 response so far ↓
1 Bob Rozaieski // Nov 17, 2009 at 8:21 am
Nice score from what looks to be a nice sale. Good grab on the toothing plane. They are definitely useful for more than just veneer work. If you have some difficult grain, or a knot, they are fantastic for taming them. While knots aren’t typically a problem in primary parts, sometimes I encounter them in secondary parts like drawer sides and case backs. When you need to knock them down, the toothing plane works great. They’re good for localized tearout as well. Just tooth and smooth.
Excellent score on the snipe’s bill. I’m still looking for a good pair of these. Definitely under rated and mysterious tools but Don has done a good job of clearing up a lot of their mystique.
Bob
Leave a Comment