5 1/2 Jack and Low Angle Jack Planes

[MikeG.]

Does it really all matter?.....

Things that don't matter can still be interesting.

 

[Andy Kev.]

Does it really all matter?.....

Things that don't matter can still be interesting.

I was going to say something like that: the harmless quest of the hobbyist for as much information as possible about his area of interest.

In my naivety I just sort of assumed that firms kept records of all they did. It would appear not.

 

[ED65]

Does it really all matter?

Some of it doesn't matter, no.

For users it is important sometimes to be able to spot planes from specific periods, i.e. later, when standards were known to have dropped (and sometimes dropped sharply, "the race to the bottom"). And while it's true there is many a plane from less-desirable periods that are great performers – after fettling but with no after-market parts – you better your chances of getting a good 'un if you buy from a known period when the standards were higher and more uniform. So you want to be able to at least roughly date them.

 

[StraightOffTheArk]

If you are interested in the history of tools and their use/development, it matters in as much as it is interesting in itself. Some fetishise tools so that eg they wouldn't use a plane that wasn't made before the war, this is OK if you have access to lots of planes, but really unhelpful if you are a beginner listening to that sort of nonsense and trying to work out what you need to buy. Personally, I have a few tools made during the end of the Eighteenth century, and I enjoy using them and the imagined sense of connection to history, but it's only a means to a finished article in the end.

Tara a bit,

SOTA

 

[AndyT]

In my naivety I just sort of assumed that firms kept records of all they did. It would appear not.

I think that many UK firms took a severely practical approach to their history and chucked out anything that didn't earn them any money.

Fortunately for us, in Sheffield the late Ken Hawley was around at the right moment and personally rescued shedfuls of tool company records and catalogues. Alongside several tons of historic tools, they form the Ken Hawley collection, exhibited in a gallery at the Kelham Island Museum.
A dedicated band of volunteers look after it and are teasing out much history which was so nearly skipped or burned. If anyone is in the Sheffield area, it's well worth a visit and more volunteers would always be welcome.

 

[Vann]

Does it really all matter? If the plane, of any sort, colour, lineage, or shape is tuned so that it works, ain't that the issue?...

Yebit, the same could be said of cars. Does it matter what colour your car is, or what model, or what make? So long as it gets you there. But there are car collectors and car fanatics.

And I bet there are some colours of car you wouldn't own, and some you would desire.

We who are interested in the nuances of planes, are just slightly sadder ba$tard$... :wink:

Cheers, Vann.

 

[SammyQ]

Each to his own. I HAVE collected stamps - in the antedeluvial past.
As I grow older, it's just that I feel the need to distill down the superfluous, the marginally necessary and the truly decorative into 'the absolutely ncessary'. Something to do with reducing distractions and concentrating thought and effort on the productive? Hmm? Or, is it just a whimsical defence against age's depredations on my ability to remember? :shock:

Sam, hedge philosopher.