Name/Title
Wooden Plough Plane, late 19th/early 20th century.Entry/Object ID
20220115_1Description
A very beautiful adjustable plough plane, from beech and boxwood. With a complete set of original cutter blades.Use
To cut grooves and rebates into a wooden board. Primarily to cut along the wood grain, but could be used across the grain if the groove edges are first scored with a knife. The position of the groove on the board is set with the fence, adjusted with the boxwood "nuts" on the wooden screws going through the main body. The depth is set with a cast brass depth stop, controlled by the brass thumbscrew on the top. There are 7 cutters with widths from 1/8 inch to 7/8 inch in 1/8 inch increments. Any wider than that would be taken in two passes. Shaving thickness would be set set by tapping the wooden wedge and the top of the cutter. This is very much a fine tool for a fine woodworker, expensive to buy but a great pleasure to own and to use.Context
Atkin & Sons were in business in Birmingham, England as toolmakers from around 1830 to the mid 1970s. This plane represents the rising standards of living of the Victorian era, as the middle class grew and could buy finely finished furniture. At the same time the manufacture of tools was industrialized, rather than being made by the craftsman and his local blacksmith. This plane is stamped J.H. Thompson, a craftsman who could afford to have a stamp made to mark his treasured tools, there are a number of other tools in the museum collection with the same stamp.
The wedge appears to be made of oak, a mismatch with the rest of the plane, it may be a home made replacement , you can see from its condition that the wedge gets a battering in the process of setting the shaving thickness.
