Shoulder Plane Drawings and Plans
1338P Preston Shoulder Plane
Rob Brown
Lee Valley Tools
February March 2015
Lee Valley has a wonderful collection of tools, which, for the most function, stays backside closed doors. Rob Lee, owner of Lee Valley, shares some information about the drove in general, then selects one of his personal favourites and tells us all well-nigh it.
Lee Valley'due south Tool Collection
In a elementary looking warehouse, simply around the corner from Lee Valley's Ottawa headquarters, lives a wonderful and varied collection of tools. Leonard Lee, founder of Lee Valley, started collecting tools shortly earlier he opened the store. Information technology wasn't an official drove at that betoken, simply it quickly grew into one as soon as the business opened in the belatedly '70s. Now it's his son, Rob Lee, who oversees the collection, and adds to it by attention auctions whenever possible. A quick estimate past Rob is that there are more than 30,000 tools in the collection, but it'due south very hard to pin the exact quantity down, as many tools are purchased every bit a lot, kept together and counted as one item.
Great Drove
The tool drove is vast and intriguing, and informs some of the tool pattern decisions Lee Valley makes to this twenty-four hours.
Have the Good with the Bad
The recessed field is only 0.5mm shallower than the surrounding raised edge. A peachy amount of skill and care is required to manufacture this detail. The downside to this is that the aeroplane is harder to grasp properly, and the likelihood of it being dropped is increased.
Very Short Run
The 1338P (right column, second from tiptop) was introduced in Preston's 1901 true catalogue. Strangely, the same page told readers it was discontinued, equally "Cancelled" was printed overtop of the image of the plane.
Gorgeous Details
The adjustment knob on this shoulder plane has been knurled with a purpose-made knurling tool. Preston took small details like this seriously, and had a reputation for creating beautiful looking tools.
The collection serves a number of purposes. First and foremost, information technology's used equally a physical library for production development. During the evolution of a tool, the staff accept the opportunity to mensurate, feel and use whatever tool in the collection. This allows the team to learn a great bargain about the history of a specific type of tool, and gives them functional and aesthetic ideas for the tool they're going to develop. Some of the tools are very rare, while others are common, even poorly designed or manufactured, just all provide input into the process of making a new tool. The 2d purpose of the collection, and one you've been witness to many times if you lot're a Lee Valley customer, is to provide their photography studio material to shoot catalogue covers, calendars and other materials. A third purpose of the collection has withal to be realized. Currently there are few tools from the collection on public display. Lee'south vision is to 1 mean solar day convert much of the collection into travelling museum displays, with many of the meliorate pieces touring their stores. The stories of the tools will aid to create excitement for tools in general, only may also draw more customers into their stores. Mostly speaking, tools are added to the collection for a specific purpose. That'southward how they become value out of the collection.
Wide scope
The scope of the collection is generally rather unfocused, but that'due south but how Lee likes it. "Our collection is one of the largest, most unfocused collections around," states Lee, "and in that location are many other collections that are far more impressive. Our collection helps deliver the context and story of tools to the customer. People don't desire to simply buy products, they want to buy stories. They want to empathize why a product is the manner it is, and where it came from." Other collections are quite different, according to Lee. "It really depends on what blazon of story engages the collector almost. Whether information technology'southward ane manufacturer they're interested in, one type of tool, one period of time, or even ane trade, each collector has a unlike mind-set. We're unfocused as we don't want to tell one story, we want to tell many stories, and nosotros accept the demand to proceed engaging a very large customer base on a regular basis."
How does Lee compare Lee Valley'south collection to others? "Nosotros have some really cool pieces, but until yous become out there into the collecting earth most people have no thought how many unique pieces at that place are. There are tens of ksands, even hundreds of thousands of very unique pieces out there. We're talking centuries of product in many countries. We generally focus on North American and English tools, and rarely get into other tools."
There are nearly 20–30 items valued in excess of $x,000 each in the collection. Though it's impossible to put an exact figure on it, Lee says the value of the entire drove would be well over $100,000, but less than $1 million.
1338P Preston Shoulder Airplane
I've had the pleasure of meeting Rob Lee a number of times. He's e'er a gentleman, and speaks in an even, almost tranquillity, tone. What surprised me right away during our recent conversation about his century-old Preston shoulder plane was how animated and impressed he was when talking nigh it. I gauge I shouldn't take been surprised how he'd react when asked near one of his favourite tools.
Beautiful and brittle
"What makes this Preston shoulder aeroplane particularly difficult to manufacture is the open piece of work. It'south an incredibly frail casting. It's about 2mm thick in many parts. If this is dropped it will snap," Lee says, mater-of-factly. "What makes this really unique is the recessed, japanned field, which is but most 0.5mm deep. The field is almost flush with the edges on both sides of the plane. When yous're doing sandcasting yous take to place both halves of the mould, on either side of the plane, precisely, so y'all get the open up piece of work. Then, when you lot start doing the casting, you accept to orient the casting and so there'due south less than 0.5mm of positioning error front end to back, and side to side. I have no thought how this plane was even made." I couldn't help but laugh at this point. To hear Lee was stumped at how a tool was made merely proves how incredible this plane really is. "I don't believe that any manufacturer could cast this today, using the same methods. This was the acme of the art, for the fourth dimension. When yous look at how precisely the parts fit together on this plane, it's phenomenal. All contact surfaces are beautifully designed, and accurately detailed. The knurl is beautiful and crowned, and was made with a purpose-made knurling tool. It's a well thought out tool that is gorgeously made, and I suspect they lost their shirts making this tool. It didn't last very long in their product lineup. Even if you tensioned the lever cap too much y'all could very well snap the plane."
Lee goes on to talk in more depth nearly some of the manufacturing techniques, which manifestly impress and derange him. "Sandcasting by mitt is a very skilled merchandise. The patternmakers had tool kits that looked like a pastry chef's tool kit. They had spatulas and so on that they could make the impression in the sand, then go piece of work with it, smooth out any chucks that cruel apart, sort of like icing a cake in reverse, as they were working with the hollow, instead of the outer surface."
Lee has simply seen two of these planes. "I know they're out there, but it's such an incredibly rare slice, and I have no idea how many were made in the outset place." That'due south commonly bad news for a collector, but not for Lee, as he already owns ane. "I think they produced this plane for a portion of one year. I'chiliad sure they figured out very quickly that this was virtually impossible to produce. If you take a wait into the bottom of the casting you'll see there'due south hollow work in that location, too. It'southward well-nigh like a taco beat out. It's incredibly fine casting. Information technology would be a difficult tool to make out of plate steel, allow alone bandage it."
"What's really neat about this plane is the fact that you couldn't make it today," Lee continues. "This type of casting is a lost art. This is the product of an artist, not a manufacturing practice. It probably had a yield of about one:10. In fact, that would take been very adept. This was a premium aeroplane that could very well have been designed and fabricated for show at an international exhibition, just to show their capabilities."
Information technology's non perfect
As impressed as Lee is with this plane, he admits there are pitfalls associated with producing it as Preston did. "Not having enough of a reveal between the field and the raised edge is a danger, every bit that's what gives the user a mechanical lock on the tool when in employ. If they went to a deeper recess, your fingers hang on meliorate. This plane volition easily skid out of your paw if you're not careful. This is a case where you can admire the accuracy and the skill, but they over-did information technology. The last affair you want on a plane like this is a grip surface that isn't optimal."
Value
I knew my last question, about the plane's value, was going to stump him, but I had to ask. Lee's response was measured, and he admitted it'southward impossible to tell until he puts it up for sale – which he isn't nigh to practice. "It'due south hard to know what the value of this plane would exist today, without exposing it at an auction, to run into what people would pay. Preston is very sought after because they are very graphic, upper-cease tools. A guess on my part would be somewhere effectually $3000–$6000, simply it'southward very hard to say. Each sale plays out very differently, and it depends on the mean solar day, and the audience." It sold for 12 pounds in 1901.
Do y'all know someone with a great tool collection?
Is in that location one antique tool that fascinates yous? Postal service your thoughts on our website, at the end of this article. As well experience gratuitous to email me whatsoever details – [e-mail protected].
Source: https://canadianwoodworking.com/techniques_and_tips/1338p-preston-shoulder-plane/
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