'I want to Knock this Man out of the Market'

Image: The Chronicle.

Back in the early 1980s, curators at the Ohio Historical Society (now called Ohio History Connection) discovered an undated letter in the pocket of a coat in their clothing collection. Addressed to the Ohio Tool Company, it’s a request for a plane the letter writer called “Webb’s[?] Pattern Spur Rabbit Plane.” Its key features were a razee-style body and two angled nickers.

Ohio Tool had previously attempted to make the plane for the letter writer, who was presumably a hardware merchant, but he didn’t think the Columbus, Ohio, firm had followed his instructions. The iron and the knickers didn’t have the right angle. The most interesting part of the letter is that the author was intentionally copying another planemaker’s design. And he gave a blunt, underlined, reason for doing so: “I want to Knock this Man out of the Market.” (See full text below.) It’s unknown if Ohio Tool eventually did rip off the other planemaker.

It’s possible Ohio Tool used a version of the design for themselves. Their 1910 catalog lists a razee rabbet with two nickers, but it doesn’t specify the angle they’re set at. The other major plane making companies of the late 19th century (Auburn Tool, H. Chapin’s Son, Sandusky Tool, D.R. Barton, and Greenfield Tool) didn’t offer a handled razee rabbet plane. (Baldwin’s 1858 Arrowmammett Works catalog lists a 22-inch-long “Ship Carpenter’s Rabbett Plane,” which is likely a razee but way longer than a typical jack rabbet.)

Ohio History Connection has two other requests sent to the Ohio Tool Co. for planes made to specifications outlined by the sender: an 1886 letter from the Woodward Iron & Hardware Co. in Cairo, Illinois, for an “architrave plane”, and a 1881 letter from B.C. Dodt, of Cincinnati, Ohio, for 12 rabbet planes.

Who the Webb Pattern letter writer was, and who Webb was, is a mystery. When the letter was discovered and written up in The Chronicle, the author thought it was signed “I. Smith & Co”. But I don’t know. I think there might be one more letter in his name. Even the “Webb” is hard to make out. But I don’t have any good alternatives. There are hundreds of variations of “Smith & Co” ads in Ohio newspapers in the 19th century, assuming that’s even where the letter writer was from. If you want to take a crack at deciphering it, here are high resolution and high contrast versions. Let me know what you think.¹

Call this Webbs[?] Pattern Spur Rabbit Plane - With 2 cutters -
Mfg The Ohio Tool Comp
Gentlemen
Please send us 1 dn Jack Rabbet Planes 1 1/2 in to sketch as above
The 1/4 dn you sent as samples in last order were very[?] good but yet not exactly
what our customers wanted. There is a man here that makes them exactly like
the above sketch (I want to Knock this Man out of the Market) you will
See that the Spurs are not upright they lean a little and the Bit you
will see is not so upright as the last you sent us, let us have them as soon
as possiable[?]. And Oblige yours very respectfully, I. Smith & Co[?]

Interested in more stories about plane making companies?

• 'I want to Knock this Man out of the Market'
• What Was in Sandusky's Secret Plane Making Room?
• The Ohio Tool Co. (Briefly) Paid Its Convict Workers
• How to Run a Plane Factory in 1853 (It Was Surprisingly Complicated)
• The Last Marples Planemakers at Work

This post was originally published as part of the Roman Soldiers and Their Moulding Planes newsletter.