Abraham Hyatt“Knowledge and timber shouldn’t be much used till they are seasoned.” - Oliver Wendell Holmes (1858)
One of my favorite things on Instagram is following along with planemakers as they craft new versions of these traditional tools. The well-known makers are definitely worth checking out, from Matt Bickford, Dan Schwank/Red Rose Reproductions, Jon Joffe, Jim White/Crown Plane, and Ryan Thompson, to Martin Harris, Simon Grace, Ben Bentley/Bentley Planes, Stavros Gakos, and Scott Smeek/Smeek Woodworks. But I also want to highlight some lesser-known planemakers, from smaller commercial makers to people making beautiful or interesting one-off projects. In a few months we’ll look at a bunch more.
Top left: Elden McDonald. Top right: Richard Arnold (who’s also a preeminent scholar of 18th century English planemaking). Bottom: Joseph Thomas/Glenmere Hand Tools.
Top: Almira Planes (If you know my affinity for closed tote smoothers, you’ll know how in love I am with Almira’s planes.) Bottom left: Mac Austin. Bottom right: Martha Downs.
Top left: Save The Electrons. Top right: bernardwoodwork. Bottom left: Mitch Peacock. Bottom right: NewVintageTools.
If you’re interested in making your own plane, there are a number of great books on the subject, including How to Make Wooden Planes by David Perch and Leonard Lee (ABE Books), John Whelan’s Making Traditional Wooden Planes (ABE Books), and Making and Mastering Wood Planes by David Finck (ABE Books).
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The story about B MAN, a mark found on planes tied to 18th century maker Francis Nicholson, was originally published in this newsletter. It has since been moved to its own post: Tracking down B MAN, a curious 18th century mark