Mother of all planes

[JonnyW]

I visited a agricultural mill museum here in Shetland last week, and came to a cooper's tools of the trade display.

What really interested me was the cooper's jointer plane. You've probably all seen such a tool, but it was a new one for me.

A massive metre 'odd' long beast that lay stationary blade up on a stand, that the coopers then ran the staves - or wood that made up the side sections - over.

I think in this instance the modern stand has been constructed for the display is a little low as can be seen from the old photo - pinched from an excellent blog/article on the subject by Derek in Perth. http://www.inthewoodshop.com/ShopMadeTools/CoopersJointer.html.

Very interesting, however I can't see it fitting into my apron pocket

Jonny

 

[transatlantic]

Looks like it would do your back in!

 

[DTR]

A modern trick that achieves the same thing is to clamp a plane upside down in a bench vice. It can be quite handy for planing small or thin stuff

 

[DTR]

Thanks for the photos, btw!

 

[Rhyolith]

Thats a beast

 

[thetyreman]

I'd love to see someone attempt to make this out of steel

 

[AndyT]

I'd love to see someone attempt to make this out of steel

Have a look here!

not-a-fancy-plane-t64481.html

 

[JonnyW]

Thanks DTR. I've seen the plane in the vice trick right enough (in a photo). I think it looked like a No. 8 that was being used.

That's an amazing thread Andy and a girder of a plane!

Jonny

 

[Nelsun]

I had to read what you wrote before I could see the thing. He's a whopper! Was this at Quendale by any chance?

 

[JonnyW]

I had to read what you wrote before I could see the thing. He's a whopper! Was this at Quendale by any chance?

Correct - well done.

A fantastic museum and a must see.

Jonny

 

[Nelsun]

It's been most likely a decade since I was in there last, but I'm on the beach with the horrors often enough so it'll be time for a visit me thinks.

 

[NazNomad]

Seems it might give your spine a beating though ... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FlMg1VN9QAQ

Plus, it's handy for the missus to slice veg in the kitchen. :-D

 

[worn thumbs]

I didn't see it myself,but I was reliably informed that there was a boatbuilder in one of the local yards who had such a plane and had modified it by removing the legs and fitting a conventional closed handle.My informant had seen it in use back in the seventies.

 

[custard]

Those coopers were massively skilful craftsmen. I'm no expert, but my understanding is they're not using that massive plane to make the workpiece true, they're actually using it to shape a stave by eye with the perfect bevel to render the barrel water tight. I guess some boatbuilders will execute a similar level of skill when planking up.

You've just got to take your hat off to craftsmen like that. When I read some journalists in the woodworking magazines gushing and simpering over some dead simple Shaker style cabinet that's just straight lines and right angles, I think about old boys like that cooper, achieving engineering levels of precision with a few crude hand tools, and wonder if they're spinning in their graves!

 

[AndyT]

^^ Agreed. Not only did they do that shaping by eye, they worked largely without measurements. Yet they made barrels to standard sizes, with a high degree of accuracy. Quite a lot of shaping was done on the block, with an axe - this was piece work and speed mattered too.

If anyone wants to know more, I recommend a book by Ken Kilby, The Cooper and his Trade. Kilby was a working cooper, like his father and grandfather. He describes how barrels were made, the tools used, and the importance of the cooper in history. He also wrote a Shire album on coopering if anyone wants a briefer summary.

 

[NazNomad]

I do love to see shavings and sawdust. All these new 'YouTube workshops' with clinical cleanliness, not a speck of a shaving anywhere, I wonder if these people ever really make anything except videos?

 

[MIGNAL]

How Guinness made them:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1bNp3E-SuQw

 

[bugbear]

I do love to see shavings and sawdust. All these new 'YouTube workshops' with clinical cleanliness, not a speck of a shaving anywhere, I wonder if these people ever really make anything except videos?

I suspect it's a bit like having visitors round - you tidy up beforehand.

BugBear

 

[Derek Cohen (Perth Oz)]

For those that did not look at the link to my website, this is the cooper's jointer I made: 36" long and 3" wide Berg blade. This is the plane alongside a Stanley #7 ...

I built it so it could be used like a traditional jointer on edges ..

.. and the reversed to work as a traditional cooper's jointer ...

The great part was adding a fence that enabled it to be a non-powered jointer ..

Regards from Perth

Derek

 

[Bm101]

Strangely, I was on chatting online with a mate the other evening, he's a Croatian knifemaker settled in Italy. By the wonders of the Internet and a shared love of tools n stuff, we've never met in person but I regard him as a good friend. Anyway... funny enough he posted a pic or two of a very similar tool, his Father's if i recall correctly. I'll have a chat with him later and get his permission to post the pics. Might interest some of you.
Like buses. Wait a lifetime then two turn up at once!