What started out a mystery may well have stayed one. Chester Spier takes a hard look at a tool found at a flea market that may or may not have been a coach maker’s tool but, indeed, is a great router.
Very cool! I don’t believe it’s a production router. The mixture of materials is one reason. I would guess it would have been made with all steel or all brass. Not steel brass and bronze. Most production planes/shaves of this time did not have steel bottoms. They would have been all wood. Then someone would add a material after it had warn. There are exceptions of course. And the layout line as you mentioned. To me that makes it even cooler! I love craftsman made tools. Especially when they are done as nice as that one is!
I’m not opposed to your opinion on that but I might present an opposing viewpoint. If I were making one for myself then my tendency would be to not change metals but to rather do them all the same but if it was a production piece then all of one plate would be made in a lot of one metal and an other batch of another metal for the bronze. It may have been cast rather than plate. An interesting thing to consider.
I agree, it’s very interesting! I an currently working on two router planes that (in my opinion), were cast by a pattern maker. Someone used a 71 1/2 as the pattern and casted it in bronze. I have two of them. They are at a local machine shop getting drilled an tapped and having the depth adjustment post installed. I’m not set up right now to do those operations. But I’ll be making a video about them when I get them from the machine shop! Thanks again for the videos!!
