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Another Forgotten Tool [1]

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Date: 2022-07-17

This sure is one odd-looking beast.

In the decades following the Civil War, the Industrial Revolution went into overdrive. Being a mechanical engineer, I totally geek out over some of the wild shit mechanisms they came up with back then. Like this insanely complex apple peeler.

Anyway, here is one of the more useful products of that time — A Stanley No. 48 tongue and groove plane. These guys had a tool for everything. Stanley made these from 1876 until 1942. Earlier versions had a black Japanning finish but after 1896, they switched to nickel plating. A “fish scale” pattern on the handle grip came along in 1911, replacing the more ornate scrollwork design. So, my example dates between 1897 and 1910, making it a Type 2. They’re still kind of affordable. At least these newer ones are; I recently paid under $100 for this good solid plane with the expected signs of age and use. There’s a decent amount of the nickel plating still present, and the rosewood knob is in good shape. Nice.

This came via Jim Bode Tools, a trusted and reputable online seller of vintage tools. My checking account’s balance is in grave peril every time I go there, so new visitors beware ;)

This configuration cuts the groove.

This tool is designed to cut a tongue or groove on board edges with widths between 3/4” to 1”, centering the cut at 7/8” width. Prior to WW2, 7/8” was a standard lumber thickness. Soon afterward, that changed to 3/4”. It works fine on 3/4” or 1” stock, but the tongue and groove will be slightly offset to one side or the other, depending on what width you’re working with.

So, how does it work? Well, there are two cutters, each about 3/8” wide, with a 5/16” space between them. On the sole, there’s a 5/16” wide fore-aft recess in the middle that acts as a depth stop for both the tongues and the grooves — When you bottom out and the iron(s) stop cutting wood, you’re done. The clever feature is the rotating fence. To cut a groove, you pull a little spring-loaded pin next to the front knob to disengage the fence, rotate it 180 degrees and lock it in so only one cutter is exposed. To cut a tongue, reverse the fence so both cutters are exposed, lock it in, and go to town. Simple and easy. One nice thing about this plane is the fact that once you’ve dialed in the depth of cut you want, it’s good to use without further adjustment until the next time the irons need sharpening. This whole tool is just glorious in its ingenious simplicity and durability. This came into my possession pretty much as you see it here. A prior owner has given it a cleaning and sharpening, so there wasn’t much for me to do except wipe off a bit of dust with a shop rag and start playing around with it. It’s perfectly fine as-is, no need to go the Full Monty on it. I will re-hone those irons, though. With the fence rotated this way, it cuts the groove. Rotating it 180 degrees exposes both irons and cuts the tongue. I don’t have any 7/8” stock, but I do have some scrap 3/4” pallet wood, so I tried out a test cut on a couple pieces of that. You can set it to take fairly aggressive shavings — These surfaces will be hidden, so you don’t have to worry much about how pristine or silky-smooth they are. Here’s what I got with admittedly crappy wood. The result would doubtless be better with properly prepared, higher quality starting material. A quick test on some 3/4” pallet wood. They fit nice and snug. Cool! Now where’d I put that beer & weed? I imagine that back before power tools, most tongue and groove boards were made this way. But this is an easy tool to master. It took me maybe ten minutes to make my small test cuts, but still, I sure wouldn’t have wanted to be the carpenter’s apprentice tasked with doing this all day, every day. On the other hand, I’d have Popeye arms to show for it, so there’s that. Here, it’s set up for cutting a tongue. Heh, I will have some fun with this. In all honesty though, I probably won’t use it all that much. There’s a sawmill nearby with all the pre-cut tongue and groove lumber I could ever possibly use. But asking people if they can figure out what this tool does should provide enough entertainment value to make it well worth the price! I found some space for it, looks right at home. Behold my exceptional photography skills. Lastly, regarding those deleted text messages from 1/5 and 1/6/21 on certain Secret Service agent’s phones. I’m not buying the several (evolving) official statements put forth by USSS. In my experience, if you’re telling the truth, you don’t have to keep changing your story. If this was just a case of a few rogue agents more loyal to Trump than to their country deleting those texts, USSS leadership would have said so, and promptly provided those texts to the J6 Committee from backup servers. And immediately suspended/fired the agents in question. Instead, Secret Service leadership appears to be in stall/cover-up mode. Why? If this is as bad as it looks, it’s pretty fucking bad. And on that cheery note:

Keep it safe, everyone!

ER

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[1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2022/7/17/2110689/-Another-Forgotten-Tool-What-IS-This-Thing

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