Thread: Jack = Fore, according to Moxon

I have just received my copy of the electronic version of Moxon, Mechanick Exercises, produced by Gary Roberts of Toolemera.com. I was virtually flipping the pages when, in the dictionary of Carpenters' terms in the volume on House-carpentry I found the following:

"Jack-plane, called so by Carpenters, but is indeed the same that Joyners call the Fore-plane".

So, as far as Moxon was concerned, the Fore-plane (ie the plane used first to dress timber) used by joiners in making furniture was the same plane as the Jack plane used by carpenters in making houses. That makes sense to me - carpentry (in the sense of the woodwork to make a house structure as opposed to the finish work of skirtings, doors, windows, etc) is rougher and really only needs the same degree of dressing as is just the first stage of dressing for joinery work.



I am not claiming that this is the end of the story (or indeed the beginning), but I might suggest that if this is the case (ie same plane under a different name in each trade) this is could be an example of how Stanley took some liberties with the terms that were used in the various trades to which it wanted to sell planes in order to:

1. show that there was the plane that each trade had always used available frim Stanley in new you-beaut cast iron; and
2. encourage plane users to think that they might need to buy more planes to cover other situations...