Old Groovy

**sumu** · 2nd January 2008, 12:24 PM

Hello,

I picked up an old plougher I found in the corner of one country shed under a pile of all kinds of junk. It was covered with dust, bird and bat droppings and at least six different colours of paint stains, including purple

. It was no way to even identify the wood under all of that. To be honest, I did not got utterly excited, just started to clean it up.

For once I decided to try out a real restoration clean-up instead of going for the usual tweak'n'such routine. I must say I'm pretty happy with the result.

I scraped off the solid crap, cleaned the wooden parts with lamp oil and grade 000 steel wool, and all metal parts I cleaned with a eraser. I applied some shellac as a finish, nothing else.

It is still useful, but I think I'll leave this one in peace. I have not thought about it's sales value or such, it is nice as is.

About the iron, it is clearly of blacksmith make, forged and filed. I have not touched it with anything else than with an eraser, so all the iron shape is indeed original and like it was when I found it.

The wedge is clearly not the original one, and I wonder whether I should make a new one a bit more in similar style as the rest of the plane? Now it is just a wooden block, once quickly made to replace the original.

Happy New Year from hereabouts, too!

sumu

**m2c1Iw** · 2nd January 2008, 11:41 PM

Hi Sumu,
Interesting find, is it from a recognised maker looks very old. Yes you need to make a new wedge looks wrong without a finial. Not that I've seen many old ploughs but the fence rod guides/collars (don't know what they are called) are they unusual and the way they are attached.
Cheers Mike

**sumu** · 3rd January 2008, 12:56 AM

Hi Mike,

There is no maker's mark nor owner's marks, unfortunately. But it has been in serious use, toe skate forward end is about 2 mm thinner than rear end, and heel skate is about the same thickness as the toe rear end. Pretty typical wear pattern for a heavily used plough plane with brass skates.

Because it's body is made of masur birch, I believe it is of finnish or swedish make. For example germans would have used beech or maple for it, and skates would have been probably made of steel. There is german influence in it, for example in a modern Ulmia plough plane there is similar style of depth stop, also rod guides are smooth and have no actual mechanism for fence position adjustments.
(If you wish, please see http://www.fine-tools.com/G300322.htm )

I could be that the maker has seen a german made plougher and from there on just made it by memory, replacing missing details in his own way. But there has been a good lathe in use, good drilling gear (skates are attached to a body with about 3mm diameter metal pins), blacksmith services and also some machinists' threading tools.

I have not identified the thread type used in bolts and wing nuts yet. Also there can't be seen if the depth stop is peened or just soldered. I believe it is not made of single piece, nor bent in shape.

That kind of plane this time

.

kippis,

sumu

**Chris Vesper** · 5th January 2008, 10:00 AM

Wow what a nice groover! Simple but good, maybe I am looking at through rose colored glasses because we dont get them like that here in OZ. Check out this link to my website http://www.chris-v.com/interestingstuff/index.htm
Third item from the bottom of the page is a very old grooving plane owned by a friend of mine, I know the planes really look nothing alike but the screw wing nuts to lock the fence are styled similar.

**sumu** · 7th January 2008, 06:09 AM

Hi Chris,

Originally Posted by Chris Vesper

Wow what a nice groover! Simple but good, maybe I am looking at through rose colored glasses because we dont get them like that here in OZ. Check out this link to my website http://www.chris-v.com/interestingstuff/index.htm
Third item from the bottom of the page is a very old grooving plane owned by a friend of mine, I know the planes really look nothing alike but the screw wing nuts to lock the fence are styled similar.

Oh man it really is some plougher. Thanks for this tip!

Is that "1778" really the year of make? I have always thought that ploughers' fence rod guides have usually been locked with wooden wedges before year 1880 or so.

My plougher is assumingly dating back to 1900-1920. Those brass wingnuts are probably casted, and maybe the depth stop, too, although I first assumed it was two pieces peened or soldered together.

Great pages you have there Chris

. Thanks for sharing!

kippis,

sumu

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