My first thought was a long plane, for making rubbed edge joints, but I
see the inventory has a jointer plane already and the rubber plane isn't
listed with the bench planes. I suspect this might be one of those
things that will be difficult to get a good answer on, as the eccentric
nature of local names for tools makes it tough to figure out. For
example, who would ever think a "cut and thrust" would refer to a dado
plane? Doesn't make a whole lot of sense.

If you look at the implied motion of "rubber plane", as in used to rub,
rather than the material rubber, it might suggest a scrub plane or a
scraper plane, neither of which explicitly appear on the inventory. I
would expect them to be near the bench planes on the list, but I've seen
historical inventories that are rather jumbled. Those are my best
guesses but, as I said, I suspect this will be tough to deduce.

--
Zachary Dillinger The Eaton County Joinery www.theeatoncountyjoinery.com
517-231-3374

On Fri, Aug 10, 2012 at 5:18 AM, Thomas Conroy
<booktoolcutter@y...> wrote:
> Tom,
>
> Don may be on to something. My gut feeling is that "rubber plane"
> means "a plane that rubs" or possibly "a plane to make something that
> rubs" rather than "a plane made out of the material called rubber" or
> "a plane for cutting the material called rubber."
>
> A fast check on-line suggested that "rubber" for the material was in
> use by the end of the 18th century (anyone have the OED? I didn't buy
> it when it was cheap, more fool me); however, I suspect that the
> abbreviated term was still rare in the 1840s, and that "caotchouc" or
> "india rubber" would have been more common. Furthermore, vulcanization
> was patented only in 1844 and before vulcanization the uses for rubber
> were very limited since it became brittle in moderately cold weather
> and sticky in moderately warm weather. With so few tools available at
> the Back of Beyond (fair enough, Tom?) I doubt they would have hauled
> along a special plane just for a rare and little-used material.
>
> Tom Conroy Berkeley
>
>
> Don Schwartz wrote:
>> GGs, The rubber plane precedes the files, suggesting
> it might be an abrasive tool of some sort.<
>
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