Picked up a wooden jack, quite old looking, stamped

  J. Pearce
  New York

  No. 109

I have no records of this maker for any old tools, so would appreciate
knowing when Pearce was making planes.

The iron has a slightly interesting feature, if having a strange cap iron
screw can be interesting. This screw is hollow, and even stranger, the
hollow is threaded! It must be a replacement, or did they ever do this sort
of thing? What would a screw with a threaded interior be used for?

The iron is a laminated Robt Sorby with the kangaroo imprint.

Thanks,

Brent
--
Victoria, BC, CA
mailto: ub359@v...

At 04:55 PM 11/26/01 -0800, Brent Beach wrote:
>Picked up a wooden jack, quite old looking, stamped
>
>   J. Pearce
>   New York
>
>   No. 109
>
>I have no records of this maker for any old tools, so would appreciate
>knowing when Pearce was making planes.

J. Pearce was a hardware store brand name used by H. Chapin - Union Factory 
1828-1860.

>The iron has a slightly interesting feature, if having a strange cap iron
>screw can be interesting. This screw is hollow, and even stranger, the
>hollow is threaded! It must be a replacement, or did they ever do this sort
>of thing? What would a screw with a threaded interior be used for?
>
>The iron is a laminated Robt Sorby with the kangaroo imprint.

That is a replacement iron..Chapin Bench planes would have had an American 
iron (I don't have any here at present but I have seen Chapin marked irons, 
although I do believe they used others as well).

Tony

___________________________________________________________________
Parental Woodworking 101---
Look, you nailed 3 boards together and only used........50 nails!
___________________________________________________________________

GGs,

Brent asks about a J Pearce woodie with a Sorby Iron, Tony Sez:

>J. Pearce was a hardware store brand name used by H. Chapin - Union
>   Factory 1828-1860.

I suggest Tony has the dates for J Pearce usage wrong. I have a jack and
fore plane, both nicely shaped (for factory), in very nice condition
with super tight mouths. Both my J Pearce planes have Chapin Stephens
marked irons which puts the date for mine at 1901- 1929. I don't know
how much earlier this mark was used.

Regards, Wade

>>> Anthony Seo  11/27/01 08:28AM >>>
At 04:55 PM 11/26/01 -0800, Brent Beach wrote:
>Picked up a wooden jack, quite old looking, stamped
>
>   J. Pearce New York
>
>   No. 109
>
>I have no records of this maker for any old tools, so would appreciate
>knowing when Pearce was making planes.

J. Pearce was a hardware store brand name used by H. Chapin - Union
   Factory 1828-1860.

>The iron has a slightly interesting feature, if having a strange cap
>iron screw can be interesting. This screw is hollow, and even
>stranger, the hollow is threaded! It must be a replacement, or did
>they ever do this sort of thing? What would a screw with a threaded
>interior be used for?
>
>The iron is a laminated Robt Sorby with the kangaroo imprint.

That is a replacement iron..Chapin Bench planes would have had an
American iron (I don't have any here at present but I have seen Chapin
marked irons, although I do believe they used others as well).

Tony

___________________________________________________________________
Parental Woodworking 101--- Look, you nailed 3 boards together and only
used........50 nails!
___________________________________________________________________

Wade, I seem to have the smoother to go with your jack and fore plane...
J. Pearce, Chapin Stephens iron, nice condition and nicely shaped, and
with a reasonably tight mouth for a woodie smoother.

Was Chapin Stephens a successor to the H. Chapin - Union Factory?

FWIW, Paul Fuss

Wade McDonald wrote:
>
> GGs,
>
> Brent asks about a J Pearce woodie with a Sorby Iron, Tony Sez:
>
> >J. Pearce was a hardware store brand name used by H. Chapin - Union
> >   Factory 1828-1860.
>
> I suggest Tony has the dates for J Pearce usage wrong. I have a jack
> and fore plane, both nicely shaped (for factory), in very nice
> condition with super tight mouths. Both my J Pearce planes have Chapin
> Stephens marked irons which puts the date for mine at 1901- 1929. I
> don't know how much earlier this mark was used.
>
> Regards, Wade

>Brent asks about a J Pearce woodie with a Sorby Iron, Tony Sez:

>J. Pearce was a hardware store brand name used by H. Chapin - Union Factory
1828-1860.

>I suggest Tony has the dates for J Pearce usage wrong.  I have a jack and
>fore plane, both nicely shaped (for factory), in very nice condition with
super
>tight mouths. Both my J Pearce planes have Chapin Stephens marked irons
>which puts the date for mine at 1901- 1929. I don't know how much earlier
> this mark was used.

Well Chapin Stevens being the final successor to the Chapin Plane making
empire, (before being
swallowed by the great beast of Stanley), I'm sure that they used the
subsidiary marks throughout,
not just H. Chapin, but the & Sons version, et all.  I just grabbed my copy
of AWP IV for the info
(I can never keep the hardware store distribution stuff like Oswego and New
York Tool straight).

I have seen a number of both bench planes and and a few molders (mostly
common stuff like
rabbets, beads, and match planes) with this mark.  And many appear to be of
the original
Union Factory vintage.  I highly doubt that Chapin-Stevens was using Sorby
irons though..

FWIW

Tony