>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