Pete Mueller asked:

>>So many whatsits, so little time.  Now that I can post some 
>>pictures of puzzling planes, let me offer this one up.  This plane 
>>looks like a coffin smoother but one side of the base is straight, 
>>not curved.  The straight side has the mouth let in so the iron can 
>>snug up against some work but it's not like a rabbet plane.  And no 
>>nicker either.
>>
>>Find the pix here, all the way at the end: 
>>http://home.comcast.net/~cpmueller/wsb/html/view.cgi-photos.html-.html
>>
>>There are some other puzzling things about it too.  Like what is 
>>"shear steel?"
>>
>>I'd like to know what this tool is/was used for.  Can anyone please help?

Tony Seo replied:

>Wow..that's a find.  Taylor & Son worked 1843-51.  Rated Uncommon in 
>Goodman's.  Looks to be some sort of inside rabbet plane.  Was 
>probably for a special job that someone needed to do.  That iron and 
>signed cap are great!

Very unusual plane - especially with one straight and one curved cheek.

It could be viewed as a smooth sized badger plane, but that is a bit
problematic since the name, badger, typically implies a toted plane of
jack size. Or, it might be thought of as a "Smooth [size] Raising Plane"
(so named in many 19th century British plane maker's price lists),
though these usually had a fence and, possibly, a nicker and/or depth
stop.

Take your pick? :-)

With reference to the James Cam cap iron, the usual understanding is
that James Cam first appeared as a file maker in a 1787 directory
listing. Then in a partnership of Cam & Brown, edge tool makers, at
52 Norfolk Street, in 1797. By 1817, the firm was, once again, listed
as James Cam, Norfolk Street, continuing to about 1837.

However, information provided by Bill Kasper some time back tends to
present some difficulty with this narrative. Specifically, he pointed
out some Sheffield burial list information pertaining to James Cam,
which indicates he died March 31, 1837 - at the age of 65. If this is
correct, he would have only been about 15 years of age at the time of
the 1787 listing. This seems to suggest that the 1787 file maker
listing was for another James Cam ... possibly his father? So, it
seems more likely that the first listing for James Cam, the edge tool
maker, was the 1797 partnership of Cam & Brown.

In any event, the firm of Marshes & Shepherd purchased James Cam's
business, along with the right to use his name/mark, at about the
time of his death. They continued to use the James Cam mark on edge
tools until about 1849, as did their successor, Marsh Brothers &
Company. This latter firm was in business until at least the end of
the century.

As far as I can make out, the plane iron exhibits the mark:

       G. HATTERSLEY
        SHEFFIELD

Gerge Hattersley was in business, as an edge tool maker, from about
1828 until about 1841. First at 87 Eyre Lane, then at 14 Plum Street.

Shear steel is produced from blister steel, which is the product of
the cementation process. Clear as mud, eh? OK ... a little
background.

According to K. C. Barraclough, the earliest account of steel making
by the cementation process comes from Nuremberg in 1601. Though he
also hints it may be significant that the inventor, Johann Nussbaum,
had previously spent some years in Prague.

Very briefly, the cementation process involves placing alternating
layers of iron bars and charcoal into refractory chests, which are
subsequently sealed, or cemented, closed. This prevents the charcoal
from igniting. The chests sit in a large furnace, which is then fired
for a period of a week to ten days. The firing is monitored to maintain
a temperature below the melting point of the iron bars, while carbon
from the charcoal diffuses into the iron bars.

These bars tend to have a blistered, or scaled, appearance when they
emerge from the process - hence the term, blister steel.

The process of producing shear steel from blister steel was introduced
into England by Wilhelm (or William) Bertram, of Germany, who was
apparently shipwrecked on the North Durham coast in 1693. Before long,
he was involved in steel making in Newcastle. Bertram's stamp was
that of a pair of crossed shear blades, which came to be associated
with the product/process he pioneered. Interestingly, this process
doesn't seem to have been introduced into Sheffield until about 1767.

Again, very briefly, shear steel is produced by cutting selected
bars of blister steel into shorter lengths (ca. 18"), fastening them
into bundles using wire, then hot forging them (presumably through
the use of tilt hammers) into an ingot. This results in some hammer
refining and a flexible steel particularly well suited for certain
kinds of cutlery work.

Hope this helps.

Don McConnell
Knox County, Ohio