Jim Thompson asked for any info on:

https://plus.google.com/photos/102358420595488787966/albums/61184722621
52795521?banner=pwa">https://plus.google.com/photos/102358420595488787966/albums
/6118472262152795521?banner=pwa



I hope I'm not too late for the game on this, but I've been sick (recently
phrased it "I've got a right to sing the greeny-yellows") and I'm clearing up
arrears of email.
There is a 1909 L.&I.J. White Catalogue (as per the mark in the photos) among
those that migrated from the Rose Tool Company site to The Alaska Woodworker:

http://www.alaskawoodworker.com/miscellaneous-tool-
catalogs/">http://www.alaskawoodworker.com/miscellaneous-tool-catalogs/

Relevant slicks and gouges appear on pp. 37-46. What you have was called by the
maker a "No. 51. Ship's Carpenters' Socket Gouge" and appears on p. 46. The
drawing of a "Ship's Carpenter's Gouge" shows a short one-handed handle with a
schlagring, but the text says that they were normally sold without a handle, and
we can speculate that many or most users would have equipped them with long two-
hand slick-type handles. They came in widths from 1/2" to 3", all with 6-1/2"
long blades.

There are subtle differences between the "Ship Carpenter's Gouge and the "No.
21. Long Paring Socket Firmer Gouge" or the " No. 22. Millwright's Socket
Gouge," basically in the shape of the shoulders where the blade meets the
socket. I think what you have is definitely the "ship carpenter's gouge."
Unfortunately, the catalogue doesn't show any profile views.

The only tools called "Slicks" in the 1909 White catalogue are No. 12, No. 12A,
and No. 12B, all called "Carpenters' Slicks" and all flat, not curved. The 12 is
turtle-backed, the 12A square-edged, the 12B bevel-edged. All were sold with
proper two-handed applewood slick handles; all came in widths of 2-1/2" to 4",
with various blade lengths.


Slicks were strongly associated with shipwrighting, and it seems to me that a
gouge used in the same way by the same workmen might, in practice, be called a
"gouge slick" rather than a mouth-clogging "Ship Carpenter's Gouge." At any
rate, it is interesting to imagine, the formal dialogue between shipwright and
assistant: "Do you, O admirable and worthy apprentice, bring me my 1" Ship
Carpenter's Gouge with long handle, lest I fail to fit the groove for this rope
before my grip slackens and the pieces fall to the ground far below."  These are
American tools; they would answer to "Gouge slick- quick."

Or so my wandering imagination bubbles forth---  er, maybe that fever hasn't
entirely gone down yet---

Tom Conroy
kippling