J. Pearce Wooden Smoothing Plane

At a recent tool auction during a meeting of my local tool collectors organization, I bid on and won a box of four wooden planes.  One of them was this little coffin smoother, stamped J. Pearce, of New York.

Pearce Smoother

The toe, showing "maker" name and model no. 108

From what information I could find on the internet, J. Pearce was not a manufacturer but was a hardware store brand name used by H. Chapin.  The iron is stamped "The Chapin Stephens Co."  Other J. Pearce planes I've seen on internet sites have had Chapin Stephens irons, so I suspect this iron is original to the plane.  Some information on a Sawmill Creek thread indicates the plane probably dates from 1901-1929.

Here are some details:

Length: 8"
Width: 2 5/8" at mouth, ~ 1 13/16" at toe, ~ 1 1/2" at heel
Height: 2 3/8" (likely it was 2 1/2" or thereabouts when new)
Toe to bed line distance: 2 3/4"
Bed angle: ~ 47°
Breast angle: ~ 101° (though upper inch or so has been widened with poorly executed chiseling)
Wear angle: no wear - the breast goes all the way to the mouth opening

Strike button diameter: 11/16"
Strike button location: centered laterally, 7/8" from toe (roughly centered between toe and throat)

Wedge dimensions: 4 7/8" long x 2 1/16" wide x ~11/16" thick

Iron mfg: The Chapin Stephens Co., Pine Meadow, Conn, U.S.A.
Iron width: 2" (at cutting edge; 1/32" narrower at back end)
Iron length: 7 3/4"
Iron taper: 7/32" thick behind bevel to 3/32" at rear
Iron construction: steel laminated to iron base

Some pictures of its condition follow.

The heel had some large checks, the lower one caused the sole to be way out of flat

I read that this line of planes was mass-produced and a "second line" of Chapin's planes.  It may have used wood that was not top quality or not properly dried.  The billet this plane came from was not quartersawn, but riftsawn, with center of the tree to the upper right corner of the plane (looking from the rear).

There is a large crack on the right side where abutment recess meets rear plane body

With wedge and iron removed, you can see that crack from the inside

Picture from behind looking forward - note how asymmetrical the abutments are.
You can also see the hack job on the breast surface.

Whether that hack job is evidence of the "second line" status of these planes or was a user modification is unknown.

Finally, note how the abutment recesses have been hollowed out, presumably by thousands of removals and insertions of the iron.

See the gap under the ruler?  Both sides showed similar wear.

Just a couple notes about the iron and cap-iron.  There was a fair amount of rust and corrosion on the iron and I'll get into that next time.

Bevel side of iron

The Chapin Stephens Co., Pine Meadow, Conn., U.S.A.

Iron and cap-iron in profile

The threaded hole of the cap-iron had a raised, threaded portion on the side that mates with the iron.  It seems to me I've seen a raised brass area on the opposite side of old cap irons to increase the thread length.  Perhaps this one is a newer design.  It fits within the iron's slot and is not raised much, so it doesn't get in the way of tightening the screw.

Cap-iron below the iron, with raised threaded portion sticking into slot of the iron

Next time I'll write about cleaning and refurbishing the plane.  I've also built my own version of the plane and that will be the subject of another post.