Our Spring 98 Boy Scout Camporee was held at Jacobsburg State Park. The theme was a
primitive camp and each troop had to make candle lanterns as flashlites were not allowed
outside the tents. Each troop also submitted a lantern to be judged for the lantern building
contest.
The lantern that I made for the contest started life as
a black walnut plank,
5ft x 6 1/4 and 1 1/4 to 1 1/2 thick.
Jointing the edges. You can see how nasty the plank
was to start with. The jointer
is a single ironed, unsigned plane with an offset tote.
My guess is early 1800's.
Using my jack plane on the surface. This plane is
so worn on the front that I can't read the
makers mark, however, it did belong to the grandfather
of some long time family
friends, so I can trace at least 125 years of it's user
history.
Using my smoother to finish the surface. This is
sort of a mystery plane,
ebony body, the tote is laminated from 3 pieces of beech,
English iron.
Seen a number of them around, both in ebony and beech,
and in other forms (mitre
planes, et al) and yet no clue as to who made them.
My guess is English, but...??
Resawing the plank to size. By the time I
finished, I was using the floor joist
overhead to support the stock.
