Tuesday, April 29, 2008

The Wis...

My friend and occasional boss (when I'm feeling Freelancing'ish) Chris Schwarz recently found out that I have a Ken Wisner Edge-Trimming Block Plane, and he put together a really nice post on his blog about it.

I got mine a while ago (1 to 2 years ago) on Ebay. However, something interesting happened late last year when another Ken Wisner plane hit Ebay.

Last November another Wisner appeared on Ebay, and it included the original Garrett-Wade "Instruction" sheet. I didn't win that plane; I don't know if I even bid. However, I emailed the Ebay winner and asked if he would be willing to scan the instruction sheet and email it to me. This fellow Wisner owner (I only know him as TOM) did indeed scan the wrinkled Garrett-Wade page and email it to me. (That was a genuinely nice thing for a fellow woodworker to do.)

Here is a copy of the original Instruction Sheet that accompanied the Wisner Planes, courtesy of a nice fella named Tom.


It is interesting to think that a different guy named TOM was working at Garrett Wade when they were selling these planes, and perhaps he is the guy who wrote up these Instructions????

Tom Lie-Nielsen: Did you write up this one pager of tips for using the Ken Wisner plane when you worked for Garrett Wade?

I am glad Ken Wisner made a few hundred planes, but I am even more happy that Thomas Lie-Nielsen picked up the mantle and ran with it....

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I'm curious-- how much did the Wisner plane sell for on e-bay? I have one I'm willing to sell if it brings enough money to outfit a new shop!

Anonymous said...

Broken link at the top. Now ...

http://www.popularwoodworking.com/woodworking-blogs/chris-schwarz-blog/a-piece-of-history-from-the-early-bronze-age