J W Farr & Co of New York

In my recent chocolate's run (Tm :-) I picked this little 3/8 dado plane, stamped J.W. Farr & Co New York.

A dado plane is similar to a Rabbet plane but characterized by the addition of a depth stop and a nicker ahead of the main cutter, which is normally skew since we are cutting cross grain.

First time I ran into this planemaker,  so looked him up and this is what little I found about him.

We know from his indenture papers , when he was 16, he apprentices for 4 years, 5 months and 13 days under Emos Baldwin (in business 1817-29,  became A & E Baldwin 1830-41)

J.W Farr was in business from 1832-51
J.W. Farr & Co, no date given but presumably post 1851

He was one of the many NY plane makers that were trained by the Baldwins.
In those days, numerous wannabee planemakers were trained by either Baldwin or Chapin, who were two of the biggest wooden planemakers of their days.

After their apprenticeship were completed, many left the immediate area and went to established themselves as planemakers.
Here is a list which contains no doubt many of these apprenticed under Baldwin or Chapin

J.W. FARR & Co

N.York (inc)

The maker stamp & Co signifies it was made post 1851.

According to my copy of the Pollack's Guide to American Wooden Planes and their makers, his plane of this imprints (D) are rated 1 star for rarity meaning: Uncommon, denotes between 250 and 500 examples known.
Mind you my copy is from 1989, I'm sure that rating has changed since...

There are 5 imprints known for JW Farr.

Number 2 (B) is 3 stars, very rare, between 50 and 100 

Now lets see how this plane was made.

The depth stop is adjusted by a big brass thumb screw.

The plane at parade rest (military term for stripped down).

There is a lot of work on this small body.

To remove the depth stop shoe, simply unscrew (extend)

 the shoe until it separate. two screws release this assembly.

The adjuster knob is brass but the screw thread rod is steel.

It's a good thing :-) 

The depth stop shoe is a bit rough, will need some judicious filing.

A bit rusty, but nothing serious. Cleaning it will make it operate smoothly.

Very typical mechanism BTW.

The two wedges and cutters, in good shape.

Yes the irons need badly to be sharpened but nothing serious 

and lots of meat left to sharpen.

I was working on my kitchen table (Oups sorry Heather :-)

So I grabbed this glass top saver to quickly assess the condition of the body.

No need for machinist straight edge, just making sure there are no bow or twist in the body.

The rear hole thru the body is a former user modification. 

It does detract from its collectible value but not as a users.

Notice the skew mortise, tricky...

The recess for screwing the brass plate of the depth stop adjuster will require

some fixing in order to securely screw them in.

It does screw tight-ish, but I would not trust it, and will address that.

Overall a welcome addition to my stables of planes in my tills, will make a good user. Now I need to clean both the wood and metal parts. I am going to try a new product for the wood parts. I gave up trying to find Kramers antique improver here in Canada and it is rather pricey. Found this similar product here in Canada, Dr Woodwell's wood elixir,  that I will try. Will let you know how it perform.

Bob, with a growing accumulation of recent acquisition on my kitchen table. have to use the dining room table to eat :-)
Yes, Heather I will clean up my mess... What mess, it was Rudy :-)

Big moves at The Greenwood Aviation Museum

This small aviation museum situated at the entrance of 14 Wing Greenwood, is growing in leaps and bounds in an effort to represent one of each types of aircraft that were associated with the base since its opening in 1942.

Or as we volunteers that work on these aircraft like to say: Holy shit another one? We are running out of room to work! :-)

These three recent additions were stored on the Wing for a little while awaiting their transport to the museum. The Challenger was flown in, the Hercules retired from service, replaced by a new J model, and the Arcturus were taken out of service a few years back. That airframe, No 119 was used as a training aid at the training Sqn 404 (my last unit)

This week it finally happened, all three aircraft's, the Challenger, the Hercules and the Arcturus were moved out thru the front gate of the base.
In preparation, the front gate and fencing around it were removed, some electrical cables temporally moved and the three planes made it out the base being towed to their new locations in the Air park outside the museum and Canex.

Of course, even with the additional room made for them, they had to be slightly altered to make it thru: Part of wings removed on both the Arcturus and Herc,

The following pics of aircraft's in movement by my friend Norm Hutchings, used with permission.

Challenger, in one piece,  on its way. Thigh fit but it went thru...

CP140A Arcturus, sans the wing tips...

CC130H, minus most of its wings...

I was going to go see them moved, had a notification from the museum staff about the event, but all week I have been privileged to received visitors from away; Alberta, Ontario.

In between visitors, last nite I took Rudy see the planes in the airpark.

This is now where they resides, awaiting being put back together. This will have to take place soonest before birds and critters make a home in them.

At time like this, it is very beneficial to have the full support of the Wing resources to make these things happened. The crews that moved these planes were military.

The following pics are all mine

The Arcturus resting besides the Neptune and Lancaster in the background

Hercules engines with props, the wing in the foreground is for the Herc

The Challenger made it in one piece.

It made its last flight here from Ottawa

The Herc horizontal stab look almost bigger than the stub wings :-)

Yes, an engine and the remainder of the wing is missing on each side

During our visit to the air park grounds I ran into a couple of old friends  I haven't seen in a while. Sat on the grass and catch up on our life stories.

Rudy got to meet yet more of my friends, were ever we go :-)

Here he is trying to impress Pat and Gary with is impression of low level nap of the earth flying. Gary is a plane owner and pilot, he can recognize a good doggy flyer when he sees one :-)

Or it could have been his version of commando crawl, im not sure... :-)

All in all this has been a great week. I have reconnected and catch up with old friends from around and away. Rudy must have practically worn out his sniffer by now :-)

And in a few weeks it will be my turn to go visit friends away...
Life is good and slowly returning to normal

Bob, who get by with a little help from his friends (Beatles)

Dog's day afternoon

The day started innocently enough... Turn on the computer to be greeted by a message that says Update to Window 10 free until Jul 29th. So I thought, well that probably meant they are about to ditch support to Win 7 so may as well...

Took bloody forever it took upon itself to scan and fixed all my drives attach to that PC, that's about 2 Tb of storage, yes lots of tools pics :-)

Oh yeah, I'm so excited...

Its like watching a submarine race... ZZZZ

That was in between publishing part 1 and 2 of the illustrated type study lists. Still have some small gripes about the updates but for the most part, seems OK, the new Microsoft Edge, which replaced Explorer, looks a lot like Google Chrome...hummm


So figured may as well leave it alone to do its thing and go play with Rudy :-)

I'm playing with my monkey Dad

Listen, do you hear that sound ??

Yah, i'm pretty sure its that Chipmunk

Well, what are we waiting for??

I know he is out there, I heard him...

I see him, lets go Dad!

I know he was there...

I can smell him...

Wait til I put my paws on you

You can run but you cant hide

Sniff sniff come out and play...

You yellow bastard, I'll bite your leg off 

(Monty Python Holy Grail reference :-)

In between chasing Chipmunks, we took a quick drive to my usual Sunday flea market scene, you never know what will show up :-)

Came across this Roadster, had to stop and take a gander...

Love the shifter pattern :-)

I don't think it is a very practical vehicle to drive but it sure looks cool

The scene Sunday morning at the Wilmot flea market

It is a scorcher of a day

That is the vendor table where I found my 

MF No 12 and No 2 and brace etc...

That Stanley Jack plane is a Type 19 BTW, which means the yellow notch rectangle Stanley is period correct

Lots of tools here and there but my picking is getting slim, 

hum wonder who is snatching all the good ones :-)

Picked up a draw knife $5 and a rusty Irwin bit for $0.50
That draw knife will required two new handles. A few minutes job at the lathe.

Earlier went back to my chocolate place in Annapolis Royal and lo and behold found more tools :-)

See, it IS a Chocolate place :-)

Says so on the sign above the door.

Heh look what they got. That place too is 

getting picked clean...somehow :-)

Says Bob with a mouthful of chocolate

Some how this Greenfield Tool Co screw arm plough 

with 7 cutters followed me home. 

No chocolate survived the trip back home, I guess I'll have to go back again...

I'll give him some time to replenish his stock, I made a big dent in his supplies :-)

And then surprise, this package came in the mail the other day, from Patrick Leach...

It is a Mathieson, Glascow, classic Scotch brace.

It was MS53 in his July tool list... Mine :-)

Pic from Pat's July 16 tool list

Also found a bunch of other stuff in my local travels, brace bits and etc.
I better stop buying tools this month and start cleaning and restoring then put them to the test :-)

Bob, who has no doubt overspent his monthly quotas...

That's the problem when no one is around to reason with you... :-(