Inventors often don't know what they're doing until they have done it. And that's why there's usually a flurry of innovation in the beginning when people figure stuff out - and then the design settles down.
I have written previously about Robert Towell (1790-1871), who is considered the first professional metal plane maker. He worked in London c. 1810-1863. Many of his planes were made for other brands, but there are a fair number of planes stamped with his logo. His first metal planes were miter planes and were much like everyone else's miter planes. Then Towell started making rebate planes. I don't know if he was the inventor of that design, but sometime probably in the 1830s - 1840s, Towell realized that most people were using their miter planes like regular bench planes. Ergonomically miter planes sucked, as there was just no place to properly grab a miter plane and put power behind it. Towell made some of the first metal panel planes, including the one in these photos. The actual shape of his panel plane wasn't new - it existed in wood for over a century previously - but making it out of metal was an innovation. However, and this goes back to the point I made at the start of this blog post, being a pioneer meant that Towell had no idea what he was doing, and his early panel planes were built like miter planes.
The flipping of the iron to a bevel down position raises the bed angle of the plane and thereby leaves space for a nice handle right behind the iron. Towell still used a tapered iron and a fitted wedge like all bench planes had because the lever cap wouldn't be invented for another decade or so. But that makes sense.
On a miter plane, the super fine mouth is made by filing a tongue-and-groove joint on edges of the sole and fitting them together. With a bevel down panel plane, the mouths are very wide, so later makers just made their soles out of a single piece and cut a big opening for the blade in the sole. Towell, not knowing any better at this time, made his sole exactly like a miter plane and tongue-and-grooved the sides together. One the bottom you can see the tongue-and-groove joint in a miter plane. On the top is the same joint on the panel plane
The back of a miter plane is made by bending an iron strip to form a rounded back and sides. The wooden infill in the back is mostly just a bed for the blade and isn't part of the structure. Towell's panel plane is made the same way, and the sides are a single piece bent around the back. Later panel planes had separate side pieces and open back, and the sides were dovetailed to the sole and also screwed into the infill on the side. With an open back, the tail of the plane is a lot lighter and can even thin down and taper like later panel planes do. The back of the Towell plane with its bent around back compared to a similar size Norris panel plane C. 1910, with its later separate side construction and open back
The wooden infill under the blade of a miter plane tapers at the low angle until it meets the similar angle of the sole mouth. In Towell's bevel-down panel plane, the iron doesn't come in contact with the sole at all and the blade rests entirely on the wooden frog. What is interesting about Towells' wooden infill is that it, unlike later infill bench planes, is glued up of three pieces. The bottom piece is cut at a low angle, which suggests it might have belonged to a miter plane or that this plane was originally going to be a large, long miter. Then a second piece, which brings the blade angle to forty-five degrees, and then finally a thin 3/32" sliver glued to the bed, which brings the iron forward and closes up the mouth. Some people have suggested that Towell used multiple pieces of rosewood in order to use save money. Maybe, but I am not persuaded. To me this looks like the work of an innovative planemaker iterating his way to a mature panel plane design.
Unfortunately we don't have any way of dating this plane or any other of Towell's panel planes. A few have survived and construction and design details vary between them.
Towell was a successful metal planemaker - that is, he had a long career making with super quality high end planes with innovative features. But as a businessman, sadly Towell struggled. He outlived his wife and all his children, including the son who worked with him, and spent the last years of his life in the workhouse.
"He outlived his wife and all his children, including the son who worked with him, and spent the last years of his life in the workhouse"
That's heartbreaking!
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That's heartbreaking!