Spill Plane

[dowdstools]

As you head down that slippery slope to antique hand tool use, you will discover a myriad of hand planes, some designed for a single dedicated purpose. Case in point - the wooden hand plane on the left is called a "spill plane", and its only function is to create the long, tightly twisted shavings seen to its right. Before matches were a common and inexpensive item, these "spills" would be used to transfer a flame from the fireplace to a pipe, candle, lantern, etc. The plane on the right is a Stanley No. 3 smoothing plane, with the shavings from it shown for comparison. The spill plane is 10 3/4 inches long, 2 5/16 inches wide, and has no maker's mark on it. It may have been made by a craftsman for his personal use.

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Lynn

[hankgillette]

Lee Valley sells a modern version and there are several tutorials online that show how to make one.

[dowdstools]

I have seen the Lee Valley model. I really like it. I'll check out the tutorials you mentioned, as I may try my hand at building one.

[Scott W]

It's on my list to do.

[hankgillette]

Kari made one; she even made the blade.

Note: This is just the first entry in a multi-part posting. You might have to use the search function to get all the parts, or you can just keep clicking on “Newer Post” and ignore (or not, she’s always interesting) the posts that are on different subjects.

[Alan S]

That one has a number of interesting features: skewed mouth, screwed on side, nailed on bottom, and skewed bottom groove that serves to increase the skew of the mouth. Could the nailed on bottom and the extra skew of the groove be a post-construction modification to make it work better?

[JR1]

I have the LV and used it a lot when I was heating with wood—before it more than doubled n price—I used it to get the flame to the center of a pile of logs where a match didn't reach. Works great, I still use it for my BBQ.

[DCM]

That's a cool find Lynn!
I have the LV one & love it
David

[Bibliophile 13]

Very cool! I've seen the LV version, but I don't think I've ever seen a vintage spill plane.

[handi]

I have read about spill planes, but have yet to see an old one in person. Thanks for sharing yours. It is one of those, "I have no use for it, but I want it anyway" planes.

Ralph