Old Woman's Tooth
William Duffield on the Cohansey
>Here is a recent acquisition. The function and construction of this one is not much in question. Further discussion is encouraged, as detail questions remain unanswered.
Obviously it is a router, of the type usually called an "Old Woman's Tooth." All the evidence indicates that it is one-of-a-kind, probably constructed by the craftsman who subsequently used it in his work. His name was "M.LOWRY" as evidenced by the four maker/owner's marks stamped into the hardwood body. These routers were often made by patternmakers. The body was cut from a single piece of hardwood, probably hard maple, 2" x 3-1/2" x 18".
To the bottom is attached a flat steel plate, about 5/32" thick. It is screwed to the body with 17 flat head flat slot screws. The surfaces of the screws and plate were ground flat after assembly.
The cutter is about 5/16" x 1/2" x 4" long. on the end is stamped "4" and "C Y". The wing nut is marked "CN" on one wing and "U" on the other.
As received, the cutter was not tightly secured. I got it to work with a wooden shim between the cutter and the router's body. Deepening the mortise for the holder would have accomplished the same result, but I didn't want to modify it except to clean it up a little. It also occurred to me that the cutter may not be original, especially since it has circular marks in one side from a set screw. At least, it was previously used in some other tool.
Overall, it is solidly built. There are no rough edges, all the corners of the wood have been smoothly radiused, and finish has been applied to all the parts. No special care was taken to achieve a fine surface finish. There are grinding marks, saw and scribe marks, wire brush and file marks, and lots of scratches and small dings from use. It was definitely constructed as a tool to be used hard, with no consideration for artistic merit.
The last photo should provide sufficient additional construction details to allow the interested toolmaker to construct one of these. It shows that the cutter holder is welded together.
I suspect that this type of tool was fairly common in the toolboxes of patternmakers and other woodworking specialists, even though each one is unique. Since they are not labeled "Stanley" or "Disston" or "KK" or "TY", collectors may have less interest in them, keeping the market price somewhat depressed. Does anyone have any SWAGs as to the value or approximate date of manufacture?