Est. 1998 — 27 years of woodworking knowledge
Vaughan & Bushnell Ques.
Jonathan Peck - N.Y.
>I been looking for some information on the
Vaughan & Bushnell Co. There doesn't seem to be much info out there other than they made planes for a short period of time in the Bedrock style, starting when powah tools were on the rise and hand tools in the decline, they had three model types - the 700's, 800's and 900's, and they still make hammers.
Is there any mo info on this makah?
Why right here... *LINK*
Scott Burr in Ben Lomond CA
>All ya got to do is go to the source:
For a catalog reprint:
http://www.tooltimer.com/roger/vb.html
V&B History
Re: V&B info..long *LINK*
walt quadrato
>not much on the makah...but here's some info gleaned from another list..I tend to save stuff like this, just in case:
�>According to "Patented Transitional and Metallic Planes in America", vol2, pgs 288-290 Roger Smith..,
V&B offered the "Uncle Sam" series (the 700's) and the
"Lincoln" series (the 800's) as well as the 900's (no cute name
associated with it apparently). That's close to all it has to say about
V&B...there is a picture of an 804C sitting on top of its box. The box
says the plane is 9 1/2" long and has a 2 3/8" wide cutter...knob and
tote are made of mahogany and the plane shown is from about 1925. The
brief article on pg 288 said that V&B dropped their planes about 1940.
The 900 series usually had "VANADIUM" as part of the trademark on the iron and there's a copy of an ad on pg 289...the ad is for the 900 series and says they're made of unbreakable forged steel...it even survived a 100 ft fall to concrete without damaging or distorting the plane(according to the ad).
The 800 series are made of iron (so there's one difference for you). No mention is made of what the 700 series is made of or how it differs from the 800 series.
This appears to be the key to knowing which plane you have. The stamp
on the plane iron has the company name arched over the top, "Chicago,ILL.U.S.A." arched the other direction on the bottom and in the space in between the word "LINCOLN". Since the plane-iron cap is stamped 804 this agrees with the info above. I'm assuming the word in the middle of the blade stamp is "UNCLE SAM" then, on the 700s and
VANADIUM on the 900s.
The 904 is made of steel and just as good as a Bedrock, some say. My 904 has battle-ship grey japanning. Another galoot reports the
japanning on his 800 series V&B is black. Mr. Smith's PTMPAII does not mention japanning - I have checked no other source. Are all 900s grey
and 800s (Lincon) black? What about the 700s (Uncle Sam)? The 800 is reported to have flaky goldish plating on the sides, �
I've got my 905 in front of me and it does have battleship grey japanning..also marked "drop forged" on the toe..square sided bedrock body and round sided bedrock frog design..V&B logo and # embossed on the lever cap. Nice planes when you can find 'em.
walt q
tool works