Switch block plane?

Re: Switch block plane?

Gary B in Central NY

>Adam,

when is it being published? can't wait to read it.

Gary

Probably used

Derek

>to punish the apprentice when he ruined some good wood or took too long on a task! Either that or it was for ambi-dexterous craftsmen (i.e. switch-hitter)! :>)

Shorter Oxford Dictionary definition

Ian in Sydney

>Switch

"a long bunch of hair or coil of hair, esp. of false hair worn by women to suppliment the natural growth of hair" dates from 1878

"to cut off the switches or projecting twigs from; to trim (a tree, hedge, etc)" dates from 1811.

leads me to the supposition that a switch block plane may have been a tool used in broom making

should have looked up "block" as well

Ian in Sydney

>Block

"a piece of wood or other substance on which something is moulded or shaped"

"to support or fit with blocks of wood" dates from 1823

I'll try and look up the full (23 volume) Oxford at work tomorrow

Switches from a willow tree

Andrew F in Australia

>Hi Ian/Adam,

I know switches well - that's what term my parents (depression-era kids) used when I was *really* acting up as a kid - they were green sticks no more than about 1/4" round, about 3' long and very flexible, not to mention painful.

That's one version of a wood-related switch - perhaps used in caning a seat (popular about 1680 in England)??

Cheers,

Andrew

(Whose first thought when reading Adam's description was more a wedge used to change the direction of a force - but why subscribe a switch block a value if this was the case)

I should add

Andrew F in Australia

>That seat caning had a resurgence in the late Hepplewhite/Sheraton era - about the early 1800's when the shop that Adam's cataloguing was working.

Just a completely wild (and probably wrong) guess as to the etymology and provenance of a switch block.

Cheers,

Andrew (who's off to work)

Re: Switch block plane?

Bjenk Ellefsen

>Could it be one of those linguistic confusion ? A link with strijk blok perhaps ?

looked up the complete Oxford Dictionary

Ian in Sydney

>The complete Oxford didn't add much to what's in the Shorter Oxford

However, there was a reference from the 1790s to a "switch" being a form of stop, similar to a 1" deep blind hole

you may have more success with the "block" side of the item's description

the Oxford has several references to "block" used as what I would today call a former, ie the male shape arround which the female part of an item is shaped, or alternatively, "block" being the molding process itself. (most comonly today a "hat block", to "block a hat") but back in the 1800s the useage included forming metal and shaping other materials

so I'm still thinking broom making, seat weaving, etc