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The
construction style dictates that the blade must have a hole,
as the lever cap is held captive by the fixed screw threaded
into the frog. Both the cap iron and frog are made of brass
and finely sculpted.
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| Brass frog. |
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Frog adjustment screws. |
One other interesting design feature is the presence of two
additional screws in the frog. Perhaps it was decided to include
these to prevent chatter or to align the blade with the opening.
Boldly marked with USA and RTC on respective ends, the plane
has been correctly primed and then painted a pleasing maroon
color. The maker of this scraper is to be commended for the
graceful execution of this oversize design.
Scraping is an acquired art and there are some who say it
replaces the progressive stages of grit selection in the tedious
sanding of a workpiece to the final stages of completion.
For figured woods and contrary grain patterns, scraping can
sometimes be the most efficient method of bringing a project
to its required state of smoothness, without the dust associated
with sanding.
There are some who prefer the burnished feel and look of a
finely scraped finish and claim that there is never a need
to sand any workpiece when a properly tuned scraper is available.
It was common at the turn of the century to scrape wooden
floors for refinishing, rather than using today's method of
sanding with large machinery.
D.S. Orr
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