Sometimes, small tools were needed to do big jobs. The answer was simply to take the large tool's design and scale it down to the size appropriate for the job at hand. Normally, these small tools are craftsman made, but as we are about to see, a few are professionally made.
Pictured in the image here (starting at the lower left and working clockwise) are: 1) a boxwood spokeshave, measuring 5" long with a 1" wide blade, and made by Wm. Marples of Sheffield, England; 2) a Victor #12 1/2 pocket block plane, measuring 4 1/2" long, with a clever adjusting mechanism; 3) a 3" beech smoothing plane made by J.M.Taber of New Bedford, Massachusetts; 4) a 5" wide, 2 1/2" blade width, drawknife, unmarked but having all the appearance of being professionally made; and 5) a 2" wooden plane (a hollow) that has a blade made from a file, which suggests a craftsman origin. Each of these tools received the same attention to detail that their bigger brothers got.
If space is a problem, and you can't make full-scale Goddard-Townsend replicas of block front furniture, or you want to collect tools but find yourself in cramped quarters, there's even tools for you, mate.
pal, February 28, 1998