Be sure to see https://www.ohiotoolcompany.com/
First, lets talk a little about identifying a plane made by Ohio tools. Ohio Tools had a few attributes I haven’t seen in others. Here is how you can tell.
The rear tote has a distinctive shape
The lateral adjuster is twisted on the top, but has a more teardrop shape than some of the other twisted laterals (Like the Sargent’s). The lower end can be bent as shown, or later models had the round washer type similar to the Stanley planes.
And here is another example on the forum
Here is my Modest collection.
A #04 with original red japanning
Ohio Tools #4 Thistle Brand
Here is another #4. I noticed as I was restoring it doesn’t have the number cast in the toe. It also has a steel depth adjuster, which is different than the others. Shown here are some before and after.
Ohio Tool #15 Jack Transitional
Ohio Tools #6 Bench Plane
Ohio Tools #7 Bench Plane
This plane is stamped with the Edward Marks’ 8-20-07 Patent frog patent date. It has the frog seat from the patent, but an adjustment screw has been added to it. The adjustment screw was not in the patent.
More on the Edward Marks’ 8-20-07 Patent frog patent plane here.
A #04 Marks Patent plane
Here is Yet another restored Ohio Tools Marks patent #04
Here is my Ohio Tools #0120
A 029 Transitional.
With original Red japanning.
The Ohio Tool Company was founded in Columbus Ohio in 1851 by Peter Hayden, of P. Hayden & Co. which had been doing business since 1842, and various associates. The company continued P. Hayden & Company’s tradition of often using prison labor for the production of tools. They used imprison labor from 1841 to 1880 when the use of prison labor stopped. In 1893 the company merged with the Auburn Tool Company of New York, themselves a frequent employer of prison labor. In 1913 the Ohio factory was destroyed by a flood. A new factory was opened in Charleston, WV the following year. The company ceased business in 1920.
The factory in Columbus was located on the Scioto River and Ohio Tool Company used the Scioto name on their “Second Grade” tools. The 1910 Catalog states the following:
“GRADES. Our regular beechwood Bench Planes are made in two grades of timber:
- Ohio or First Grade.
- Scioto or Second Grade.
According to the catalog, the only difference between the two grades was in the quality of the wood used. It states that “Exactly the same grade of Plane Iron is used in both Scioto and Ohio Planes”. According to “A Guide to American Wooden Planes” (Third Edition) by Emil and Martyl Pollak, Ohio Tool Company began using the “Scioto Works” mark in 1893, which was the same year that Ohio Tool Company merged with the Auburn Tool Company. Some of the Scioto Works marks also indicate that the Scioto Works planes were made in New York, which is where the Auburn Tool Co. Factory existed. While I have no proof of it, I would suspect that when Ohio took over Auburn, they used the old Auburn plant to make the Scioto planes (along with the “Ohio Grade” planes).
Auburn Tool Company also used prison labor to make planes but only between the years of 1864-1865 and again between 1874-1877.
If the Scioto Works mark was not used before 1893 and Ohio stopped using prison labor in 1880 and Auburn stopped in 1877, chances are that Scioto Works line was never actually made by prison labor.
_____________________
Historical Summary of the Ohio Tool Co.
1823-The Ohio Tool Company started operations in Columbus, Ohio.
1841 to 1880-The firm made use of Prison Contract Labor from the nearby Ohio State Penitentiary.
1851-The company was incorporated with a capital stock of $190,000. It employed about 200 and was frequently called “The Plane Factory” since carpenters’ planes were the chief article of manufacture. 1858-The Ohio Tool Co. officers this year were George Gere, President; A. Thomas, Secretary and Treasurer; and C. H. Clark, Superintendent. 1865-Patents issued in this year for mortising machines used in cutting plane stocks helped to speed production.
1887-The Ohio Tool Co. employed 70 hands.
1893-The Auburn Tool Co. and the Ohio Tool Co. merged with offices in New York and factories in Auburn, N.Y. and Columbus, Ohio.
1900-The Ohio Tool Co. received the highest award given on carpenter’s tools at the Paris Exposition.
1903-The Business Directory of Columbus lists the company at 63 North Scioto Street which was close to the Scioto River. “Scioto” was marked on their second grade planes.
1913-The factory was probably washed away by the great flood of this year.
1914-The Company moved to a new plant at Charleston, West Virginia. (Perhaps, because of the flood.)
1920-The Ohio Tool Company ceased operations.
Source: Ohio Tool Company Catalog No. 23 (Ca. 1910) Reprint by Mid-West Tool Collectors Association.
OHIO TOOL CO.
A major plane manufacturing company in the 19th and early 20th centuries. It was incorporated in Columbus, OH, in 1851 by Peter Hayden (see P. Hayden & Co.) and others, and had a tradition of periodically utilizing prison labor.
The first president was George Gere, a hardware dealer (see Gere, Abbott & Co.). In 1851 the company was reported employing 200 hands, with carpenter’s planes as the mainline. By the 1870’s and 1880’s, the ready acceptance of metal and transitional planes, and other competition, was increasingly felt.
In 1887 the company employed only 70 hands (the use of prison labor having ceased in 1880) and in 1893 Ohio Tool merged with Auburn Tool Co. (w.s.), with Ohio Tool the survivor. In 1913 the Ohio factory was destroyed by a flood and in 1914 manufacturing was re-established in a new plant in Charlestown, WV. Operations ceased in 1920. The 1910 price list still offered an extensive line of wooden planes.
Source: A Guide to American Wooden Planes (Third Edition) by Emil and Martyl Pollak. Page 281.
Sources:
- http://www.davistownmuseum.org/bioAuburn.html
- http://www.mvr1.com/Ohiowoodenplanes.html
- http://community.middlebury.edu/~harris/tools.html
- http://www.theclampguy.info/hist_au.htm
Ohio Tool – The Ohio Tool Company was relatively large manufacturer of both wooden and cast iron planes along with other tools. They were founded in Columbus Ohio in 1851 by Peter Hayden, of P. Hayden & Co. in 1893 the company merged with the Auburn Tool Company of New York, themselves a frequent employer of prison labor. In 1913 the Ohio factory was destroyed by a flood. A new factory was opened in Charleston, WV the following year. The company ceased business in 1920. (Resource http://www.mvr1.com/Ohiowoodenplanes.html )
(http://www.davistownmuseum.org/bioAuburn.html)
New York Tool Works New York Tool Company was a name used by the Auburn Tool Company of Auburn, NY. This name was used from 1864 to 1893. They (Auburn) used several different stamps on their planes. Carefully check the ‘o’ in Co. If it is the same height as the rest of the letters, it is an earlier example. If the ‘o’ is raised so its top lines up with the top of the other letters it is a late production stamp. If there is an underline under the ‘o’, it is the last stamp that they used during their production years.
(http://www.davistownmuseum.org/bioAuburn.html)
http://www.woodworkingtalk.com/f11/plane-restore-round-3-a-47883/
http://lumberjocks.com/topics/41199#reply-579460
Scioto Works was also a trade mark name used by Ohio Tool Company.
The factory in Columbus was located on the Scioto River and Ohio Tool
Company used the Scioto name on their “Second Grade”. The 1910 Catalog
states the following:
“GRADES. Our regular beechwood Bench Planes are made in two grades of
timber, viz:
Ohio or First Grade.
Scioto or Second Grade.”
According to the catalog, the only difference between the two grades was in
the quality of the wood used. It states that “Exactly the same grade of
Plane Iron is used in both Scioto and Ohio Planes”.
According to “A Guide to American Wooden Planes” (Third Edition) by Emil and
Martyl Pollak, Ohio Tool Company began using the “Scioto Works” mark in
1893, which was the same year that Ohio Tool Company merged with the Auburn
Tool Company. Some of the Scioto Works marks also indicate that the Scioto
Works planes were made in New York, which is where the Auburn Tool Co.
Factory existed. While I have no proof of it, I would suspect that when
Ohio took over Auburn, they used the old Auburn plant to make the Scioto
planes (along with the “Ohio Grade” planes).
Auburn Tool Company
Plane making at Auburn NY is discussed in detail in Chapter Seven, Contract Labor at New York State Prisons in “Plane Makers and Other Edge Tool Enterprises in New York State in the 19th Century, by Kenneth D. and Jane W. Roberts. [Cooperstown, NY, 1971]
Plane making started there in 1821 by Dunham and McMaster, using contract convict labor. The firm of Casey, Kitchel and Company held these contracts from 1847 to 1858. Casey, Clark and Company continued to hold them from 1858 to 1864. As a successor to Casey, Clark and Co, it was operated under the Auburn name with George Casey as President from 1864-93, when it merged with the Ohio Tool Co.
Company History
The firm is known to exist from 1864 to 1893. George Casey reorganized the firm of Casey, Clark and Company as a joint stock company in 1864, under the firm name of Auburn Tool Company, capitalized at $700, 000. The 1865 New York State Census noted the firm as a manufacturer of plane, plane irons, and skates. The production that year was listed as 30, 000 pairs of skates ($45, 000 value), 35, 000 planes ($35, 000 value), and 25, 000 dozen plane irons ($12, 000 value). The plane irons carried the trade mark “Thistle”
Both skates and plane irons were made from welded wrought iron and cast steel. In manufacturing these products in 1865 the raw materials consisted of 35 tons of iron ($7, 000), 8 tons of steel ($3, 5000), and 30 000 feet of lumber ($4, 000). Estimating labor costs at $24, 000 (the figure reported in the 1870 US Census), and factory costs at $1, 500, the total costs amounted to $39, 000. Sales at $87, 000 yielded a profit of $48, 000. In consideration of the $50, 000 reported invested, this amounted to a very profitable business.
The Auburn Tool Company was among the five leading plane manufacturing firms. Others were: H. Chapin’s Son; Greenfield Tool Company; and Sandusky Tool Company. Auburn Tool Company, with these others, was also a founding member of the Plane Makers Association, organized c 1858 to fix prices. The prices noted in this Catalogue were in agreement with these other manufacturers.
This firm was outbid for the contract of prison labor in 1866 by J.M. Easterly and Company. (1866 to 1868, succeeded by A. Howland and Company, from 1869 to 1874).
Upon losing the prison contract the Auburn Tool Company constructed a new building and continued in the plane business with private labor. The 1870 US Census reported the firm had 21 machines, driven by water power, employing 66 males, producing annual products valued at $70, 000.
After A. Howland and Company was dissolved in 1874, the Auburn Tool Company again used contract labor at the State Prison until 1877.
A detailed account of operations at the Auburn Tool Company in 1884 is presented by D.M. Kurtz – Auburn, New York – Its Facilities and Resources. [ Auburn, New York, 1884].
The Auburn Tool Company merged with the Ohio Tool Company of Columbus, Ohio, on Nov 14, 1893. Although plane manufacturing was continued at Auburn until after 1907, after this merger the firm there was under the name of Ohio Tool Company.
The Auburn imprints are as follow:
Historical Summary of the Ohio Tool Co.
1823-The Ohio Tool Company started operations in Columbus, Ohio.
1841 to 1880-The firm made use of Prison Contract Labor from the nearby Ohio State Penitentiary.
1851-The company was incorporated with a capital stock of $190,000. It employed about 200 and was frequently called “The Plane Factory” since carpenters’ planes were the chief article of manufacture.
1858-The Ohio Tool Co. officers this year were George Gere, President; A. Thomas, Secretary and Treasurer; and C. H. Clark, Superintendent.
1865-Patents issued in this year for mortising machines used in cutting plane stocks helped to speed production.
1887-The Ohio Tool Co. employed 70 hands.
1893-The Auburn Tool Co. and the Ohio Tool Co. merged with offices in New York and factories in Auburn, N.Y. and Columbus, Ohio.
1900-The Ohio Tool Co. received the highest award given on carpenter’s tools at the Paris Exposition.
1903-The Business Directory of Columbus lists the company at 63 North Scioto Street which was close to the Scioto River. “Scioto” was marked on their second grade planes.
1913-The factory was probably washed away by the great flood of this year.
1914-The Company moved to a new plant at Charleston, West Virginia
(Perhaps, because of the flood.)
1920-The Ohio Tool Company ceased operations.
Source: Ohio Tool Company Catalog No. 23 (Ca. 1910) Reprint by Mid-West Tool Collectors Association.
OHIO TOOL CO.
A major plane manufacturing company in the 19th and early 20th centuries. It was incorporated in Columbus, OH, in 1851 by Peter Hayden (see P. Hayden & Co.) and others, and had a tradition of periodically utilizing prison labor.
The first president was George Gere, a hardware dealer (see Gere, Abbott & Co.). In 1851 the company was reported employing 200 hands, with carpenter’s planes as the mainline. By the 1870′s and 1880′s, the ready acceptance of metal and transitional planes, and other competition, was increasingly felt.
In 1887 the company employed only 70 hands (the use of prison labor having ceased in 1880) and in 1893 Ohio Tool merged with Auburn Tool Co. (w.s.), with Ohio Tool the survivor. In 1913 the Ohio factory was destroyed by a
flood and in 1914 manufacturing was re-established in a new plant in Charlestown, WV. Operations ceased in 1920. The 1910 price list still offered an extensive line of wooden planes.
Source: A Guide to American Wooden Planes (Third Edition) by Emil and Martyl Pollak. Page 281
A rare 0220 Ohio Tools (Not mine unfortunately)
Here is a recent addition to my collection. A rare Ohio Tools #5 1/4C. Unlike the Stanley edition, this is slightly larger than a #5. It has a 2 1/8” cutter. It also came out much earlier than Stanley brought theirs out. (see some other #5 1/4 planes)
