Back to Jacob Siegley Hand Planes
Let’s take a look at the differences in the Siegley Hahn Bench Plane Lever caps. These help date the plane and will help determine if the plane is a Siegley, Stanley made Siegley or Edwin Hahn.
First up is the original Siegley. This cap is meant to work as a chip breaker and can be adjusted to the height (or distance to the end of the blade) by the two screws. This is part of Jacob Siegley’s patent #510,096 Granted Dec. 05, 1893
Siegley was from Wilkes-Barre, PA
More info can be found in John F Rumph’s book “Plane Makers of Wikes-Barre, Pennsylvania: Jacob Siegley, Edwin Hahn, Keystone Tool Works”
The very early Siegley planes did not have the number cast, but not to be mistaken with the later pebbled cap made by Stanley.
If you find Siegley’s name on the base of an original Siegley plane it will be small and inconspicuous.
Stanley bought Siegley out in Aug 1901, and the caps started looking like this next image. Later Stanley made caps will not have the patent date on the cap. These planes have Siegley’s name cast prominently in the base.
It’s believed that Edwin Hahn bought Siegley’s equipment and patterns after Stanley bought the rights to Siegley’s planes and subsequently Siegley went to work for Stanley. There are only a few differences in the planes, but the cap is the biggest difference.
This first image is a typical early Hahn cap. Note the lack of the adjustment screws.
Hahn later made the cap adjustable. This was most likely to avoid a conflict with the original patent which Stanley now had rights to.
The back of a Hahn adjustable cap.
You will also notice some of Hahn’s casting to be a little rough.
