While cleaning my den recently I came across this old wood plane, purchased for a pittance on a tool auction years ago, and now used in my den as a decoration. Looking at it, I wondered how many previous owners had also handled this tool? How had they used it? Had it also been a decoration for them, or was it a tool used every day? Had it been used in a cabinetmaker’s shop? In a coffin maker’s shop? Had it been a trusted tool handed down from father to an apprenticing son? Had it been replaced by a shiny new power tool? If so, did technology trump artistic and aesthetic form?
This last question stuck in my head. Read the rest of this entry »