Brass/bronze coach maker's/pattern maker's tools

[Branson]

I recently picked up another coach makers shop made tool, this one a router, shaped like a spoke shave.   It seems there are a lot of shop made, often brass or bronze, tools among coach makers.  Thought I would check the collective information on Tool Talk to find out why so many of these.  The first one I found has a Stanley Sweet Heart blade, as do a number of the shop mades that show up online.  I even found a duplicate of the router.  How come?  Anybody know?

[BruceS]

I have seen one of those before so I'm not very convinced that it is "home" shop made.    From a smallish foundry, good possibility.
"home made"  version probably wouldn't have the quilting in the cast.

I sure wouldn't mind having it in my WW tool collection.  Your a lucky guy to have it.

[scottg]

Sweet!! I never saw one of these! But I really like it.
Pattern shop tool is what I'd suspect. The coachmakers had wooden ones.
Bronze was the choice for pattern shop made tools since they would often have a tiny bronze foundry and sand casting stuff on site.  They could take a regular tool and use it for the sand mold and cast another. They recast all kinds of tools.
  I "did" a scraper last year. A friend sent it to me. It was rough sand cast as most of them are.
Pattern shop made tools were hardly ever finished out, since they are extra rough and very hard to do.

I am kind of a sucker for the lowly Stanley #80 scraper. I use them often and think they are a vastly underrated tool. So for me, it was worth the effort.
  yours Scott






   
 

[Branson]

That's a drop-dead gorgeous #80, Scott. 

I know it's only the internet, but a lot of these brass or bronze spoke shave tools are identified as coach makers, as opposed to carriage makers tools.  Think of the coach work done for early autos and passenger cars on trains.  These seem to have replaced the wood bodied carriage maker stuff around the turn of the last century.  The one rabbet shave, for example, has a Stanley Sweet Heart blade, making it an obviously 20th Century product.
But your pattern maker idea does make sense.

30 years ago, people were wondering about the brass "Stanley" tools that turned up.  Theories included Stanley workers making tools for themselves using the company molds.  I think you've just shown us how they came about.