EAIA's Dutch connection

Chronicle of the Early American Industries Association, Inc., The, Jan/Feb 2001 by van der Sterre, Gerrit

One thing leads to another as tool interest spins web

It is amazing to realize what has happened to me during the last fifteen years. It started with some of my father's tools, which I had kept in remembrance of my youth. My father was a village carpenter who preferred to use machines and hated that hard work with the old-fashioned planes. Among his tools, which I cherished, were his pair of pincers with that bent grip, the small hammer which he used for upholstering coffins, his mallet with the damaged grip, and some planes with his owner's stamp, 'JVDS.'

Those tools were waiting already for years in a card-box. Then, all of a sudden, I was asked to make a small exhibition of carpenter's tools for an event in our village. That was the start of my research into the Dutch planes and their makers.

For that exhibition I had to gather some more tools, resulting in a lovely display with which I scored a great success. People who came along told me of those good old days, which were, retrospectively, not that good for the work was hard. However, the first threads of a web were woven by that event and my interest [in planes] was growing.

I learned about the kinds of planes, plane-marks and plane-iron-marks, and owner's stamps. By purchasing, my collection grew and grew and, moreover, I found an article about the early planemakers by which my view was widened and consequently my web was growing. I [then] found the book, The History of Woodworking Tools by Goodman, became a member of TATHS, and came across the book Wooden Planes in 19th Century America by Roberts. So I found my way through the process of study.

Meanwhile in 1991, some friends and I started the Dutch society Ambacht & Gereedschap (translation: Trades and Tools). That gave me a great stimulus to go on; the web was growing again. In the beginning I was for several years the secretary/treasurer. I still am a board member (Foreign Affairs!!). Our present chairman is Hans Rode and the secretary is Andries Boekhout (Our e-mail address is a.p.boekhout@wxs.nl).

For my own research I had to over-- come some barriers but good luck helped me now and then. For instance: on one plane, I could not find out which plane-- maker was hidden behind the stamp 'PD' below a crown but the purchase of a [similar] plane without an iron and wedge was the mark 'H DUSING IN ANHOLT.' That plane-body led me to a small town just over the border in Germany and it appeared to be the key to a history of hundred years of planemaking by the Duesing firm in that town.

It brought me in contact with a descendent of the family who kept the old archive with the first two account books of the firm. While trying to get information about the German iron marks, I made contact with Ginther Heine in Hamburg and together we made a transcription of all the Duesing documents. That and some articles in the newsletters of TATHS enlarged the tool web I was spinning. It brought me in contact with Jane Rees and, Ken Hawley. Via Alan Bates I became a member of EAIA in 1995.

Sitting in the center of my web, I have worked and worked, researching and writing the history of the Dutch planes and planemakers. Sometimes I examine planes in a workshop where I find them under a thick layer of wood dust. I've made contacts in Norway, South-Africa and, recently, Tasmania. I get letters from all sides asking me for information.

My own collection grew out to some four hundred items among. which are quite a number of eighteenth-century planes. My oldest plane is very worn out and carries the date 1697. Those dated planes are important for the history. However, there are undated planes of great importance as well, such as that Puzzling Plane, (See the Chronicle Vol. 53, No. 2, p. 53) and a similar item from the end of the nineteenth century, for those planes presumably tell us that Rotterdam planemakers must have made planes to be exported.

In the meantime Ambacht & Gereedschap has grown to more than 300 members. We have foreign members in Belgium, England, Germany, New Zealand, and even one in the United States. In 2001 we celebrate our ten year anniversary. Besides that, our semi annual newsletter has grown to be a real magazine! (But only in Dutch!) Each spring we have a meeting with a visit to some special place, such as a museum. In the autumn we meet in the center of the country with all kinds of activities: a lecture on a special trade, demonstrations, a book sale, and an auction. Most important for the members is to meet friends among the more than hundred visitors. The society also aims to bring out special publications about all kinds of subject-matter regarding trades. My book, Vier Eeuwen Nederlandse Schaven en Schavenmakers (Four Centuries of Dutch Planes and Planemakers) will be the first one.

Right from the start I realized my publication had to be bilingual, Dutch and English, to reach more people. Most of the figures I drew myself in which I tried to show all, the relevant details. As some of the Dutch marks are rather small I was obliged to scan them and to edit them and convert them to black and white figures. I was very glad to find a competent Englishman, George Nicolle, to re-edit my English version. A new friend has been added to my web.