Figure 33.—Early 19th century: The bench plane illustrated in Roubo or Moxon is seldom seen in American tool collections. The bench planes, smoothing planes, rabbets, and plows universally resemble those shown in this illustration from the pattern book of the Castle Hill Works, Sheffield. (Book 87, Cutler and Company, Castle Hill Works, Sheffield. Courtesy of the Victoria and Albert Museum.)
Figure 35.—1820: John Bradford's shop sign carved by Isaac Fowle is a unique documentary of early 19th-century tool shapes and is in the Bostonian Society, Boston, Mass. (Index of American Design, The National Gallery, Washington, D.C.)
Figure 36.—1703: The joiner's brace and bit—a detail from Moxon, Mechanick Exercises ..., London, 1703. (Library of Congress, Smithsonian photo 56635.)
Figure 37.—1769: Roubo's illustration of the brace and bit differs from Moxon's only in the precision of the delineation. Contrast this form with that of the standard Sheffield version in figure 38 and the metallic braces illustrated in figures 40 through 44. From these plates can be seen the progression of the bitstock toward its ultimate perfection in the late 19th century. (André-Jacob Roubo, L'Art du menuisier, 1769.)
