I first heard about these when I was attending my second Mike Dunbar Windsor Chair making class in March of '97 and one of my chair making buddies was after one of the Poole, Williams No. 2 Beaders. The continuous armchair we were making has a double bead cut into the back of the c-arm. My bud found one of the Beaders at a great old tool place in Barr Harbor, Maine; as soon as I saw it, I had to have one too. A few months later, when a tool dealer named Mike Urness sold me a Beader (also a "Type 2" Poole, Williams) I thought it might be a way into the new-old tool business.
Sooo... in the fall of 1997 I took the brass parts from the antique Type 2 and had a local brass works make four copies. Then I had a local turner make four handles to fit the castings and a machinist to copy the steel parts (that was expensive). I also found a great local company with a huge laser to make the cutters from spring steel.
Here is the original and one of the copies:
We sent these around to a few people to take a look and had some try who were making furniture. I didn't get a very positive response. Mostly people didn't think they were heavy enough and some thought they would be no good on a radius. Besides, fabrication of the steel parts was a real problem.
While trying to decide what to do Pat Leach asked me why I just didn't go for the Kendal & Vose? After some thought I decided he was right.
On the surface, it looked like an easier thing to do, mainly because it has fewer types of parts, and no expensive steel machining. But I quickly learned there were other ways to complicate a project.
We borrowed a Type 4 from Jay Mueller who inherited it from the estate of his father (a legendary tool collector from these parts) and my brass guy used it as a model to rough up a wooden pattern. He made it oversized by about 20% to accommodate two generations of shrinkage.
Once we had the brass pattern it was just a matter of machining, filing, drilling, filing, more machining, more filing and more filing. I had a great deal of help, in both advice and machine work from my good friend and neighbor, Bill Robertson. In fact, this would certainly not have been possible without him. It took months to get it to look like this:
The logo and "No.5" were done by a local guy who I kind of stumbled upon - he was an example of the many lucky breaks I got while getting this done.
Once the pattern was done it was sent to Cranston Casting in Cranston, RI for investment casting in bronze. Those turned out very well but still require a surprising amount of machining and finishing. Tapping for the handle studs is especially a problem.
The handles also required a pattern for the production turner to make a cutting head. I am proud to say that was done by me and only took about five tries. The handles are very well done by Andersson Woodturning in Gardner Massachusetts. Thanks again to Patrick for these fine folks. I followed his lead and used cocobolo; this stuff is wonderful, it polishes like marble and smells like beeswax when it's machined.
Cutters are done by the same laser guy as before but this time out of 3/32" spring steel. The guy says the machine actually works better with thicker stock. Spokeshave guy Tom Lamond was very kind to send me copies of some old Kendal & Vose advertising that gave me a pretty good idea of the shape and sizes of the original cutters. I added a couple plain ones that can be used as spacers or reground.
Finally, I found a local guy to do the brass end caps. They took a while to figure out but I finally decided to follow Stanley's example with handles mounted on steel studs with a brass cap screw. I think this is at least a better-looking solution to the original plain steel screw.
By strange coincidence, in his November e-mail for sale list, Mike Urness had a Type 4 Kendal & Vose, so I bought it. It didn't have a fence and it needs a thorough cleaning, which I haven't gotten around to yet. It had two cutters which I'm pretty convinced are user made. If anyone knows any different please let me know. Here's a pic of the old and new:
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