vocabulary question: patternmaker

**theoruta** · 05-07-2007, 08:02 PM

Hi All,

What does a patternmaker do? I'm guessing the answer starts with, "he makes patterns," but patterns for what? How big? How are they used?

I've heard of patternmaker's rasps and vises, but I never knew what it meant. I saw a post about a patternmaker's shop on another forum and thought I would try and learn.

Thanks,
Sean

**JBark** · 05-07-2007, 08:35 PM

Not any expert or even close but I will offer what I know. Patterns for castings. If I understand correctly they would make a duplicate of the item needed to be casted in wood, something stable, mahogany I believe. The wood duplicate would then be used to create a sand casting...dang, I used to know some of the terms. I think there are a whole bunch of tools out there that they used, as you said. I picked up a couple of ...love this name...cranked neck in canneled gouges. I seem to remember they used "shrink rule" which I believe are rulers that take into account shrinkage of the wood...I think.

Funny you mention this because I was surfing the net and old tols sites and I saw one selling "patternmakers planes" and I wondered what would be unique about it for a patternmaker's use. It seemed to be flat bottomed, nothing unique that I could see.

John

**theoruta** · 05-07-2007, 08:48 PM

re: the patternmaker's plane--if it isn't that different from other planes, is it possible that "patternmaker" became a marketting point for woodworking equipment, meaning something like "more bad-##### than cabinetmaker"?

no offense to cabinet making!

**dcarter636** · 05-07-2007, 09:35 PM

Like John said patterns are typically wooden replicas of a shape, to be used to mold a cavity in moist sand, to make a metal casting. A wood pattern maker worked, and still works, to a different level of precision than a cabinet maker .005" vs 1/32". The patterns are slightly scaled up to accomodate the shrinkage of molten metal as it cools. The pattern maker measured large dimensions with a "shrink rule" calibrated to the shrinkage characteristic of the metal that the pattern was made for.

The rationale for a patternmaker's plane was that it was impractical to have a chest full of planes to cover every concave or convex sole possibility so why not use interchangeable soles and irons? More capability in less tool box space! The patternmaker's plane isn't more precise, just more versatile.

**Postman** · 05-08-2007, 09:34 AM

Doesn't a pattern maker also make templates for cutting curved shapes etc. for furniture projects?

**JBark** · 05-09-2007, 10:02 AM

... The patterns are slightly scaled up to accomodate
>the shrinkage of molten metal as it cools. The pattern maker
>measured large dimensions with a "shrink rule" calibrated to
>the shrinkage characteristic of the metal that the pattern
>was made for...

Very cool...thanks for correcting me. Now that you pointed out I remember the guy that told me casting metals shrink...He was the owner of a great store, new and old tools, hand and machine. Great, great store full of books, metal and rust, everything this crowd would drool over. I asked him if he carried Lie Nielsen's tools and he was not familiar with him (this goes back several years) so I explained that Nielsen was coming out with "new" Stanley planes...He predicted that this would not be a success because of the shrinkage...people wouldn't want a tool that was 1% smaller??? He may not have been on the mark with that call but he had a great store...fantastic books, 1000's of them...every topic. Oh well.

John

**JBark** · 05-09-2007, 10:03 AM

>Doesn't a pattern maker also make templates for cutting
>curved shapes etc. for furniture projects?

I think most cabinetmakers make those patterns themselves. The ones I knew did.

John