Patternmaking, Handcrafted Tools, and Fred Früh

 

 

Perhaps you appreciate and collect old tools … incorporate the use of old hand tools in your woodworking … are interested in tools that were handmade by the user … or just wish to make woodworking tools for your own use. 

 

Many who appreciate old tools have a dream … to come across the toolbox that once belonged to a lifelong woodworker years after he has passed on to that great workshop in the sky.

 

This story starts with a man named Fisher who built coach bodies in the late 1800s.  Coach builders rarely employed straight lines … Coach bodies bellowed … partially to add elegance … and more importantly to maximize the space inside for the passengers over a standard wheelbase.  Coachwork was designed to keep weight down, as the coach was drawn by horses.  Each piece of wood was hand fitted.

 

Later Fisher’s sons, the Fisher Brothers, took over the family business.  By 1910 the Fisher Brothers had begun making bodies for three different automobile manufacturers. And as you know they later became the “Body by Fisher” owned by General Motors.  But what do we know about 1910.  First there were a number of automobile manufactures.  After all, this was the year of the first “Great Race”.  The Model T Ford had just been introduced the year before in 1909.  The Great Race was from Chicago to Seattle.  The race came through Kansas City. Over much of the course there were no roads … and certainly no roads designed for cars.  It was an endurance race.  A Model T won, driven by a man from Lee’s Summit, Missouri.  His family still lives there.

 

So at this time, 1910, Fisher undertook a major retooling effort.  Automobile bodies required heaver and stronger components and unlike the hand fitted parts of the coach, each part now had to be interchangeable with another just like it.  The retooling was to facilitate the making of heaver, stronger, interchangeable parts for the Automobile industry.

 

Now Fred Früh was born in Germany in 1890. At age 20 he came to Detroit to work for Fisher Body.  The Year was 1910 and near the start of Fisher’s retooling.  Fred worked for Fisher Body as a patternmaker for 30 years until he retired in 1940.  When he retired he came home with the tools of his trade and put them away with out opening his toolbox again. Fred’s thumb size salt shaker (used to salt his boiled eggs for lunch) was still sitting in the top tray of his toolbox when he died two years later in 1942 at age 52. 

 

Early in his career Fred fashioned the planes, rules, slicks, marking gauges, and other tools needed for his work as a patternmaker.  Other tools were created as needed. Many of the tools of the patternmaker were not available for purchase.  The planes required to shape hollows and curves look like miniatures of traditional planes.  However, if you look closely, you will see that they function as carving tools that create the three-dimensional shape of the pattern.  His planes were made of figured maple. Other tools such as the gouges and chisels were adapted from manufactured tools of the time.  He took gouges, cut off the handles, fashioned an offset handle, and brazed the new handle onto the stub of the old.  This produced a really ugly tool with its outstanding lump of brass on a steel handle in unsightly contrast to the beautiful curly maple bodies of the planes that he created.

 

Fred also made a spokeshave and a coachmaker’s plane both out of aluminum.  While useful and practical in patternmaking, these tools lack the beauty that only their father could truly love.

 

In the pre-plastic industrial patternmakers’ world, thin sheets of red material  know as “composite” was available for the patternmakers’ use in parts of the pattern in addition to mahogany, the most common wood for patterns.  Fred incorporated this red composite into his planes, usually in the traditional wear spots.  Whether this pre-plastic composite was used originally or incorporated later when wear appeared is not known.

 

Fred also made sweeps and straightedges of nice thin pieces of figured maple or of the same red composite.  Sweeps are like rulers, some marked off in inches, some not, that make gentle curves.  They are flexible and allow the drawing of gentle curved lines on flat or three dimensional surfaces (think drawing a curved line on a globe’s surface).

 

It is common for patternmakers to work with a different set of rules … literally.  These rules are called ‘shrink’ rules.  A “shrink” inch is just a bit longer on a shrinkage rule. This allows for a pattern that is just a little bit larger than the final sand cast product.  The patternmaker makes an oversize pattern.  The pattern is pressed into the top and bottom (the cope and drag) of a mold filled with damp fine sand and clay which acts as a binder.  The pattern is removed and the depression remains.  The cope and drag are put together.  The molten metal (brass, iron, bronze, aluminum) is poured into the mold.  Each of these metals shrinks in the mold on cooling to their final specifications.  Since each metal shrinks a different amount a different shrinkage rule for each type metal has to be used to create the pattern.  There were no shrinkage rules in Fred’s toolbox.  However, Fred did make a normal rule.  Since it was twice the length of his toolbox, he made it in two pieces.  The pieces are joined together in a brass mortise and tenon secured together with a small thumbscrew. The markings are hand engraved with numbers stamped with a metal stamp.

 

You can learn a great deal about a man from the tools that he uses.  Even more from the tools he makes.  A word about Fred Früh’s name is in order to understand the man.  Fred was from Germany.  He came to this country prior to World War I and probably made some of the patterns for vehicles even used as war vehicles.  He retired prior to the United States’ entry into World War II.  The “ü” in Früh changes the pronunciation of the word.  This “umlaut” over the “u”, as the double dots are called, caused Fred two distinct challenges, as shown on his tools.

 

Craftsman who make tools, and just as importantly, craftsmen who use their tools outside of their own shop, like to mark their tools with their names.   Secondly, everyone likes to have their name pronounced “correctly”.  When Fred made a tool he looked to his set of “American” metal stamps to stamp his name.  This set had the alphabet, the numbers, and a few other characters, such as the period.  Nowhere, in Detroit, it seems, was a metal stamp set with a “ü”.  Even it there was; only his fellow German immigrants knew how to pronounce a word with an “umlaut”.  So Fred used variations of spellings of his name to facilitate both pronouncing his name correctly and to overcome the limitations of his metal stamp set.  He used “Friih”.  The “ii” looked somewhat like a “ü” but made pronunciation even more difficult.  He finally settled on “Frueh” which his descendents use today.

 

In 1978 I roamed the country-side in my work as an insurance company marketing representative.  This provided the opportunity to check out garage sales on many Thursday’s.  Detroit had many opportunities to collect high quality old metalworking tools at almost giveaway prices, as you might suspect from the motor city of tool & die makers. Woodworking tools were equally scarce in Motown.  Worse yet, a single old geezer (I are one now) always seems to be one step ahead of me.  The scarce woodworking tools I wanted, always seem to be “just sold to this guy that bought them all”. They showed up at his “Mall” antique booth at very high prices.

 

So when I stopped at a Detroit garage sale that day in 1978, Mrs. Frueh, wife of Fred’s grandson, living in the same old house that Fred came home to in 1940, say’s to me, “Looking for anything special”?  Usually my answer is, “Nah!  I try to keep an open mind at garage sales.”  This was, of course, to not give away that I am looking for tools and cause the asking price to rise.  You’ve got to be casual or they will find you out.  I spotted a handmade wood “saw vice” on the floor of the garage than was once mounted on a workbench.  It was oak, old, and black (oak turns black on exposure to moisture and iron filings).  It cost a dollar.  Now that garage was for a single car and much too short for any car made after 1950. So, as was typical on houses built in Detroit prior to 1940, the back of the garage had been removed and a four foot deep lean-to was added on to accommodate the “modern” car hood allowing the garage door to close. 

 

I looked around the dirt floor for additional tools.  Seeing none I broke down and said, “Got any tools?”  Mrs. Frueh led me to the back porch … not a real part of the garage sale.  There was Fred’s handmade toolbox, just like he left it in 1940.  “Yah! Hay, that’s nice!”  Doesn’t hurt to be polite.  “What are you asking?”  “Oh! My husband wants $150”.  Now, I’m thinking $150 is a bit high (in 1978) for a handmade tool box, Kennedy style … the kind with a locked top compartment, the front panel comes off (for a writing surface??) when the lid is lifted to reveal several drawers.  It wasn’t that well made anyway.

 

Well, let’s look at it anyway.  Open the lid.  There’s the thumb size red salt shaker!  And sure enough, almost all of the tools in the compartment are a rusty mess, many beyond repair …salt, humidity, time. “I don’t believe anyone has even opened that since Grandpa died”, she apologizes in embarrassment.

 

I looked in the drawers.  The handmade tools, planes, sweeps, were all perfect … none of the rust of the top compartment on the metal blades.  The box was full of Fred’s handmade tools and other tools of all kinds … just like Fred left it.  My heart pounded … how to sneak away with the tool box full of tools for $150 and second, how would I pay for it?  This could well have been my single largest antique tool purchase ever.  How could I explain to my wife?  The cash flow came easy.  I had my $250 expense account cash from a recent expense draft.  Now to just deal with the wife problem … one of many such instances involving tool purchases. Sneak it to the basement.  “Did you just buy that?”  “Nah! I bought that a long time ago, haven’t you seen it before”.

 

Okay!  I forked over the money fearing that Mrs. Frueh would come to her senses and not be so foolish as to part with such a valuable piece of family history.  My mother had done much the same some years earlier when my dad died, selling among other unforgivables, a similar  actual “Kennedy” toolbox (empty) and a ship’s bell clock made aboard my dad’s navy ship with the brass case made out of a cannon shell.

 

With the money accepted and the toolbox safely in the trunk of my car, I engaged Mrs. Frueh in a conversation to elicit as much history about Mr. Fred Früh as possible. 

 

My sins! I cleaned the rust off of as many of the tools in the top bin as possible.  To recover my investment, I sold manufactured tools that were duplicates of tools that I already owned.  This easily, in a single garage sale, allowed me to recover the entire $150.  Manufactured tools that were not duplicates of tools that I already had, eventually found their way into my general colle

ction. Fred’s handmade planes were carefully stored in his handmade tool chest as they are today.   I hang his handmade yardstick on my wall along with his sweeps.  A steel triangle, still showing the effects of storage in the “salt shaker” top compartment, hangs on my wall above my Shopsmith to check the square of my miter gauge to the sawblade.

 

Redemption! A few years later I came across a ‘sale’ in a ladies home.  She had a number of small handmade wooden planes that her late husband had made.  They were beautiful.  Not overpriced.  I talked her out of selling them.  I hope she didn’t sell them to the next “collector” that came by and kept her promise to “give” them to a local museum for display … or at least keep them herself or in the family.

 

A number of years ago I began making woodworking tools for personal pleasure, for use in my woodworking hobby, or to give or trade to woodworking friend for a future “draft’ choice, usually an antique “find”.  My personally handcrafted tools consist of several wooden planes and several workbenches among other tools.  Lately I have been making tools that incorporate brass and steel in the “wood infill” style of English “Spiers” and “Norris” planes of the turn of the last century.  These I have made using a small metal working lathe, mill and hand tools, with skills still very much under development.  I often wonder if my tools with have a place in my family or will they go to a “garage sale” collector in the future when I go join Fred Früh in the great workshop in the sky.

 

 Fred Früh’s Patternmaker’s Planes

 

These twelve planes range in size from 8.25 inches down to 3.25 inches.  All are nicely made from maple.  Patina and finish are excellent.  Several of the planes show nice curls in the maple.  Cutters are sharp and ready to use.  They have never had any rust.  These planes are for everyday patternmaking use by the man who made them.

 

1.      Horned German style scrub plane often called a “Bismark”.  The single iron (1.25 inches wide) is rounded for a course cut.  It will very quickly remove waste wood.  It is the largest plane of the collection at 8.25 inches. Like all of the planes the cutter is held in place with a wooden wedge.  The body is stamped “F. Friih”, a result of Fred Früh’s trying to mark his plane without a stamp with a umlaut.

 

2.      Smooth Plane in the traditional “coffin” shape plane is 7 inches long.  The double iron is 1.75 inches wide and made by “Sergeant”  for a #29.  The patina is beautifully aged maple but without the curl of some of the planes.

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3.   Another “coffin” shaped plane is 6.75 inches long.  The 1.75 inch wide double iron is from a Stanley plane.  The sole is slightly convex in both directions to work a shallow hollow into a concave surface.  Very nice curly maple.

 

4.      This “coffin” shaped plane is 6 inches long.  The single iron is 1.25 inches wide and protrudes through the sole just 1.5 inches from the toe.  The sole is higher in the middle than at the sides to cut a shallow hollow from side to side.

 

5.   This “coffin” shaped plane is also six inches long.  The middle is slightly higher in the sole than at the heel or toe. The iron is close to the toe at 1.25 inches.

 

6.      This “Compass” plane is six inches long with a 1 3/8 inch wide single iron.  The plane is fitted with a wheel at the heel to flex the sole from concave to convex.

 

7.      This small plane is 4.5 inches long with a 7/8 inch wide single iron.  The initials F F are stamped on the body.  The sides are beveled from the edge to the iron to reduce drag and facility close contact with a side.

 

8.      This is the largest of three planes with a rear handle.  The sole is 3.75 inches long.  The handle gracefully curves out from the heal bringing the overall length to 6.75 inches.  The sole is slightly convex heal to toe allowing the plane to function much like a carving tool in hollowing a concave surface. The tiger maple body is very attractive.

 

9.      The plane has a 3.5 inch sole and a rear handle bringing the overall length to 6.5 inches.  The sole is convex from side to side to make a shallow hollow.  The tiger maple on this plane is very attractive.

 

10.  The smallest of the three planes with a rear handle has a 3.5 in sole and an overall length of 5.5 inches.  It has a convex heel from toe and side to side.

 

11.  This tiny single iron plane is only 3.5 inches long.  It will work concave surfaces of about a 5 inch radius.  It will hollow at the same time.  The initials “S B” are stamped on the top of the body and the initials “S E B” are on the side.  However, the plane matches the others and was likely made by Früh.

 

12.  This tiny plane is 3.25 inches long and will work a shallow hollow.  It’s single iron is 7/8 inches wide.  The initials “FF” are stamped on the top of the body.

  

Other Patternmaker Tools Made by Fred Früh

 

 

1.      Coach Makers Plane is in the traditional shape of a sleigh.  It is made of aluminum for the body with a brass sole that is screwed from the bottom into the aluminum body and further held in place with a brass braise  The sides are split down the middle and reconnected with brass rivets.  The wedge is aluminum.  The sides are open for rabbits.  Blade was made by the planemaker.  This is an unattractive a plane as the wooden planes are appealing.

 

2.      Mouse. A mouse is a four in. long wooden tool shaped like a mouse without a tail.  The mouse is flat on the bottom.  The pointed nose holds a metal point.  The use is to scribe a line on a curved surface.  It looks to be made of oak.  The mouse bottom would ride on a flat surface of specified thickness and the point would scribe a line that thickness above a surface.

 

3.      The rule is 45 inches long in two pieces.  The pieces are joined with a brass mortise and tenon joint held together by a small brass thumbscrew with “coin” edges.  Inch markings with divisions by 1/8 inches are hand scribed on both edges of the rule.  Numbers at each inch are stamped with a metal stamp.  Divisions are marked and stamped in the middle of the rule at 1/16th yd, 1/8th yd, 1/4th ytd, 3/8th yd, ½th yd, ¾th yd, 7/8th yd, 1 yard, and 1 1/3rd yd.  The rule is protected with brass tips on each end. Rule is maple.

 

4.      Sweep, maple and hand graduated to 1/8 inch and metal stamped with inches numbered both sides.  Just over 24 inches long.  Brass tips on each end protect the ends.

5.      Twenty-two inch maple sweep.

 

6.      Twenty-two inch composite sweep.

 

7.   14.5 inch maple sweep.

 

8.      Straightedge, mahogany, flat, 2” x 22”

9.      Straightedge, mahogany alternated with maple, beveled, 1.5’ x 22’.

 

10.   Marking gage, brass and steel, scribe point.

 

11.  Spokeshave.  Aluminum with a brass cap.  Uses a Stanley iron.  This is a rather crude casting, obviously handmade and not impressive.  Has a convex bottom to do concave work.  Design of the handles is such that the shave must be pushed.

 

12. Pinch Dogs

 

13. Square

 

 

William R. Johnston

913-492-6942

johnston@everestkc.net