What is a milliner's plane for?

June 12, 2020 7:50 AM

There is a kind of antique tool sometimes called a "milliner's plane", but I can find no information on what they were for or if they actually have any connection to millinery. Who used them and for what purpose?

(I have asked, and the owner of that particular website does not know, either).

posted by jedicus to Grab Bag (12 answers total)

Woodworker, but not a milliner, here. From looking at it, I'd guess it's for smoothing and trimming the top and bottom edges of a bentwood hat band.
posted by jon1270 at 7:54 AM on June 12, 2020

...could also be used on the edges of wooden hat boxes and lids.
posted by jon1270 at 7:56 AM on June 12, 2020

Sorry for the multiple comments, but the more I look at those pics the surer I am. Notice they all have a curved track or groove to keep the blade positioned over a thin, curved piece of material.
posted by jon1270 at 7:59 AM on June 12, 2020

Leaning towards comment #2. They look like they're for trimming the inside of a curve about the size of a hat box lid. I would add though that Jim Bode seems to be the only person on the internet using this term. He might have bought them from somebody who'd been told that without knowing for sure.
posted by bonobothegreat at 8:23 AM on June 12, 2020 [1 favorite]

...sorry, got caught up in looking at pictures and now see that you obviously know the term could be wrong.
posted by bonobothegreat at 8:40 AM on June 12, 2020

Response by poster: I tried searching in the context of hatbox making. This 1925 Boston Evening Transcript article about Hannah Davis, a New Hampshire maker of bandboxes and hatboxes [pdf] describes a little of the traditional method of making such boxes, but unfortunately does not go into enough detail to address whether she might have used such a plane. An interesting life story, though!

I agree that they do seem like a small, one-handed version of a cooper's chiv or howell, suggesting a similar purpose on a smaller scale.
posted by jedicus at 9:21 AM on June 12, 2020 [2 favorites]

I have a book called Dictionary of Tools by R. A. Salaman, which is pretty encyclopedic. It does not list a milliner's plane among the several hundred types of planes it describes and illustrates. A Google search for "milliner's plane" (in quotation marks) yields no results except this Metafilter question, the listings at Jim Bode Tools (link in the question), and a couple of unrelated pages. So as suggested by bonobothegreat, above, Jim Bode may have acquired these from someone who called them milliner's planes, but nobody else appears to be using that term, anywhere.

A milliner made hats, but would not make wooden hatboxes, at least not usually. They would outsource. So a plane used by a hatbox maker would not have been called a milliner's plane.

I have perused all the planes listed in Dictionary of Tools, and the closest thing to these in the book is called a violin plane, described as follows: "A very small Plane usually made in metal, but sometimes in wood, rounded or oval in plan, and up to 2 1/2 inches long.... Used by violin makers for shaping the back and front of the instrument." Examples.

These "milliner's" planes are clearly not designed for that purpose, and are not violin planes of that type, but could be related to instrument making. Here's a Fine Woodworking post about "baby planes" with other small metal planes. See photos here of a variety of instrument makers' planes.
posted by beagle at 11:27 AM on June 12, 2020 [2 favorites]

I clicked on three of the planes, and they had three different profiles, which means they do different jobs.

I don't think this will have a meaningful answer (though I'll be watching to see what else people think of!)

The only thing they seem to have in common is a very small base, so ideas about curved hat boxes sound like they're plausible.

I really like these little things, though. I'm sure their uses might become evident in time. I might make a copy this summer!
posted by Acari at 1:15 PM on June 12, 2020

I believe the search term you are looking for is "wooden hat block" It is a shaped form upon which the milliner would fashion the hat, so it is roughly the dimension of how a hat would fit on a person's head. The milliner's plane would be used to sculpt the form. There is a picture on this website of a current UK maker that shows a couple of planes and other woodworking chisels.

There is also an Australian company, as well as

a couple

more in

the UK. Perhaps an inquiry to one of them will yield you some more historical and current information about how such planes are different because of the required shapes for hat blocks..
posted by tronec at 1:27 PM on June 12, 2020 [3 favorites]

On page 44 of the 1919 Hatter's Guide, there is a listing for the Empire Hat Block Manufacturing Company in New York City, so at one time there were probably lots of people employed making Hat blocks - an probably lots of planes used!

Also see the 27 page Instructions in hat cleaning for various shapes and descriptions. Compliments of The Hatter's Supply House (circa 1920?).
posted by tronec at 1:37 PM on June 12, 2020

Like the violin planes mentioned above, these would be called finger planes but I can’t find any others like them. Functionally, I think they match the radiused moulding or rebate planes that are sometimes called carriage or coach maker's planes but again, I couldn't find anything close using a mix of those terms. To me they look like they might have been made by the same person. I've seen examples of things called chariot planes and infill shoulder planes that have a similar handmade look - it seems like a lot of people who did woodwork for a living also knew about sand casting or lost wax casting, so had the ability to make really specialized tools if they needed them.
posted by bonobothegreat at 2:26 PM on June 12, 2020 [1 favorite]

tronec has it. Fine hats are shaped upon wooden forms. A lot of them are made of felted wool, or straw, which can be wetted and shaped. So the forms are shaped like...the insides of hats. And since hats come in a lot of different shapes...

Scroll down to see an interesting example.
posted by the_blizz at 2:33 PM on June 12, 2020