Thanks to Bruce Stouton, the Buzzy’s Country Store tool collection now has a refurbished antique planer made by the Auburn Tool Company.
I had a couple old planes gathering dust on a corner shelf in Buzzy’s Country Store so when Bruce asked if I was interested in selling him one of them I told him to just take one. Well, he took two, refurbished both of them and returned this one to me.
Bruce even made and attached a nice plaque to the plane:
The Auburn Tool Company was located in Auburn, New York and has an interesting history in that it used prison labor to make their products (click here.) Auburn later joined up with other plane makers to form an association to ensure price fixing of their products.
That Auburn Thistle Brand can be seen here on the cutting iron of the Buzzy plane that Bruce refurbished:
For a better look at it and another Auburn Company trademark, this is from Worthpoint.com:
I was unable to track down just what has become of the former Auburn Tool Company plant (shown here on their catalog) and what is there in its place today.
However, I did learn that the prison is still there and in operation. The Auburn Prison claim to fame is twofold. 1) In 1890 it was the site of the first use of the electric chair. 2) In 1901 President McKinley assassin Leon Czolgosz was electrocuted there (click here.) Too, it sounds like the only items being produced nowadays by the prisoners are New York State license plates.
No wood plane tunes to be found, but did land on this little tune here from Ry singing about using simple tools: