The Anglo-Saxon Plane from Sarre

THE ANGLO-SAXON PLANE FROM SARRE By G. C. DUNNING, F.S.A. The plane was found in grave 26 of the Anglo-Saxon cemetery at Sarre in 1863 ; it is briefly described and figured in the excavation reports,1 though its real nature was first recognized by Baldwin Brown.2 The plane was on the left side of the body, together with kon keys. A bronze balance and scale-pans and a set of nineteen weights lay at the left foot, and elsewhere was a shield boss, a spearhead, a bronze buckle and a purse mount. The grave-goods indicate the burial of a man in the sixth century. The plane consists of two parts of different materials. The base-plate is of bronze, 6 • 05 in. long and 1 • 3 in. wide. Near each end is a vertical stop to hold the stock or body-piece of the plane. The front stop is cast in one piece with the base-plate, but the rear stop is folded back over the base-plate, hammered tight against it, and then bent up at right-angles. One-third back from the front edge is a rectangular slot, 0*8 by 0*4 in., beveUed along the rear side for the cutting kon. The stock has a ceUular structure longitudinally and is denser in the lower part. It is, therefore, bony in nature, and its size suggests that it is too large to be made from a limb bone but was cut from the beam of a large red deer's antler. The stock is 5-15 in. long, 1-2 in. wide and 1 • 2 in. high. The underneath surface and the ends are carefuUy made flat and squared, so that the stock fits tightly into the base-plate. The slot for the cutting kon and its wedge, and for the discharge of shavings in front of the iron, is cut to fit accurately over the slot in the base-plate. It is 2 • 1 in. long at the top, 0 • 75 in. wide for the cutting kon, narrowing to 0-6 in. wide in front. The difference in width is hardly sufficient to aUow for a shoulder on each side to engage the wedge holding the cutting kon in position. Probably this was done by an iron bar fixed across the slot, but, unfortunately, this part of the stock is broken away on both sides. The back part of the stock is pierced from side to side by an oval hole, 1 • 3 in. long and 0 • 35 in. high, for holding the plane when in use. The hole comfortably takes the end of the thumb on one side and two fingers on the other, enabling the plane to be lightly but firmly held between the finger tips. The back end of the stock is rounded to conform with the end of the hole. 1 Arch. Cant., VI, 162; VII, pi. XIII. 2 The Arts in Early England, IV, 415, pi. XCVII, 2 (wrongly assigned to Bifrons). 196 THE ANGLO-SAXON PLANE PROM SARRE The two parts of the plane are fastened together by three kon rivets, one in front of the slot and two behind it. The rivets pass through holes drilled in the stock and are hammered over bronze plates on its top surface. The front plate is square, and those behind the slot are triangular, with the points facing inwards. The front right corner of the base-plate is rounded and burred on the upper surface, showing that the plane had considerable use before being buried in the grave. This smaU and dehcately-made plane is clearly a craftsman's tool, intended for squaring or bevelling the edges of smaU pieces of wood rather than for planing surfaces. The width of the cutting kon would aUow for wood up to £ in. thick to be planed. It is, therefore, suggested that the plane was used in finishing strips of wood that were fitted accurately together, such as the sides of work-boxes or caskets,1 and the staves of buckets. Examples of ancient planes are exceedingly rare, and according to Flinders Petrie2 the plane was a Roman invention. Roman planes are known from Pompen, Silchester, and the Rhineland, but these are larger than the Sarre plane and were joiner's tools. In fact the Sarre plane appears to be unique for the Anglo-Saxon period. In hghtness of make a closer paraUel is provided by the wooden plane in the thirdcentury hoard from Vimose, on the island of Fyen, Denmark.3 This is 10 in. long and canoe-shaped, with each end turned inwards in the shape of a bkd's head. Planes closer in construction to the Sarre plane are known from the terps of Friesland, and belong to the late Roman and to the late Frankish periods.4 One from Finkum is 6-6 in. long, with a bronze base-plate and a bone stock, and provides a remarkably exact parallel to the Sarre plane. Another plane, from Aalsum, is simUar in shape but slightly larger, and is made entkely of wood. These planes, have a hole through the stock as on the Sarre plane. These parallels in HoUand suggest that small and dehcately-made planes, based on Roman models, were developed in the Teutonic lands at a time when the malting of articles from composite strips of wood was particularly in vogue. The Sarre plane is in the coUection of the Kent Arohseological Society at Maidstone ; grateful thanks are due to the Curator, Mr. L. R. A. Grove, F.S.A., for permission to pubhsh it here. 1 For the reoonstruotion of a Prankish casket see Germania 31 (1953), 44. 2 Tools and Weapons (1917), 39. 3 C. Engelhardt, Vimose Fundet (1869), p. 29, Pig. 31. 4 P. C. J. A. Boeles, Friesland tot de elfde eeuw (1951), pp. 202, 535, pis. XXX, 20 and XXXIa, 1. 197 17 THE ANGLO-SAXON PLANE FROM SARRE By W. L. GOODMAN Surviving woodworkers' tools from the Dark Ages are so rare that it was hardly surprising that the small object found in Sarre grave No. 26, when first pubhshed in Archceologia Cantiana, VI, p. 161, was described as an " iron lock, with bronze plate containing a hole for its bolt", and later in George Payne's Catalogue of the Kent Archceological Society's Collections, p. 19, No. 775, as "lock-plate, bronze, attached to wood". Closer examination has since revealed that this is indeed a smaU plane, with features relating it to roughly contemporary Frisian examples, and to thek similar, but somewhat larger, Roman predecessors. It may be dated to about A.D. 600. The body is of horn, 5f in. long, 1£ in. wide and 1J in. high, with a bronze sole 4 in. thick projecting at both ends to make the total length exactly 6 in. The turn-up at the front appears to have been cast, whUe that at the back has clearly been folded to shape, probably to accommodate it to the piece of horn used for the stock. The sole is fixed with three kon rivets passing through the stock and fastened at the top to smaU bronze plates, of which the middle one, immediately behind the kon, has disappeared. The plate at the back is roughly heart-shaped, while the front one is square with rounded corners. A finger grip is hollowed out behind the kon, which was probably about f in. wide, with a slope of 43 degrees. With the help of detaUed drawings (Fig. 1) made by Mr. L. R. A. Grove, Curator of the Maidstone Museum, the writer has made a suggested reconstruction, in wood and brass, of the original tool (Plate 1). The rivet across the mouth is the only conjectural feature, but is weU-vouched for by the Frisian and Roman examples previously referred to. This httle plane is remarkably easy to use, and although the setting of the kon is rather tricky, it takes off quite a respectable shaving. The nearest modern equivalent would be the so-caUed " thumb planes " used by coachbuUders, or the smaU " viohn planes " stUl hsted in the specialised catalogues. This has prompted the suggestion that some such tool as this may have formed part of the kit of the craftsman who made the famous Sutton Hoo harp. Most of the known Roman planes1 are about the size of a modern jack plane, but with one exception built entkely of wood, they aU have a wooden stock with an kon sole attached to it by four rivets. UsuaUy the stock was hoUowed out between the rivets to form two handles, one at each end, but it is curious that the nearest both in space and time to the Sarre plane, the weU-known tool from SUchester, dated to about 1 History of Woodworking Tools, Practical Education, February-May, 1957. 198 CO rn^M ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ FIG. 1. Plane from Sarre. Cft** H W H !> 12! O Ir1 9 co > o > H * l SJ O 02 > sol a H THE ANGLO-SAXON PLANE PROM SARRE A.D. 350-400, has room for only one grip, at the back (Fig. 2). It wiU be seen that in effect the Sarre plane is a smaller version of this, roughly about half the size, and shows that the Roman tradition was stiU active some 200 years later ; not, after aU, such a very long time for those days. \ KSS^3^ T ® © \ N\: "-». v"SX Is PIG. 2. Reconstruction—Silchester plane. The nearest counterpart to the Sarre tool is the smaU plane found in the terp at Finkum, in Friesland, and now in the museum at Leeuwarden (Fig. 3). This is also of horn, with a bronze sole turned up at the ~-Q Se ; •M~r.-^Z FIG. 3. Finkum plane. front, and projecting shghtly at the back, making the total length about 6£ in. The scroU-shaped handle abuts against a short upright pUlar, and the bed of the kon is cut to an angle of 45 degrees. The hole for the peg across the mouth—the Roman method of fastening wedge and kon, which was in general use up to the middle of the sixteenth century— is clearly visible. It had previously been suggested that this Finkum plane was of Roman date, about A.D. 200, but three other httle planes at Leeuwarden.from the terpenatHallum,Beetgum, and Oosterbeintum, 200 Reconstruction of Sarre Plane, A.D. 600. g > THE ANGLO-SAXON PLANE FROM SARRE firmly dated to about A.D. 750 are similar in aU respects, except that the bronze sole is lacking. Another plane at Leeuwarden, made entkely of wood, with interlacing carved decoration dating it to the early Carolingian period—A.D. 750-800—also has the characteristic scroU handle and little upright pUlar, and Dr. Wassenburgh, of the Fries Museum, has recently conceded that the Finkum plane may also be of the late Merovingian period, roughly contemporary with our little tool from Sarre. The use of horn for small planes was continued throughout the Middle Ages, as witness the httle plane of stagshorn, with an kon sole, found by J. M. Greber at Burg Kreuzenstein, near Vienna. It is about 4|- in. long, If in. wide, with a IJ in. iron. The carving of a castle and groups of figures dates it to about the middle of the fourteenth century. 201