A Note on Molding Planes With the Owner’s Mark EEL.

Hello everyone. I posted this note over on Google+ a few weeks ago. I thought I would repost it here for all of you who aren’t on G+. There have been a number of molding planes that have come up for sale lately with the owner’s mark EEL at the heel. I thought I’d let you in on what I know about these.

The EEL mark stands for Eugene (Gene) E. Langdon. Mr. Langdon was a famous furniture maker from Pennsylvania specializing in 18th century furniture. Mr. Landgon passed away in 2011 and the contents of his shop were consigned to auction.  He had an enormous collection of molding planes and other hand tools, all in excellent condition. Some of his molding planes like the ones shown below one, tuned and ready to use. All of his molding planes have the “EEL” stamp on the heel.  A number of them have shown up on eBay and on other tool dealer’s for sale lists.  I snap them up whenever I find them (and can afford them) because they are almost always top-notch and fantastic users. Mr. Langdon kept many of his molding planes honed, set, and ready to work. He was featured in Fine Woodworking several times and his shop was featured in Fine Woodworking No.174, the 2004/2005 tools and shops issue. If you have access to this issue you can see the racks and racks of molding planes he owned and used.

Gene Langdon's Owner Mark

Here is a FWW short biography:

This is a silly game, but it has a picture of his shop here:

Finally, there is a book available that details Gene’s work and life. The preview on this site will give you some idea of the quality of his work and give you a quick glimpse of his shop.

That’s it for now. Look for more Old Tools tomorrow- assuming all goes as planned!

Josh