Karl Nelson
PalmAndNeedle@karlnelson Hmmmmm... That smells of marketing to me, great depression style. I like "Jack of all trades" better as an etymology. Because you can do basically anything with a Jack plane. From scrubbing to joining to smoothing. Is it as good at any of those tasks as a long jointer, a dedicated smoother, or a scrub plane? No. But it's good enough.
@karlnelson The roughest work is scrubbing, which is where metal bodied planes had the least success. The precise mechanism is not an advantage, for quick big adjustment it's even a disadvantage, and neither is the weight. And any old wooden planes will do for a scrub. So they didn't sell. Vintage Stanley scrub planes are up there at the unobtainium end.
@PalmAndNeedle Yeah, it probably is totally marketing. But... still pretty funny! (I also suspect the usage of the word "jackass" has morphed in the intervening years.)
@karlnelson Oh, it definitely has. All language changes. And its definitely deeper and more complicated than yes/no, Jackass/Jack of all trades. If listening to The Allusionist for years has told me anything about language it's that etymology is complicated, and the only two things you can safely assume is that a) it's never an acronym, and b) more often than not the straightforward, popular answer is incorrect.
rag. Gustavino Bevilacqua