Tom Wilson, Patternmaker

The first time Tom Wilson got to feel the tools of the patternmaker in hand it was 1948 and he was a 16 year old understudy to a journeyman in his native Scotland, starting what was to be a lifelong career. Young men in the area mostly worked the mines but he chose a different, hopefully more secure path.

About 20 years later, now a journeyman himself with solid skills under his belt, a wife and three children to support, he moved to Canada. For the next 30 plus years until retirement he worked as a patternmaker in a foundry in Calgary, Alta.

Many parts in the oilfield or manufacturing equipment floor started out in the patternmaker shop. The product results of Tom’s work may still being used in industry outlets across Western Canada. While patternmaking is in many ways a dying art, the respect for those skills continues in today’s world, fuelled in part by a strong interest in hand tool woodworking.

Patternmaker vises, for example are very popular for their flexibility.  Patternmaker rasps for their control. Patternmaker benches for their ability to hold work under control in a wide variety of ways to allow the precise, finesse work that is required.

Well-known woodworking author, teacher and furniture maker Chris Schwarz uses a modern analogy to describe patternmakers. He calls them “The Jedi knights of woodworking world.” It’s quite a tribute and one that will help connect the role with young people of the next generation. In the iconic movie Star Wars, one of the most famous of this generation, the Jedi are leaders and peacekeepers.

In his own words Tom describes the job of a patternmaker.

To one not familiar with the production of metal castings produced in a foundry, it is a little difficult to explain the process starting from the patternmaker, the foundry and finally the machine shop. To one who has no foundry practice, it would be more educational to visit a foundry with an attached patternmaker shop to see firsthand what is involved in the making of a casting.

I can only briefly touch on the process starting with the patternmaker. He is given plans or blueprints from the customer with the exact sizes and drawings of the casting required. The patternmaker then builds in wood an exact replica of the casting. After the pattern is completed it is then taken to the foundry where the moulder puts it into a metal box. It is then covered with special sand, that material rammed tightly around the shape and then carefully pulled out leaving the impression of the pattern in the sand.

That impression is then filled with molten metal. Then, after cooling, the mould is broken apart leaving an exposed casting which is then taken to the machine shop for finishing.

I have only given a rough explanation of what a patternmaker has to do to enable the pattern to be removed from the without breaking the sand and destroying the impression. Once again, to one not familiar with the foundry moulding, seeing the process first hand is the best way to really understand how the patternmaker makes this all happen.

I have heard that through modern technology much of the work to complete a casting can be done through a computer. Having been retired from this trade for 20 years I have no idea how this works.

As I have tried to explain, a lot has to be done by the patternmaker to be able to draw the pattern from the mould without tearing the sand and damaging the mould.

I hope I have given some idea on what is involved in making a pattern. Without a patternmaker, a casting cannot be made. But having said that, with modern technology perhaps they have easier ways now to make anything, which might make the patternmaker obsolete, or at least doing away with the old methods and into computer controlled tooling.

Tom Wilson.

In the years since he moved to Calgary, Tom honed his skills as a regular woodworker in his spare time. One of his prized projects is a handsome grandfather clock he built mostly with hand tools that now sits in his daughter’s house.

But while that is an example of his solid woodworking capability it may not be his sentimental favourite. That feeling likely belongs to the first toolbox he built as a youngster. It was his first project built entirely on his own, his first dovetails, and with money tight, was built with what materials were available. Fond memories, he acknowledges.

His daily patternmaker work involved many tools but the key ones fit in that box. Carving gouges, mostly incannel, designed to shave convex shapes with precision. There’s an assortment of wide-to-very-narrow paring chisels. Crank neck gouges allowed access to surface areas where other tools didn’t. Lathe tools.

A scrub plane handled rough shaping work. There were wooden try planes, and selected metal planes -- a No. 6 Record and a No. 78 Record rabbet plane. A Stanley router plane with assorted bits was useful.

There was a wide assortment of calipers, dividers and other related measuring devices. Trammel points on a well-worn wooden beam. Squares -- regular and combination. Spokeshaves were used frequently. Brace and bits found common use. Rasps for shaping.

Perhaps most unusual for someone not familiar with the trade are special rulers that precisely measure shrinkage so that movement can be accounted for in sizing a pattern depending on the wood used.

Shrink rules, sometimes called pattern makers scale, are special tools used for simplicity in pattern making. Different shrink rules are used for different material.

Most tool brands are from a bygone era. Marples, Record, Robert Sorbey, Eclipse, Mathieson, Stormont, Moore and Wright, Ward and John Bull. Made in Britain, Made in Glasgow, Made in Sheffield common marks on many tools.

Talk to Tom over a coffee or two and it is clear that he has great pride in his career and his skills. But it is also clear that this was his work and other than special memories such as his toolbox, he is a practical man who does not dwell on his career with any romantic notion of its value.

He is much more than that as a human being.

Tacked to the end of that old toolbox he made years ago is a well-worn clipping of the Serenity Prayer, famous words to live by: “Give me the courage to change the things I can change, the serenity to accept that which I cannot change, and the wisdom to distinguish between the two.”

You get the sense that thinking did indeed anchor his approach to life. A wiry, energetic octogenarian, today he continues to live life with energy. A proud Scot he has, since he was a boy, been a powerful representative of his heritage. As a youngster he tells stories of being called upon regularly to recite Robbie Burns poetry for family and guests. He still is sometimes. He counts among his proud possessions well-worn books of poetry by his favourite bard.

In years to come the woodworking tools of the patternmaker trade, the names of those who used them and their stories will fade away. But the value brought to Canada as a young nation by craftsmen of purpose such as Tom Wilson will endure. We are stronger as a country as a result.