Windsor Hand Beader

This version of the Windsor Hand Beader is based upon a patent issued to Williams and Poole in June of 1885. It is an advancement over an earlier design which was patented in March of 1885. The later patent claimed the sliding cutter assembly and the movable fence below the cutter. With these features, a bead could be placed at a variable distance from the edge of a piece of stock. The handled beader had an advantage over a conventional beading plane in that it could easily follow a curved edge, so it was useful on carriage work as well as curved moldings.

In use, a cutter disk was rotated under the knurled knob to select the desired cutting profile and the assembly was moved along the slot in the body to cut the bead at the desired distance from the guide fence.

The full sized beader is 10.5" long end-to-end, and is stamped with the two patent dates shown above. My miniature is 3.5" long and is shown with a copy of the June 1885 patent (above) and also with the original beader.

The body of the miniature is made in ebony, and the face-plate and slider are brass. The knurled knob and washer are made from nickel-silver. The blade was cut from a thin piece of scraper stock and was darkened using gun-bluing solution. The brass parts have been bead-blasted to remove machining marks and duplicate the cast finish of the original.