History of Dryburgh Wood Planes archived with Shakespeare’s Darryl Ehnes and Stratford’s John Huiser

North Easthope’s Jim Campbell and Shakespeare’s Darryl Ehnes look over Ehnes’ collection of 43 Dryburgh Wood Planes.

There are many collectors in the area who have in their possession many and various forms of antiques. From automobiles, to tractors, to old construction tools and something known as wood planes.

No, they are not something you fly, but a tool that many carpenters worked with in past centuries – and still do to this day.

In the North Easthope Township area of Perth County, John Dryburgh made these carefully handcrafted wood planes from his own blueprints. They were used to build many area century homes, along with churches and municipal buildings in area counties of Perth, Oxford and Waterloo.

Even though John Dryburgh later settled on Lot 29, Concession 10 of the township, he really started his business in 1837 in Dundee, Scotland. In 1856, after training many other wood plane makers, he moved to Toronto, and later to North Easthope Township, west of Hampstead in 1858 to 1881.

The Dryburgh Farm was sold in 1881, and his two sons, John Jr. and William, moved to Bright in Oxford County and continued the art of making these planes up to 1905. Their father John, after selling his North Easthope Farm, moved to Manitoulin Island, and took all his own blueprints for making Dryburgh Wood Planes with him.

The rest is certainly history, and much of that history is archived with locals Darryl Ehnes and John Huiser, of Shakespeare and Stratford, respectively.