As we examine the "Featured Plane" it's important to understand some of the history of the Union Manufacturing Company, where it began and where it is today.  While not exhaustive nor complete, the following paragraphs will give you a little insight into what started out as a small industrial company over 150 years ago and continues today producing top quality tools .

This excerpt from a longer article by Don Bosse (Thanks Don, for the update.) at:

https://www.unionmfgco.com/blog-1/union-mfg-co-from-new-britain-to-boyertown-a-brief-history, gives the reader some background of UMC from its origins through the end of its first itteration.

 

​"The incorporators of the original Union Manufacturing Co.  reads like a who’s who of the most influential businessmen of New Britain’s hardware industries, Cornelius B. Erwin, Timothy W. Stanley, William H. Hart, Henry Stanley, and Augustus Stanley, are a few of the 37 incorporators. If you are a hand tool user, I am sure some of these names are familiar to you! The stated purpose of the company was, “The manufacture of Hardware, Casting Metals, finishing and converting the same into Merchandise, or any of the various articles of hardware which are or may be desired, and for the sale of same”, which essentially describes almost any type of product related to hardware and the manufacture there of. Which they did, casting iron products for other industries and for their own use, butts, hinges, and hardware, the machining of goods into finished products for the same, which eventually expanded into other lines of other goods, yard and cistern pumps, and chucks for lathes and machine tools, etc. They diversified to broaden their sources of income and provide economic stability for the company and employees." (Don Bosse)

 

​     A more detailed version of the history of the Union Manufacturing Company and the Union Plane Company can be found here: https://www.unionmfgco.com/blog-1/union-mfg-co-from-new-britain-to-boyertown-a-brief-history

 

 

     Over the next half century or so Union or the Union trademark and name, went through a few owners but for the most part ended up closing the doors in about 1986. Then, in about 2018 a fellow in Pennsylvania, with a business named Porter and Sons came up with the idea to create from the original, a new "X" plane, an X0 with an adjustable mouth, designated as X0A.  This fellow, Robert Porter ended up buying the trademark and name "Union  Manufacturing Company" and embarked on a quest to produce it from scratch. Porters knowledge of machining and a burning desire to create "the best plane ever", drives him over the next 5 or 6 years, to design, produce and deliver the X0A in various configurations as illustrated below. The author was privy to much of the process and admittedly skeptical at first and then at various points during the long process of building something that hadn't been built before. Porter's desire for near perfection sometimes slowed the process but his tenacity prevailed and before the end of 2025 delivered the Union Mfg Co X0A, X0AG and X0ASP. 

You can visit the Union website at https://www.unionmfgco.com/ and tell Porter I said "hi".