My dad's propeller

[big jim mac]

My dad was an ace carpenter, cabinet maker and finally a woodworking teacher. One of his dreams was to build his own airplane, and with that in mind he came home from work one day with a very nice wooden prop he bought at Goodwill for $10. He said that was the start of his airplane. Fortunately, he never built it. I say that because he was going to use a Volkswagen engine for the motor, and we had rows of V-dub engines he burned up on his commute.

To make a long story short, dad died last fall and my mom let me take over the prop. Not long after he brought it home, I pounded 6 16-penney nails into the wall and hung the prop over my bed where it fit nicely with he WWII model airplanes I hung from the ceiling. Just brought the prop home and am posting here because I could not find it listed on the reference site.

It's a 6-foot prop with 6 holes for the hub. No manufacturer name and no decal. Only mark is the serial number: A3820 and the numbers 1 and 2 on opposite sides of the hub hole. It appears to be made from spruce with a lighter wood, maple or birch I think, for the tips. It has metal on the leading edge of the tips. Camera is at work, could post a pic later if that would help. Any ideas who made this and what plane it would be used on?

Thanks, this is a great forum and proof there's an Internet site for everything!

Edit: Here's a cell phone pic:

[MWP_Lamar]

It's highly unlikely to be able to ID a prop by its appearance alone. All the wooden props of the era have the same basic aerodynamic design.

Lamar

[big jim mac]

Lamar, I went through most of the photos I could find on this site and didn't see any that looked like this one.

[MWP_Lamar]

Not knowing of course what you looked at, I'll guess most of what you saw were props from the WW-I era and they are pretty different from yours. If you search wooden props on eBay you'll see props from the WW-II and later period. With exceptions these look pretty much alike. Yours is from that time period.

Lamar

[zephyrus23]

My guess would be a sensenich, and an earlier model because of the 6 bolt pattern. Also since it is a 6ft tall prop, that is a clue it would probably make it an earlier prop as well. I would guess around the 60's. Is there fabric on the wings?

[MWP_Lamar]

Six bolt holes indicates usage on a smaller engine. The diameter of 72" indicates usage on a smaller aircraft like a Cub and this would be consistent with the smaller engine.

To my knowledge all the major manufacturers stamped their names into the props in every case, even those declared as not airworthy; they are quite proud of their products. So, unless it's been sanded or otherwise removed it's nor likely to be a Sensenich, a Hartzell, Fahlin, Flottorp, et al.

To me, 1960's is late! When I refer to early I mean nineteen teens or twenties.

Could it have had fabric covering near the tips? It could but based on its apparent age it more likely it had paint I think.

Lamar

[big jim mac]

Man, this prop is sure a mystery. I've been all over it and can't find anything but that one letter and four numbers. No name, no RPMs, nothing else. I looked close to see if I could spot where a decal would have been but nothing doing. Looks like it was mounted as there are indentations by the holes. It appears to have original finish judging by the wonderful patina. No paint, just varnish or whatever it is. There's no fabric either. Now my brother says he recalls dad saying it came from a Piper Cub and I did see a post here somewhere showing a similar prop from a Cub, it was a Lewis. Neat prop, these things are true works of art. I can't imagine what it took to design something like this and seeing the historic pics of guys hand shaping them, well, that is craftsmanship no machine can duplicate...