The Untold Story Behind Union, Part 2
By Dr. Eva Porter
CEO, Union Manufacturing Company,(Robert’s Wife) I want to take you back, long before the name Union was ever spoken out loud in the Porter house.
About six years before Union existed, we had just moved to Pennsylvania. It was 2013, and our son Aidan was about to turn two when we learned that Robert needed back surgery. Years of designing and building fine furniture had taken their toll on his body.
The surgery was successful, but not the end.
Shortly before our second son, Matthew, was born, Robert needed another back surgery. Between the operations and the chronic pain that followed, he came to a hard realization, he could no longer build furniture.
For someone whose identity was rooted in making things with his hands, this wasn’t just a career shift. It was a reckoning. His life's obsession was no longer viable. Woodworking was his life. When he was 8, he carved flowers out of sticks at his dad’s campground and sold them to campers. Which sparked the beginning of his woodworking life.
Now, he couldn’t work and he was stuck at home. And while being present with a newborn and a toddler was a gift (because daycare is prohibitively expensive), if you know Robert at all, you know this much is true: He was going absolutely nuts and he needed to make something.
So he gave himself a challenge, to build something complicated and entirely by hand, using only hand tools. No machines. No shortcuts.
He chose something unexpected: a wooden bicycle. Don’t ask me why he chose a bike. We were not avid bike riders. We didn’t even own one. I’d bet it was simply because bikes are complicated. And he loves things that are complicated.
The bike he ultimately built was made in our dining room. It was child-sized, but beautifully complex. He carved it by hand and used traditional joinery and no hardware at all. Every piece fit together the way wood wants to fit together.
That project lit a spark.
Along the way, he began searching for more quality chisels and hand planes to use for the bike, an excuse to buy more tools, no doubt. That search led him to antique tools, and once he started learning about them, there was no turning back.
What began as curiosity quickly turned into obsession.
With a newborn in one arm and a toddler running around, Robert spent his days researching tools, studying their histories, and teaching himself what made one plane exceptional and another a piece of junk.
Soon we were visiting flea markets and auctions, not just to collect, but to study.
And then… our kitchen filled up. Then the dining room. The basement. His workshop. Planes. Saws. Tools everywhere.
What looked like chaos to most people was, to Robert, a living classroom.
He began meeting people, collectors, craftspeople, historians. Before long, people from all over the world were calling him. Asking what tools were worth. Asking him to find specific planes. Asking for his opinion. He also traveled a lot. He went to the west coast and the UK and up and down the east coast. While in the UK, he met Tony Marples of Joseph Marples, LTD.
Without ever intending to, he became a trusted antique tool dealer.
But if you know Robert, you know this truth too: He cannot admire something without needing to know how it’s made. Have you heard about his watch obsession? Stay tuned for a future blog post about how his watch obsession applies to hand planes.
During this time, he kept talking about one brand in particular, Union.
He talked about the X Plane constantly. About how exquisite it was. About the engineering. About the way it felt in the hand.
At the same time, he started experimenting with making tools himself.
First a plumb bob, then a bevel. There was also a plumb BOMB! A future post, perhaps? Then a saw.
Or maybe a saw, then a bevel. I can’t remember. All under the name, Porter and Sons. From what I recall, the packaging of Porter and Sons was designed with care and intention, just like the current Union packaging. The plumb bomb, for example, was 15 pounds of stainless steel housed in an ordinance crate, which he made. Another thing you might not have known about Robert is that he was a Navy Aviation Ordnanceman. So his attention to detail from the tool to the package was always, shall we say, a bit over the top. He sold a few Porter and Sons tools and even collaborated with Joseph Marples for their 180th Anniversary Trial 1 Kit.
And then one day, driving home from Washington, D.C., he started talking about making tools and the X Plane again. I was exhausted. Half asleep. And honestly… tired of hearing about it.
So I finally said, “Just make a plane.”
He paused and said, “If I’m going to do it, I’m gonna make an X Plane and it will be under the Union name. Which also means we have to acquire Union.”
And I said, “Sure, whatever you need to do.” Which was actually my way of saying, “Please stop talking.”
And off he went. He used EVERY resource he could. From enlisting the help of people he met, spending every spare dime we had and selling prized possessions to raise capital, to converting our one car garage into Union’s first shop. Going head long into where we are today. Not slowing down. Pushing nonstop like a mad man. That's Robert.
And that, truly, is the untold story of how Union began, as told from the person closest to its president.
Simply because of a man trying to heal his body, quiet his mind, and give life to a company and network of folks who gave him life through a world of antique tools. And, of course, because of a wife who wanted him to stop talking, and maybe stop filling our house with antique tools. You’re welcome.
The rest, as they say, is history.
