Recent content by DonMc

I believe that the wording "Viking Sagar" simply means Viking Saws in Swedish. So, it would appear that the saw in question is a product of the company featured in the image below. Taken from a publication about Swedish manufacturing in 1923. I don't know how long the company continued in...

I haven't followed his instructions personally, but Charles Hayward covers this in his book, Woodwork Joints, and he's usually pretty reliable on these sorts of things. I've scanned the relevant pages and created a PDF file which is located here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B5YwO2 ...

Christoph et al, Having spent an inordinate amount of time trying to find more information concerning tool dealer William Henry Mozley, I think I can fill in some of the blanks. Though significant gaps remain. As a preface, though, I do want to say that the evidence, so far, tends to mostly...

Hi John, The snipes bill plane appears to be made by Saxon. At least, that is the stamp which appears where a maker's mark would typically be found. However, that name is not found in Goodman (British) or Pollaks (U.S.) books. So it is something of a mystery. The iron has two stamps, but...

Mark wrote, in part: "So the moulding is there just to register into the cut made by the snipes bill?" In effect, yes, the profile of the side snipe allows it to register down into the quirk created by the snipes bill. Given the orientation of the iron and its cutting edge, the vertical cheek...

Hi Mark et al, Thought I would attach three photos to help determine whether the pair of planes you have are side rabbets/rebates or side snipes. The side rabbets/rebates are on the left in the first & third photos, with the side snipes on the right. The second photo is primarily to show the...

Hi Mark, The pair with vertical irons is a pair of side snipes, rather than snipes bills. In effect, they work like traditional side rabbet planes, intended to widen and/or clean up shoulders of already established quirks. For that reason, they are intended to cut on the vertical side/face of...

Joseph Haywood shows up, in 1847, as a merchant and manufacturer at 25 Victoria Street, Sheffield. In 1849, at the same address, he's listed as a "merchant, and steel, file, edge tool, saw and cutlery mfr.", and by 1852 he has moved to 31 Holly Street. Then, by 1856, the name of the firm is...

Hi Andy, Yes, that information was all available online. Specifically, it appeared in period British publications and can be tracked down using advanced search on Google Books. I limited the searches to between 1800 and 1860, full view only, and used various search values such as "mortice...

In light of what Andy has reported concerning the digitizing of British patents, I now understand why I've had so little success searching the Espacenet data base. So, I decided to turn my attention to registered designs of utility for the period leading up to 1855 and found three items related...

Sorry ... my wording was very misleading. The numbers 768 & 770 refer to the Illustrated List catalogue numbers for the mortice gauges in question. However, my placement of the numbers in the original sentence surely looks as if I was referring to patent numbers. My fault, sorry. I had wondered...

Based on entries in the Illustrated Sheffield Lists, it appears that mortice gauges with a some kind of rack and pinion feature were being offered at least as early as 1855. Specifically, the 1855, 1871 and 1885 editions have these listings: 768 Mortice Gauge, Patent, with Rack 769 Improved...

As Andy pointed out, the configuration of the sash fillister plane allows its fence to register off the same reference face as the sash moulding plane. This allows for uniformity of these features from piece to piece, flowing from the critical reference faces. Presumably, any slight...

According to British Planemakers from 1700, third edition, George Eastwood worked at three different York locations between 1851 and 1899. Incidentally, as has been pointed out, it is not a plough plane. Rather, it is a sash fillister plane, unfortunately missing its iron. Otherwise, it looks...

As Cheshirechappie conjectures, the Fisher family ironmongery firms do, indeed, substantially pre-/post-date the 1897 trade directory listing. The earliest relevant listing I've found is for a Charles Fisher, of 34 Winchcomb Street, Cheltenham, saw maker, in 1856. At that time, Charles would...