Having become more interested in woodwork in the last few years I've been "noticing" (read-pilfering) all the old tools at my dad's house. There's an old woody I've never taken any notice of till I had a look today and realised its not just a bog standard jack plane - the blade is mounted skewed. The blade has about 1/4" of life left in it so I looked on ebay for a replacement and theres a ringer on there for £95 :shock: (complete plane, not the blade!) I checked and ours is a preston as well - marked lichfield street. According to wikipedia prestons moved from lichfield street in 1867. Did they carry on stamping them lichfield street after they moved or is it genuinely that old? Its in impressively good nick if it is!
E Preston skew plane
- Thread starter TFrench
- Start date
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lurker
Le dullard de la commune
1/4 " should last you ages yet.
Suggest you bring it to the Market harborough do in June and talk to toolsntat of this parish or of course Richard himself. My guess is a replacement blade might result.
I'd like to think I have played a small part in opening your eyes to the attractions of woodies :wink:
Suggest you bring it to the Market harborough do in June and talk to toolsntat of this parish or of course Richard himself. My guess is a replacement blade might result.
I'd like to think I have played a small part in opening your eyes to the attractions of woodies :wink:
bugbear
Established Member
TFrench":1comphbc said:
If by "bottom" you mean right hand side where the blade merges, AND the blade doesn't emerge on the left hand side (both sides as viewed from the top when holding the plane for use) it's a badger.
e.g.
Edit; Also available in Infill!! :shock:
http://sauerandsteiner.blogspot.co.uk/2 ... plane.html
BugBear
bugbear
Established Member
TFrench":kuzjfnq2 said:
TBH, "like a jack plane with a skewed blade" is a pretty good description of a badger.
BugBear
Picking up on the age and the value...
Badger planes in general (as for many wooden bench planes) are not rare and often sell for very little. That said, there are dedicated Preston collectors out there, so price could go higher than other brands if you were to sell it, but I doubt if it would make your fortune. The ebay vendor you found does seem to have the knack of selling very clean examples of old planes at surprisingly high prices - maybe they manage to set people's expectations by setting their buy-it-now prices much higher than some people would find realistic.
As far as I know, the most useful research on the Preston marks was done by Mark Rees when he was preparing the useful reprint of their 1909 catalogue for publication. (It has plenty of extra information about the history of Preston.)
He lists two marks that mention Lichfield Street. One is in an oval, zig-zag border and has the words E PRESTON at the top, then 77, then LICHFIELD ST across the middle, then BIRMM across the bottom. He dates it as 'presumed to cease in 1855 as the Lichfield St premises were renumbered (97).'
The other mark is for H PRESTON 4 ASTON ST Late of LICHFIELD ST BIRMM which is dated to around 1874-1883.
I hope this helps.
Badger planes in general (as for many wooden bench planes) are not rare and often sell for very little. That said, there are dedicated Preston collectors out there, so price could go higher than other brands if you were to sell it, but I doubt if it would make your fortune. The ebay vendor you found does seem to have the knack of selling very clean examples of old planes at surprisingly high prices - maybe they manage to set people's expectations by setting their buy-it-now prices much higher than some people would find realistic.
As far as I know, the most useful research on the Preston marks was done by Mark Rees when he was preparing the useful reprint of their 1909 catalogue for publication. (It has plenty of extra information about the history of Preston.)
He lists two marks that mention Lichfield Street. One is in an oval, zig-zag border and has the words E PRESTON at the top, then 77, then LICHFIELD ST across the middle, then BIRMM across the bottom. He dates it as 'presumed to cease in 1855 as the Lichfield St premises were renumbered (97).'
The other mark is for H PRESTON 4 ASTON ST Late of LICHFIELD ST BIRMM which is dated to around 1874-1883.
I hope this helps.
:wink: lurker
Le dullard de la commune
Tom,
I am guessing the blade is pretty much like a jack but ground differently
Post a picture & dimensions and I'll look in my woodie blade stash.
assume it has a chip breaker too?
I am guessing the blade is pretty much like a jack but ground differently
Post a picture & dimensions and I'll look in my woodie blade stash.
assume it has a chip breaker too?
lurker
Le dullard de la commune
Why is a badger so named?
Will do Jim - probably be a week or so now. It does have a chipbreaker. AndyT - I never expected it to be worth that much given what most woodies go for. I was more interested in how old it is - no wonder there's not much blade left!
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