Huge Mitre Plane sold on the bay

[Mr_P]

I'm in awe at the construction skills involved in making this "lump". I'm guessing the usual bent back and then precision angle cutting at the front and an extra rod added through the sole and then brazed ? maybe.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Rare-Antique- ... true&rt=nc

I'm also in awe at the price, eye watering considering its un-named. Guess its a lot better value per kg than a Norris thumb plane.

I can only think of one big mitre and that is Jim's bargain lump.

harry-s-brother-meet-the-lump-t80562.html

 

[AndyT]

Good spot, Mr P.

As you say, impressive skill. I wonder whose idea it was, the maker, stretching his abilities, or a deep pocketed customer wanting a tool nobody else had. Pity we shall never know!

 

[Sheffield Tony]

I am thinking that the post is more than just a round post - a C shaped thing clasping the end of the two sides together ? I think I might be half hallucinating a little dovetail shape there ?

 

[Mr_P]

By jove Tony, you have good eyes. I never would have spotted that but now you mention it.

While I was zooming in I also spotted the side, curiouser and curiouser.

Optical illusion ???

 

[ED65]

That price is just insane. Tool collectors :roll:

 

[Mr_P]

Ed,
Would you say that if you found one like it in your shed/left or bought it cheap at a car boot ?

Each to their own, if I had the money I'd indulge myself and a lottery win would result in me ordering a fair few from the likes of Bill Carter, Ollie Sparks and Raney Nelson but back to reality I'll admit to owning too many planes but I only have one thats too good to use and I keeping thinking I should sell it.

mmm mitre planes
http://davidbarronfurniture.blogspot.co ... lanes.html

 

[ED65]

Yes. Gleefully in that case, but still yes.

Most old planes like this are really collectible antiques, cabinet queens I think they're called? That puts them in the same class as jewellery for me... which I don't have a big budget for :mrgreen:

While they can in some cases still do what they were originally built to do, if you don't mind the hit in value, realistically cheaper tools can very often do the job as well if not better.

 

[Cheshirechappie]

I think I'd place a small bet on the brass bit being a casting - sides, rounded prow, bridge and all. That would explain the change in section of the sides as they curve in at the front - that's a bit unlikely if the thing's fabricated from bent plate.

Can't do dovetail peening on castings? Well, you certainly couldn't with (say) cast iron, but brass is a different animal (OK - 'mineral' might be closer!), and some grades are very ductile.

I'll bet that steel sole is a two-piece as well - there's no chance of filing a mouth that tight in one piece.

 

[D_W]

The bottoms are always two piece. If you look closely at the picture, you can see the line in one of the tails where the two pieces are smooshed together. the divider being almost necessarily right at the mouth.

I don't know what new makers charge for those planes, but probably more than the collector price. Even at that, I agree with the comments that the collector price is pretty high, but collectors know what they're looking for, why, and what price they want to pay.

I've never built curved planes and never one from a casting, being of limited tooling and limited skill. I'd guess at right around 3 grand for a plane like that if you could get a current maker to make one or a batch. The prices for boutique infills seem to have gone up around here to where some of the small smoothers are over 2 grand.

 

[Bm101]

The bottoms are always two piece. If you look closely at the picture, you can see the line in one of the tails where the two pieces are smooshed together. the divider being almost necessarily right at the mouth.

Thanks DW and Mr C. You have both inadvertently and helpfully solved a worry I've been puzzling over recently in the back of my mind.. And like all good ideas it's often perfectly obvious once it's been thought of (or pointed out if you're a bit slow on the uptake as in this case).

Also, smooshed is a fantastic word in itself.
A new one on me.
---------------------------------
smoosh
smuːʃ/
verbNORTH AMERICANinformal
past tense: smooshed; past participle: smooshed
squash, crush, or flatten.
"use a sharp knife so as not to smoosh the broccoli"
---------------------------------

On the relative value of collectibles. Found my self wandering down Park Lane the other morning with half hour to waste. Always worth a look in Bob Forstners shop front to look at the cars. There was a fairly much perfectly mint VW Beetle in there. Little flasher than average but completely original, factory extras only. 1500 miles on the clock. Nevertheless, it was a bog standard Beetle. No new engine refinements etc.
Yours for just a hundred grand. Think about that for a second. A car invented and designed to be cheap and affordable will sell, and it will sell to someone at some point, for a hundred thousand pounds.
Couple of doors down is the Aston Martin shop. You could buy a Vantage for 10 grand less.
I resisted the urge somehow.

Back on track!
Nice plane btw!

 

[D_W]

Sometimes I forget that I'm speaking the *other* English language!

If you ever hammer together a set of sides and bottoms on an infill plane, then smoosh comes to mind. Squash, smash, blast together are other things that come too mind with me. It's almost magic - you hammer a bunch of things into a mushroom filled with little marks and then you draw file that stuff off (those of us lacking the inclination to use power tools at least), and if you're lucky, you've got neat and tidy little laser tight metal bits everywhere. I'm sure the maker biased those metal parts a little bit so that when peined, they are held tightly together.

I hope someday to make some miter planes like that, but with something like that comes the need both to buy some hardware to accurately bend, and the reality that the first several planes will have some faults. If you can make 10 of them, it's likely that planes 5 through ten will be very satisfying to make.

 

[Mr_P]

Have a look at the threads on my sticky at the top of the hand tool section, Richard T had a few pointers from Bill Carter and his NEW site is worth a look

No. 11 The tongue and groove joint
http://www.billcarterwoodworkingplanema ... ove-joint/

Sad news looks like old age and arthritis has finally caught up with him.

Due to arthritic problems, especially my right hand, I will not be making many more planes, I am not saying for sure but that is my intention.

 

[Bm101]

Cheers MrP. Will do. Many thanks as always guys. You're a mine of information.
Sorry, back on track I don't want to hijack the thread.

 

[Sheffield Tony]

I assured that the brass looked thicker at the front because it has been bruised by hammer blows during adjustment.

 

[toolsntat]

Should have it in my hands tomorrow but it would seem to be cast.
Andy

 

[memzey]

Did you buy it Andy?

 

[toolsntat]

Did you buy it Andy?

Alas no, although it would have been a nice addition :ho2 :wink: .
That young Mr Carter has bagged it and it "weighs a ton :shock:
He has in previous years produced just the same planes from some castings he had done from patterns he made.

There should be an update explaining all on his website soon.
http://www.billcarterwoodworkingplanemaker.co.uk/

Andy

 

[Mr_P]

So much for slowing down, well done that man.

I did spot a resemblance to one Bill made the other day thanks to David Barron / Furniture and Cabinet Making magazine.

http://davidbarronfurniture.blogspot.co ... maker.html

 

[Mr_P]

Thanks Andy,

He has indeed updated his site or should that be Sarah has updated his site.

http://www.billcarterwoodworkingplanema ... test-blog/

 

[AndyT]

Thanks both - nice to get a definite answer to the question of how it was made.
Also good to see that it has found its natural home.