identify this William Marples and Sons planer?

[westcoastpaul]

hi all, new to this forum, so I'm sorry if I'm not posting in the appropriate forum for this question. I
just got this plane as a gift, and would like to know more about it. there's sites on dating Marples planes, but
few with photos if you don't have a lot to go on. on the ends of the wood body are stamped JDB multiple times, most just DB. not sure why the multiples... the length is 22", all wooden body. blades are marked with a triple clover. wooden wedge.
I'm interested in the date of manufacturing, and use for this plane. I'm a maker of sorts, and would like to get this into working condition.
sorry for the low resolution photos, I had good ones but couldn't load them,
thanks in advance for any feedback. Paul.

 

[Bod]

"JDB" & "DB" will be previous owners, if you can identify these owners, then some dating might be possible, to within +/-30 years.


Bod

PS
http://huk1.wkfinetools.com/02-Toolmake ... ceList.pdf

Still in the Marples 1959 catalogue.

 

[lurker]

The multiple marks will be the user (owners) stamp maybe you have a father and passed to a son ?

The plane might have always been with the blade, thus a Marples plane but not necessarily.
The wedge looks pretty beat up so maybe you could use it as a pattern to make a new one

If you soak the body in linseed oil some of those cracks might close up a bit.

Over here planes like that are ten a penny, if you were local I'd give you a better body to put that blade in.

Unless you have one already I think you have a potential scrub plane there

 

[Cheshirechappie]

Hello Paul, and welcome to the forum!

That's a try plane, and it'd a pattern that was commercially available from the late 18th century up until the mid 1960s. It's not home-made, since the handle is of the very common commercial pattern. It's not a first quality plane, as the grain does not run perpendicular to the sole when viewed on the end, but as the wood is as old as it is, it's had plenty of time to stabilise to all but extreme changes of climate. There's no guarantee that blade and cap-iron were supplied new with the body, but if the fit between metal and wooden parts is good, there's a pretty fair chance that they were. That doesn't necessarily mean the plane was made by Marples, since quite a few makers bought out their irons, and if there's no maker's mark (usually on the toe end) it would be pretty well impossible to pin down who made it, or exactly when. Late 19th or early to mid 20th century might be a pretty good guess, based on the use of a Marples iron.

It's well worth refurbishing. Clean up (see the 'Tool Restoration' links at the top of the handtools forum index page), sharpen the blade and check that the cap-iron fits close, then wedge them in with the edge well back. Turn the plane over, and lightly clean up the sole until it's clean, straight and out of wind. Then advance the iron and give it a test drive. You'll find it's a sweeter plane to use than a metal-soled one; wooden soled planes always slip over the workpiece with much less friction than metal ones. Learning to adjust a wooden plane is not hard, but can take a bit of trial and error - google 'adjusting wooden bench planes' or similar wording for any number of Youtube vids and tutorials! Don't worry too much about the splits in the body - they won't do much good, but they probably won't do much harm either!

Have fun with it - it'll make a nice change from power planes and machinery!

 

[AndyT]

Marples were one of the giants of toolmaking. Their origins date back to 1828. They were the last UK commercial maker of wooden planes, with their last bench plane maker retiring in the 1960s, when they finally stopped. Ken Hawley liked to tell the story of how he rescued the planes, the benches and the tools from being chucked out - he also filmed planes being made.
At 22" long it's a very standard pattern of try plane which could have been made any time between the mid 19th and the mid 20th century. Later is more likely but tools can get put aside and forgotten at any time. The shorter jack plane was used first, to get close to the required dimensions, then the try plane made edges straight and surfaces level.
As noted, repeated initials are owner's marks.

Wooden bench planes must be the most underappreciated tools, but unsurprisingly can still work just as they used to. Sharpen it and use it!

 

[StraightOffTheArk]

Can you get a better photo of the stamp on the toe (front end grain)? I can't quite make it out but that will help in getting a very approximate date. Otherwise I'd say earlyish 20th century.

HTH Carl

 

[westcoastpaul]

thank you everyone for your knowledge and feedback!
interesting thing about the owner's initials, i hadn't considered that.
i'm assuming my brother-in-law bought this for me at a thrift shop, so
knowing who that was will be impossible.

there is indeed another marking on the end, and i will try to get a
better photo of it. i had good shots but the download size was too big, so
i switched to my phone's front camera for lower res.

I love historical items, and appreciate and respect the history behind them.
so thanks everyone for your help. the monetary value isn't so important to me.
i've spent some time refurbishing vintage bicycles and have spent hours trying
to identify the age/maker, but the same thing occurred with bikes, in that makers
of components were bought and sold, companies disappeared into thin air, etc.
but i enjoy the challenge!

 

[westcoastpaul]

aha! upon taking photos in better lighting, the name 'atkins and sons' is on the end of the wood body, but both parts of the blade are clearly marked 'w m marples and sons'.

 

[StraightOffTheArk]

Atkin & Sons were a major Birmingham plane maker that usually had their own mark on their irons, so either the Marples iron is a user replacement or has got mixed up in a joblot after it's been sold on. According to British Planemakers (2nd edition) Atkin & sons (Sheffield Works) 1863-1900 and Atkin & Sons Ltd (Sheffield Works) 1900-1966

'Sheffield Works' was the name of their Birmingham factory, named because Sheffield's reputation had eclipsed that of Birmingham / The Black Country.

HTH, Carl

 

[AndyT]

The word round the horseshoe on their trademark is BENEFACTUM, which is Latin for"well made".

 

[rxh]

All good advice above.

The word round the horseshoe on their trademark is BENEFACTUM, which is Latin for"well made".

Thanks Andy, you did me a favour unintentionally. By coincidence, I was cleaning up this Atkin moulding plane yesterday and thanks to you and other posters I now know the age range and the writing within the horseshoe, which was partly obscured by owners' marks

 

[lurker]

I love historical items, and appreciate and respect the history behind them.

You will fit in well here.

Welcome by the way

 

[rxh]

I found that I have another Atkin plane but the stamp on it says "Atkin & Son late W, Moss" so presumably it is an early one as only one son was involved.