Marples Plane and Soldering Iron

[Rorschach]

Couple of interesting Marples finds at the car boot this week.

A marples soldering iron, can't find any info online that suggests they even made soldering irons. It's a nice one though (obviously not electric)

Also a Marples wooden plane, made in 1950 with chipbreaker, 2 1/4" wide. Seems like a really nice well made plane. Again not a huge amount of info online just a few shabby ones on ebay. Anyone got any more info them?

 

[Rorschach]

Found two dates on the plane, 1950 and 43, both with MOD arrows above them. After cleaning the muck and rust off the blade it still has the factory grind on it.

 

[AndyT]

This is the relevant page from the 1959 Marples catalogue - there were two patterns in thirteen sizes plus a lightweight one for those new-fangled wireless gadgets - so you still need another 26 to collect the full set!

Full catalogue available online here - you don't say if your plane is a jack or a smoother or what, but you should be able to find it in there.

https://archive.org/details/Marples1959 ... dPriceList

Marples were the last British tool company making wooden planes in quantity when they ceased production in 1965. Ken Hawley saved the work in progress, the planemakers' tools and even the benches, from being chucked out with the rubbish.

 

[Rorschach]

Sorry it is a Jack plane, 17" long, 2 1/4" blade, model number stamped on it is C.1751 though I guess that could be part of the military designation? I found what looks to be it in the catalogue anyway.

The soldering iron is the number 16 straight Iron, quite a hefty chunk of copper.