Moseley on down to the workshop!

[jimi43]

Our dear friend Pedder out in Germany recently purchased a selection of British tools from the UK and kindly let me keep a little woodie skew rebate plane which caught my eye.

The thing that I loved was the old stamp...

John Moseley and Sons....54-55 Broad St. Bloomsbury which puts it between 1862 and 1880 when they were bought out by Mr Marples.

The iron was pretty rough and totally non-original but after I sharpened up and straightened out the end with its coat of many bevels...I was totally surprised at the ability of this old lady....

The mouth was wider than the Thames estuary around about Margate area....

(that's not rust at the bottom...just a reflection!) but it cut with ease and absolutely no chatter....from very coarse rapid stock removal to delicate fine gossamers.

Using my very horrible test piece of some sort of pine...I sort of got carried away and ended up with a pile of fine curly shavings and a rabbet about as deep as the grand canyon....but you get the idea!

Ok...ok...I'm not about to sell or ditch any of my infill shoulders just yet but I am truly impressed by this woodie....it's a little darling and gives out the very satisfying swishing noise you get when you know a plane is performing to perfection...

...creating the most sublime swirling shavings with such ease.

So next time I'm wandering the bootfairs looking for infills....I think some of the older versions of these wooden gems might get a second look...

....particularly if they have a matching Moseley and Sons iron!!!

Cheers

Jim

 

[GazPal]

Nice one Jim. :wink: Moseley made some very nice planes indeedy and they certainly have their place alongside newer offerings (Infill or iron bodied counterparts).

 

[ac445ab]

Hi Jim,
That plane seems to cut nice shavings.
I have a wooden rabbet like yours with a similar mouth opening and I find It very useful for a faster job on deep rabbets, although on harder woods it easily causes tear out.
Did you try to use it on harder woods? What about that wide mouth?
Do you think it worth to be closed and if yes, how?
Ciao
Giuliano

 

[AndyT]

Nice to see the wooden plane appreciation movement gathering momentum - but let's not put the prices up too much!

On the question of width of mouth - all of my wooden rebate planes have fairly wide mouths. I think the reason is that they were primarily a joiner's tool, and would mostly have been used for taking fairly thick shavings. After all, when you cut a rebate, it's to make a joint, not to make a surface that stays on show, so a bit of roughness is immaterial, but speed is important. (A similar argument applies to ploughs - you don't expect to make gossamer shavings when ploughing a groove - it would take too long.)

 

[jimi43]

..........Did you try to use it on harder woods? What about that wide mouth?
Do you think it worth to be closed and if yes, how?
Ciao
Giuliano

Hi Giuliano

I haven't yet and I don't expect it to perform quite as well (obviously :wink: ) and I have two infills to do the job in those circumstances....but it was nice to see that an old woodie could come up to the mark when sharpened.

I am trying more and more the primary bevel only concept which I read on a thread (somewhere) and using a concave bevel (large wheel) and then honing on the bevel with no lift. This gives an effectively honed flat bevel without the need to remove acres of metal each time it is touched up. It seems to work exceedingly well!

Nice to see the wooden plane appreciation movement gathering momentum - but let's not put the prices up too much!

On the question of width of mouth - all of my wooden rebate planes have fairly wide mouths. I think the reason is that they were primarily a joiner's tool, and would mostly have been used for taking fairly thick shavings. After all, when you cut a rebate, it's to make a joint, not to make a surface that stays on show, so a bit of roughness is immaterial, but speed is important. (A similar argument applies to ploughs - you don't expect to make gossamer shavings when ploughing a groove - it would take too long.)

I am trying to distract the infill craze at the moment Andy! Someone's gotta do it! :mrgreen:

Totally agreed about the usage and indeed...this plane would perform this task with ease. As I say, I've yet to try it on hardwoods but we shall see. I would ease it up slightly in this case...more on that later.

One thing I have to watch out is that with this open mouth..the iron is also quite exposed and I did manage to cut myself on the overhang....I hate razor cuts!

Jim

 

[ac445ab]

I own a rabbet like this too, although I have not yet had an occasion for using it. It could be a solution when a deep rabbet has to be displayed, such as in doors and windows. The mouth is adjustable and the pitch is 49 degrees. Large mouth setting for fast cutting the rabbet, then tight mouth for a smoothing action.

 

[jimi43]

Hi Giuliano

Wow...is that a cap iron I can see there?!!!

Never seen that before on this type of plane. =P~

One thing I noticed on the Moseley is that the front sole is a tiny bit lower than the rear sole. I think this must be intentional as they are both in the same plane and perfectly flat otherwise.

Does anyone know if this is designed in to present the cutter correctly?

It certainly doesn't suffer with this setup.

Jim

 

[Cheshirechappie]

Nice planes, Jimi and Guiliano!

I recently picked up a couple of woody rebate planes from a local junkshop. One 1/2" with an iron stamped 'Mathieson', and a 1" skew with no markings at all, but a body only 8 1/8" long. Both have the irons bedded at 49 degrees. Not got 'em cleaned up and sharpened yet, but hoping to. If they work OK, it'll save me shelling out for a Veritas skew rebate.

If they give tearout on harder timbers, how about using them to shift the bulk of the waste, then finishing off neatly with a narrow-mouthed metal shoulder plane? Either that, or look for a woody with a 60 degree bedded iron.

 

[ac445ab]

Hi Giuliano

Wow...is that a cap iron I can see there?!!!

Never seen that before on this type of plane. =P~


Jim

Hi Jim,
Mine has Ulmia mark but also ECE makes similar rebate planes:

http://www.ulmia.de/English/Downloads/14.pdf
http://www.fine-tools.com/sims.htm

Giuliano

 

[GazPal]

One thing I noticed on the Moseley is that the front sole is a tiny bit lower than the rear sole. I think this must be intentional as they are both in the same plane and perfectly flat otherwise.

Does anyone know if this is designed in to present the cutter correctly?

It certainly doesn't suffer with this setup.

Jim

Hi Jim,
I believe there is a degree of cutter pre-set, as I've examples by several makers - including Moseley, Gleave, Matheson, etc. - with the front sole set so the blade will cut when the edge of the iron is flush with the rear sole at the mouth. I've also found the same with my infill shoulder plane by Slater.

Mouth width tends to depend on the degree of wear/sole dressing these planes saw during their working lives. Their originally narrow mouths widen gradually - as you already know Jim - when a sole is re-dressed.

Nice planes, Jimi and Guiliano!

I recently picked up a couple of woody rebate planes from a local junkshop.

If they give tearout on harder timbers, how about using them to shift the bulk of the waste, then finishing off neatly with a narrow-mouthed metal shoulder plane? Either that, or look for a woody with a 60 degree bedded iron.

There's absolutely nothing preventing you from doing this, but the skew iron does tend to negate a great deal of tear-out when set accordingly, whereas results with square mouthed planes tends to be more variable