The free ones are the best. 
Stamped with the users name in numerous places. The only other marking I can find is on the side of the Tote - some lettering that I can't quite make out followed by 'Sheffield'. Perhaps the retailers?
Given to me a few days ago. Yesterday I decided to tune it for peak performance. It came with a significant hump in the sole, just rear of the blade. I took a very finely set smoothing plane and with the aid of an engineers straight edge proceeded to get the sole as flat/straight as I could. I then used a card scraper and very lightly relieved the areas normally done on Japanese Planes. A quick few scrapes is all it really needs.
Some fine wirewool and mineral turps cleaned the crud off the body.
I then switched my attention to the fit of the wooden wedge. That needed a little work too. Tapping the wedge home and trying to trap my thinnest feeler gauge soon highlighted the areas that needed scraping to obtain a near 100% contact.
The blade is a Hildick, probably made parallel and a pretty hefty 4.5 mm thick. The blade itself was in reasonable condition, the back needed a little work to get it flat but nothing substantial. The chipbreaker, especially the mating edge, was in poor condition. Nothing that a few minutes with a file and coarse oil stone couldn't cure though.
A couple of wipes with Danish Oil and the quick restoration was complete.
This thing really does cut incredibly well. The mouth may be gaping but it doesn't seem to affect it's performance. Cuts at least as well as my souped up vintage Record No.6 complete with Ray Iles iron and clifton 2 piece chip breaker. I've tried it on some nasty Bubinga and interlocked Ebony. Impressive. 1 1/2 hours work and gratis. I've got a feeling that the Record No.6 just might be staying on the shelf a lot more. Believe me, tune these things up and they sing.
Stamped with the users name in numerous places. The only other marking I can find is on the side of the Tote - some lettering that I can't quite make out followed by 'Sheffield'. Perhaps the retailers?
Given to me a few days ago. Yesterday I decided to tune it for peak performance. It came with a significant hump in the sole, just rear of the blade. I took a very finely set smoothing plane and with the aid of an engineers straight edge proceeded to get the sole as flat/straight as I could. I then used a card scraper and very lightly relieved the areas normally done on Japanese Planes. A quick few scrapes is all it really needs.
Some fine wirewool and mineral turps cleaned the crud off the body.
I then switched my attention to the fit of the wooden wedge. That needed a little work too. Tapping the wedge home and trying to trap my thinnest feeler gauge soon highlighted the areas that needed scraping to obtain a near 100% contact.
The blade is a Hildick, probably made parallel and a pretty hefty 4.5 mm thick. The blade itself was in reasonable condition, the back needed a little work to get it flat but nothing substantial. The chipbreaker, especially the mating edge, was in poor condition. Nothing that a few minutes with a file and coarse oil stone couldn't cure though.
A couple of wipes with Danish Oil and the quick restoration was complete.
This thing really does cut incredibly well. The mouth may be gaping but it doesn't seem to affect it's performance. Cuts at least as well as my souped up vintage Record No.6 complete with Ray Iles iron and clifton 2 piece chip breaker. I've tried it on some nasty Bubinga and interlocked Ebony. Impressive. 1 1/2 hours work and gratis. I've got a feeling that the Record No.6 just might be staying on the shelf a lot more. Believe me, tune these things up and they sing.
