Snarfed another try plane from the uk

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D_W

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I'll make a video of the setup of this one when I do it since Jacob thought the thread was too complicated.

This one is mathieson, and I have a soft spot for mathieson and Griffiths planes.

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Planes like this are almost unfindable in the US.
 
that is a stonker of a find DW, well done. Very very jealous right now
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How much of the iron is left. Is it a Saracen works iron
 
IT's just marked Mathieson Glasgow - about 2 3/8" of iron left to the slot (iron 2.5" wide of course). Not much of the iron is used and the cap is matching in wonderful shape.

It's sharp - someone was using it recently, long thin primary bevel with finer work only toward the tip. It smells strongly of linseed oil, too.

I don't know that much about mathieson's history, just that I like their plane designs as a basis to lift proportions off of.

They do often seem to have relatively low handles - someone with a hand 4" wide at the knuckles would find them cramped.

While folks in the UK may feel the price is high (59 pounds), it would cost that to make an iron and cap iron setup as nice these days.

Our planes in the US are derided (auburn, ohio)...at least the later ones after they were prison labor type stuff, but the bodies themselves aren't what are lacking - they can be fine, and often well selected wood. But the irons can be just terrible quality steel that crumbles at any hardness.

Mathieson irons are great, as are IH sorby and ward that often show up in griffiths,
 
Very nice! I was bequeathed a Mathieson like this but with simpler features (the handle has no knuckle guard for example). It’s sitting waiting for me to set it up properly - the iron was very definitely stuck (as it’d be in place for probably 60 years) but I managed to coax it loose.
 
If it has no cresent and star then it was probably made in the Edinburgh works rather than the Glasgow one
 
This looks like the place where a builder (like me) who is fascinated with quality but doesn't know that much about origin falls apart...


...this plane on the iron, cap iron and on the front of the plane does, in fact, say "glasgow" and all of the parts have a crescent/star in the middle.

If I had to guess by looking at this plane, I would say mid to late 1800s. The cap iron is all steel, and the iron is nicely made, but the way the eyes are cut shows that they were done entirely by hand without any jigging - they're just neatly gouged out in a way that's "almost perfect by hand" but not machine perfect.

Which is considered more desirable in the UK as far as origin?
 
That's a really nice looking plane David. It's interesting that it has a strike button. The few English made planes I have, including a Mathieson try plane, don't have strike buttons.
 
Nice looking plane and good to know yet another up-cycler hasn't 'improved' it by screwing a mains light bulb holder on the end attached to a lead and plug. Or is that just a UK thing???
 
Nice looking plane and good to know yet another up-cycler hasn't 'improved' it by screwing a mains light bulb holder on the end attached to a lead and plug. Or is that just a UK thing???

it shows up on etsy here. Some of the planes here are better at that than planing, though.
 
Yup. Neither of my Mathiesons have a strike button. I wonder how many actually did?

Wouldn't be surprised if it was added. It looks like oak. I don't make planes with strike buttons and don't use them, so that's as far as I can provide any information. I've got two other matheisons (no strike button, they're jacks )and had a third short closed handled plane (like a try plane but 17" long, or potentially said, like a jack plane, but wide like a try plane with a closed handle), no button on it, either.
 
For me, I want stuff made in Edinburgh, everyone else wants the the glasgow saracen works stuff. But then I live less than 2 miles from where the Edinburgh made kit was made. So I like to keep it local if i can i rarely see Mathieson kit for sale here though, I just keep looking but most of what appears is past it or doesn't havve an iron
 
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