Tatty planes

[Sheffield Tony]

Had a flutter on ebay the other night. Mixed lot of wooden tools. Bought it mostly because I wanted this:

a 7/8 tap and thread block, which was somewhere amongst the jumble of photos. I also quite liked this pattern maker's plane in with it:

It has 5 irons, most with defaced maker's mark, but legible are Robert Sorby, James Howarth and Hobday Chatham. No maker's mark on the plane itself. There were actually 6 bases, but one has been attacked with a chisel and pretty much ruined. A seveth base in the box clearly does not belong with the plane - too small.

So that's the tidy bits. There were also a collection of mouldy planes:

A chunky, and strangely heavy rebate plane. When does patina end and grime begin ? How much to clean off ?

an 1/8 fully boxed side bead, the mark has a sort of K in a circle with "Trade mark" around it, and "Established 1855" ? Seems little used and very dry.
Then these are really well used:

Most of them are marked "BURTON" - the odd one out is the darker one, marked Bewle, Leeds, with a very short iron and a repair to the mouth. They are mostly very worn soles - no longer particularly a circular arc in profile, with the mouths starting to widen - especially the one in the right in the first picture and left in the second. The larger hollow has a patch of tearout on the sole.

All these tools seem to have the same owner's stamps. Worth repairing ? And how ? Or did I waste my £30 ?

 

[Racers]

Definitely worth the money, jealous of your tap and die, and the pattern makers plane.
The side bead is a nice small one very use full for small things.

Pete

 

[bugbear]

How wide is that butch looking rebate plane? Is it skew bladed?

BugBear

 

[AndyT]

You did very well indeed with that lot. Those thread boxes are going for £40 - 50 each at the moment - at least, the ones I see are. (How come I never notice these bargain lots?)

The planes look in good nick to me. You could give the dry ones a wipe over with linseed oil.

Your K in a circle is probably Kimberley, a Birmingham maker who had several patented designs alongside the usual standard patterns.

There were Burton marked planes from makers on York, Sheffield and Liverpool.

 

[undergroundhunter]

I had my eye on this lot also but missed the end of the auction. Nice little collection. I use a mix of boiled linseed oil and white spirit rubbed on with 000 wire wool, then wipe off the excess after a few minuets, this allows me to remove the grime but keep the patina.

Enjoy

Matt

 

[G S Haydon]

I'm Jealous, great find.

 

[Cheshirechappie]

That 1/8" side bead isn't 'tatty' - it's mint!

As for the others, until you've given them a sharpen up and a test drive, you don't really know what you've got. There may well be a fair bit of useful life left in most of them.

The patternmaker's interchangable sole planes are usually home made, and work best on the softer, mild woods favoured by patternmakers - the ones I've seen tend to have wider mouths than cabinetmakers prefer. Indeed, outside the pattermaking trade, their usefulness is probably limited. Collectors seem to like them, though.

 

[bugbear]

The patternmaker's interchangable sole planes are usually home made...

I'm not sure "home made" has the right connotations. The people making them were (as you say) patternmakers, very skilled woodworkers in an extensively equipped workshop. "Craftsman made" might be closer.

BugBear

 

[Sheffield Tony]

Sorry to anyone else who was after this lot ...

In truth I would have been happy to pay the price for just the tap and thread box; what I really wanted as much as anything was an example to see if I can make my own. The patternmakers plane - I've always been drawn to these for some reason, even if they aren't that widely useful. I presume it is user made, hence the defacement of the logos on the irons ? Perhaps they are made from rejects ? I'm sure I'll need a gently concave part for something someday. That and the rebate plane are both strangely heavy, and have been soaked with linseed to the point of exuding beads of it which have dried on the surface like a rash !

The rebate plane is 1 3/4" and has a 20 degree skew. It has paint smears on the other side and the iron is a bit pitted and dinged, it also had putty limps stuck to it, so fair guess someone has been using it to fix old window frames. I think it will make a good user. I'l try gentle cleaning and linseed on it.

Having looked closely I think CC is right about the side bead - it has a bit of dirt on it, and the iron has a bit of rust, but the dings it has look like they come from storage. No signs of anything but a factory grind to the iron, no hammer dings to the heel or the wedge. Maybe unused. It is very small - can't be a commonly used size.

When I said "tatty" I was referring to the hollows and rounds really. Looking back at the photos they look better than they do in real life I think.

Thanks Andy for the info on Kimberley. Will look them up.

 

[AndyT]

In truth I would have been happy to pay the price for just the tap and thread box; what I really wanted as much as anything was an example to see if I can make my own.

I expect you know, but just in case, or for anyone else thinking on similar lines, a good source of inspiration and instruction on how to make your own thread box is in this episode of The Woodwright's Shop, in which Roy Underhill makes the wooden box and the metal cutter:

http://video.unctv.org/video/2365015311/