Two moving fillesters

[Corneel]

Yesterday a package arrived from good old England. Actually two packages, because the Royal Mail doesn't want to be bothered with packages over 2kg to the continent. I managed to snipe a lot of two nice looking moving fillesters, while everyone else probably were looking the other way.

One is a W.Greenslade Bristol. From a little investigation I understand they made planes up to 1937. It's a good one. Extensive boxing on the corner of the sole. A nicker iron, and a very smooth operating depthstop. Only one of the screws attaching the fence is missing and replaced with a countersunkscrew. But I can mend that, no problem.

The other one doesn't have a name on the body, but it has a Marples iron, so I guess it's a Marples. Doesn't look so old. Funny thing, it has a large knot in the offside, but that defect hasn't warped the body. This one doesn't have a nicker. The fence on this one is attached with three screws, what a luxury! In the marples catalog from 1938 I can't find a moving fillester without a nicker, but I guess that doesn't really tell anything about the date of this plane.
http://www.roseantiquetools.com/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderfiles/marples1938.pdf

Of course I didn't really need anything like this, having two Dutch modesl allready, but they are so nice....
Sorry for the crappy Iphone picture.

 

[AndyT]

Good stuff!

Interestingly, there is a similar nickerless plane in the 1938 catalogue you linked to - on page 46. It's listed in their BB range, which I think was a budget or diy option. It's shown as an "adjustable rabbet and fillister plane." It lacks a nicker - which would not be needed much of the time - but also lacks a depth stop, so it's not an exact match for yours unless someone fitted a depth stop afterwards. The price was a lot lower - only 4/6 as against 27/- for the proper tool like your Greenslade one, on page 51.

Is your no-name plane a bit narrow, compared to the other? That would have kept the cost down a bit too.

Good useful tools though. I think it's worth having more than one, so you don't need to keep adjusting the fence. (That's why I snapped up a nice Dutch example for not much money too!)

 

[Corneel]

Yes, the Marples one is a little narrower. But it doesn't really look like a budget model, despite the knot.

But I don't know if the catalog allways presented the exact range of models in these days.