unidentified brass plane

[marshpaddler]

Hi everyone i have had this plane in my possession for a few years but have been unable to find any info on who may have made it, how old it is or where they were made, i am hoping someone more geeky than me can help.
it is obviously a moulding plane measuring 6.25" long and it has an interchangeable beech base and it has residual red paint on the frog.
Any ideas anyone :?

 

[marcros]

pattern makers copy of another plane perhaps?

 

[adidat]

Well it's a pattern makeks plane with interchangeable soles, by your post it's my understanding there are no makers marks? These are not particularly rare BTW.

Adidat

 

[marcros]

were these quite common knock-offs in their day then adidat?

 

[adidat]

Im not suggesting it's a knock off, as a brass Stanley copy would be, or the small Preston router plane in brass i own, it's just a no name plane, there quite common on the bay.

Adidat

 

[marcros]

ah, i see what you mean

 

[adidat]

Ok, I meant used by patern makers, rather than made by them.

Adidat

 

[AndyT]

It's not surprising that these were user-made really. If you were a pattern maker you had the skill to make a pattern for a plane and had access to a foundry where it could be cast, so why would you pay a tool merchant? So with nobody needing one apart from the tradesmen who could make their own, the commercial market for a pattern maker's plane would have been zero.

The use of a detachable base and a set of differently radiused irons enabled the owner to plane inside curves of different sizes, without needing a workshop full of special planes.

Do you have the other bases and irons?

 

[marshpaddler]

No, i have a small collection of planes this one was handed to me by a friend and is a bit of an odd one out as all my others are 19th century so it sits in a drawer. Thanks for your input people but while i,m in educational mode can i glean any information on a bit of a rarity, i have a very handsome rosewood and steel smoothing plane with a dovetailed sole. the knob is square rather than round with a knop finial would i be right in assuming this to be a "Scottish" style again no makers stamps the iron is stamped HEARNSHAW BROS Sheffield but thats probably of no relevance.

 

[bugbear]

It's not surprising that these were user-made really. If you were a pattern maker you had the skill to make a pattern for a plane and had access to a foundry where it could be cast, so why would you pay a tool merchant? So with nobody needing one apart from the tradesmen who could make their own, the commercial market for a pattern maker's plane would have been zero.

Indeed. Custom patternmaker's tools are (quite) common, for the reasons you cite.

Further, copies of commercial tools, made by borrowing an original as the pattern are "fairly" common (depending on the circles you move in ).

http://www.nonesuchtools.com/recast.html

BugBear

 

[jimi43]

Infill ones are nicer and not as common as the wooden or other iron type ones.

I like it...bigger picture would help see the detail if possible though?

Jim

 

[marshpaddler]

Heres a better image hope it helps.