William Kendall of York Planemakers planes Benchtalk101

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Andy beat me to it!

Essential viewing for anyone who has ever wondered how planes were made in the most efficient way. Not mad at all!
 
Could either of the Andys send me a reminder some time tomorrow afternoon by pm cause my memory is shot at the moment
 
I enjoyed the plane talk Andy, thanks for taking the time to do it. At what stage when you went to look at these planes did you realise they were so special and not just another lot of "moulding planes"?
 
I enjoyed the plane talk Andy, thanks for taking the time to do it. At what stage when you went to look at these planes did you realise they were so special and not just another lot of "moulding planes"?
Thanks, not my finest hour but at least their out in public again for the world to see.
I can now see how much more there is to be gained from looking deeper and actually making some tooling/examples to demonstrate them.
I think it's the first time I've ever had them all lined up and whilst doing that patterns were emerging.
I had forgotten about some information that Peter Young had shared until looking through my paperwork. In particular there was another son called Thomas Kendall which may be very relevant indeed as last night I found 3 planes with the pencilled initials T.H.K.

My initial reaction, not knowing at the time what the unusual ones were, was "there different", better have them.
It was only when home and looking through books that I realised their functions.
Cheers Andy
 

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If anyone has interest, I bought a box full of these from ebay and apart from cleaning them up
I haven't used them at all? Any reasonable offer.
 
If anyone has interest, I bought a box full of these from ebay and apart from cleaning them up
I haven't used them at all? Any reasonable offer.

I think photos are required if you want a sensible response!

A box of plane maker's planes by any of the Kendall family would be more valuable than many ordinary offerings. :)
 
Gah! Forgot completely. Donkey! Am now officialy irritated. Still. The gin was good and not strictly medicinal. 😬
 
that was a very interesting talk chaps, I have a question, is this the only known plane makers full set? how common are they? and please both of you andy's make that research happen, I could see a book about the subject being very interesting! cheers.
 
I think photos are required if you want a sensible response!
Photos attached. Sorry, couldn't see any Kendalls. I like the way when I buy your plane, I overstamp your name with mine!
First ten attached
 

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And the next ten.
 

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Well, I'd say that you have a selection of useful planes there which are fairly old, not especially rare, but could easily be put to use.

A few notes:

You have several rebate planes of different widths. p1001913-jpg looks like it has the wedge on the wrong side of the iron - the others are correct. A couple have been planed/sanded on the side, presumably to correct a bit of twist. Sometimes necessary and ok on a non-rare user grade tool. I tried to cover rebates in the benchtalk a fortnight before Andy's but didn't have time to show them in use. Better videos are also available!

p1001912-jpg is an "old woman's tooth" router. Normally user made. Takes any plough plane iron. The action isn't exactly the same as a Stanley 71 and they are a lot cheaper.

p1001915-jpg is a tonguing plane and cuts one side of a tongue and groove joint.

You have two side beads - p1001922-jpg and p1001930-jpg.

p1001925-jpg is an adjustable grooving plane - if you are lucky it will match to make the other half. Otherwise it is ok for grooving drawer bottoms or small panels. Also, the fixed grooving plane in p1001932-jpg might match.

The rest are hollows and rounds, in moderate sizes, which are really good for making short lengths of moulding to match up with old stuff.

Makers include some of the big names - Mathieson, Marples, Nurse, Greenslade.

Less common are Osborn Brothers - a tool dealer rather than a maker, listed at 126 Arundel Street in 1898.

And also, although Greenslade of Bristol made thousands of planes over a long period, I think your plane is marked Greenslade and Acraman, a shortlived partnership between the plane makers and a timber merchant brother-in-law which only ran between 1830 and 1831. That's probably the rarest plane there and would appeal to any Bristol based collector.

I hope this helps - any further questions, just ask.
 
that was a very interesting talk chaps, I have a question, is this the only known plane makers full set? how common are they? and please both of you andy's make that research happen, I could see a book about the subject being very interesting! cheers.

Thanks! Just picking up on your question, the Hawley Collection in Sheffield certainly has some of the reverse planes used by Marples, collected when they finally stopped making wooden planes, in the mid 1960s. I don't know how many there are. There's a picture in British Planemakers showing a set of five to make astragal and hollow moulders and the caption makes it clear that there were more besides.

There could be others around - but I don't know of any other collection of so many from the same family as Andy has. So many must have been tossed out as worthless, so we are very lucky that these got caught by someone who knew what they were.
 
that was a very interesting talk chaps, I have a question, is this the only known plane makers full set? how common are they? and please both of you andy's make that research happen, I could see a book about the subject being very interesting! cheers.
Thank you, and as AndyT has mentioned the others, in the uk, that we know of are in The Hawley Collection and I must make an effort to learn how many.
There are some, and if the camera work is to be believed, many, in the Colonial Williamsburg
https://woodandshop.com/williamsburg-mother-planes-tour/As far as being a full set is concerned my planes have the basic special requirements, wedge making, chamfering and shouldering. I am very lucky to have the 6 mother/reverse planes for this particular mould but so many more would be required for the different profiles available. It should also be noted that when "roughing out" before using a mother/reverse plane many "standard" planes would be utilised.
In reality I have a part set.
2nd shelf down......
Cheers Andy
 

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