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"Condition: Used" Not the best sales pitch, methinks. Plane looks alright, though.

I gather that Catalonia is one of the most prosperous regions of Spain, so the Spanish government probably feels it can't afford the loss. If Catalonia went, it would also increase the demand from the Basques for separation, too. There seems a disconnect between popular desire for government...

Not sure I can give full, definitive answers - but one or two points, anyway. Yes, high carbon steel is harder to forge than wrought iron. Indeed, straight high carbon steel is quite difficult to forge, for two reasons. First, because it needs more urge from the hammer, and second because it's...

One factor may be the nature of the abrasives used. Diamonds as used in sharpening stones have something of a reputation for being quite 'pointy', and being firmly held, tend to leave deepish scratches compared to other abrasives of similar grit size. There may be two solutions to the problem...

A lot of the old catalogues were intended for retailers, so quoted wholesale prices, and often gave the price per dozen. Checking the S&J catalogue, it does indeed price per dozen (indicated by the 'doz' at the end of the line of prices), which would make the wholesale price about £18.16 apiece...

Moxon does indeed describe marking gauges with friction-fit heads. However, in his commentary on Moxon's text, Chris Schwarz goes on to say that we know from the 1545 wreck of the Mary Rose that gauges with locking mechanisms existed before Moxon. Speculating - some craftsmen were called upon...

Don't pile tools on top of one another. Especially saws. It's hard to saw straight with a bent saw.

New fangled modern rubbish! They should keep to the trad stuff....

You need one of these, Bob! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eVBDHzqXAjA (Yay! Carrot power!)

When using a honing stone or moving a chisel back and forth along a piece of sandpaper, not only do you have to move the chisel, you also have to move your arms back and forth. You usually have to accelerate your arms, hands and the chisel, then decelerate it and accelerate in the reverse...

Marples splitproof chisels are still available new, though by the looks of it, blade design has changed again! http://www.builderdepot.co.uk/marples-3 ... g-shopping I'm 99% sure that even the first splitproof blades would have been made by drop forging, a process that needs a huge hammer in...

First post, I see, Workshopted - welcome to the forum! That's a really useful little snippet of information, and from as impeccable a source as they come. Lancashire pattern planes invented in Bristol, eh? That's a bit of a turn-up, but does explain the complete lack of references in...

Many trades use edge tools, and need to keep them sharp. Not all trades have edge tools with a flat jigging surface, such as a wood chisel has, so not every trade needs to 'back off' on a flat surface. For example, butchers' knives have double bevels, neither of which needs to be flat...

Splendid stuff, Andy! This thread needs adding to the 'Tool Restoration Techniques' sticky. (By the way - a good follow-up treatment for metal items thus cleaned would be Renaissance Wax; if it works on armour it'll work on shoulder planes!)

One approach that did come to mind is to use one of those fibreglass pencils that are used for cleaning up joint faces in PCB soldering work - something like this - https://www.maplin.co.uk/p/abrasive-fib ... ncil-kr61r - though I'm sure there are cheaper ones out there. Another possibility...

Eric, I've had a couple of Clifton shoulder planes for a long time, since the late 1990s. They aren't used 'regularly', in the sense that bench planes and chisels tend to be, but they have seen some use, especially the 3110, which is a plane I'm very fond of - it's one of the few multi-type...

I suspect that tightness of fit is not that critical in (for example) bookcase shelves, but it could be more important in some instances. One that springs to mind is the fitting between legs and turned central upstand of the type of tripod table base used in some high quality expandable dining...

Never seen one like that before. It's almost like a precursor to the modern round ferrule. Is there any indication of how thick the metal is (without taking anything apart), or how it was fitted? - it almost looks like cast whitemetal! The chisel looks like an oldie, though. Approximately mid...

I suspect this is one of not many instances when a long, thin paring chisel could be very useful, for trimming after removing the bulk with saw, bench chisels and hand router.

It might be worth trying to pack a few shims between the frog and sole castings on the 'low' side (the side on which the blade protrudes further) to see if this levels things up. You might need to try several times, adjusting shim thicknesses. Thin cardboard, writing paper or even several layers...