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on socket chisels: The Mathieson catalogue distinguishes socket chisels from socket firmer chisels, and I see the same distinction in an undated (<1920?) Flather catalogue (available from THATS). Hooped handles like yours are an option on both. The catalogues also distinguish between bright...

it was a similar comment by cheshirechappie that started my rather cursory investigation. I had a vague idea that it would somehow be connected to having a reference surface, but then when I looked at the catalogues it was pretty clear that "bevelled firmer" refereed to the familiar profile...

thanks all - ndbrown's observations do seem to increase the odds that the 1960s were desperate times for the W&P chisel department. the catalogue was recently posted to archive.org https://archive.org/details/WardAndPayneCatalogueET64 For those that are interested, here is the page...

I honed the chisels and can confirm they can be made sharp, but are they as good as Ward and Payne made out? The main claim to fame is that the handle has a patented design which incorporates a threaded rod, one end of which is screwed into a tapped hole in the socket and the other into a...

Marples 1921 The two you mention are most intriguing!

I looked at some old catalogues from the turn of the 20th century to find out what a "Registered" firmer was. The Howarth catalogue from 1884 lists firmer, bevel edge firmer, and registered chisels. No pics but the first clue is that it is only offered handled and the description mentions 2...

I have learned some new things about chisels thanks to the thread on mortice chisels http://www.ukworkshop.co.uk/forums/mortice-chisels-t101591.html In particular I was interested to learn that the edges of firmer chisels are typically not vertical to the flat face and, when they are, they have...

I was intrigued by these unusual chisels when I first saw them mentioned on his forum many moons ago and, when a set came up on ebay last week, I bought them thinking it would be interesting to compare these "premium" models to my motley collection of old chisels. Coincidentally another set...

congratulations Bugbear you appear to have organized the first ever light hearted and good humoured discussion on sharpening in the history of t'internet :D I am a #5 (copied from Peter Sellers, at least that is what I thought he was doing anyway!)

thanks for the video D_W - it is really good to see someone demystifying the process of setting up these old planes and should encourage newbies like me to have a go. Custard, I saw a top tip from a video by Richard Maquire on setting the cap iron - he suggests to set it a bit back and then to...

hello D_W - I hope you will start a thread to tell us what you discover - I would be very interesting in reading it. In terms of set up time, I think you are probaly right Having acquired a few old Record planes now, the first one took me half a day to finish and the last one (admittedly a...

hello all, it is the OP here again - thanks for the posts I have learned a lot more from what you have said. Here is a summary of what I understood: chatter can generally be avoided by good technique, but where it does tend to occur there are a couple of things that can help on the hardware...

thanks for checking Corneel. I think you make a very good point about the way the design allows for a degree of error in the manufacturing process, and I see that as part of the genius of Bailey's design. For my part I did do a little work to improve the fit between the frog and the...

yes that is a good point Vann - in fact all but one of my Record planes arrived from ebay in a basically unusable state. I wish now I had been a bit more scientific and tried to gauge the impact of simply sharpening the blade vs sharpening the blade and doing all the other flattening and...

thanks all for the comments, and I did see the "thin irons" thread the other month - my conclusion is that Mr Bailey knew both the benefits of a thin iron (cheaper to make, easier to sharpen) and the downsides (increased chance of flex/vibration) and therefore invented a modified cap iron to...

with apologies to all those people who find the topic of plane cap irons mind numbingly boring and annoying... I have been doing some research into the thrilling topic and was very interested in Vann's observations about the difference between Leonard Bailey's original patent and the typical...

I took a look at the external fermacell boards and I think I would classify the result as 'could have been worse'. This is what they looked like when I put them up: http://buildyourowngardenroom.blogspot.co.uk/2014/03/9-fermacell-cladding.html. Here is one of the corners - this corner has...

thank you - I must have been doing something wrong. I will try again now.

argh! it is cheaper than Fermacell too - oh well. I did have a root around the base of my shed looking for evidence of water damage and took a photo of the boards, unfortunately it seems I can't include a picture until I have made at least 3 posts. I am afraid those of you looking forward to...

Hello Steve, I imagine I am one of a large number of people who have stumbled accross your excellent mega-thread and read it all from start to finish. It took days to read it all, but it was not a chore as the whole thing is very entertaining and informative. Thanks in particular for the info...