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Yes, this is a "user-made" plane. The casting would've been bought from a foundry, or a dealer, for the original owner to finish off the plane by infilling it with a timber of their choice. The design itself is an older style from around 1850. This does not mean, necessarily, that the body...

Depends on the species. There are over 800 varieties and a lot of them are very stable. Some are even used in stringed instrument making, and you need a very stable timber for that purpose. However, having said all that, ghost gum is not one of the more stable varieties of eucalypt.

Not sure why you put rosewood in quotes? Cocobolo is a legitimate rosewood. The Quangsheng/Luban/Wood River handplanes are great value for money. Not quite the fit and finish as Lie Nielsen or Veritas, but not far from it.

The gunmetal plane is definitely not a Mathieson (or a Sorby for that matter). It's a "user-made" plane - made by the woodworker himself. The original maker would have purchased a casting - either rough or cleaned up - from a foundry or tool dealer, then he would have "infilled" the plane...

I've been a professional woodworker for almost 40 years, making anything from guitars and other musical instruments to expensive bespoke furniture in the style of Chippendale, Sheraton, Hepplewhite (mainly), John Makepeace, Krenov and C.R. Macintosh, as well as various Shaker designs. I've also...

The clue is in the bevel angle. If you say it's almost 90 degrees then it's made for cutting very thin metal. Maybe not so much tin snips but possibly copper or brass snips.

It could, but no. Not by default. Other things need to be taken into account.

Some historical context is needed here. To say that nobody else was doing it is simply not true. You're just not aware of anyone else doing it, which is a completely different thing. In fact Tom himself started off by buying Ken Wisner's business. Ken was the man who resurrected the old Stanley...

The metallurgy is indeed better. As a professional planemaker for the past 30 years I've done extensive research into this and it's my opinion that the metals themselves are better. What may be more important, however, are the skills involved in making the cutters and/or the thickness of the...

I'm a little confused here? LN have made made a fantastic business by copying the designs of Stanley and Sargent, and making them better by improving the overall build quality and - in the case of the cutters - better metallurgy. How does someone else copying those same designs make it any less...

It's brass. Definitely brass. The two main problems, apart from the overall "cheapness" of the planes, is that the brass can mark lighter coloured woods and it wears down a bit quicker - being softer than cast iron. However, having said that, they're still worthwhile tools if tuned properly.

Mmmmm, I've never ever associated Grinling Gibbons with hand cut dovetails, but I think I know what you're getting at. Plus any mention of Grinling Gibbons is a "thumbs up" from me.

He does seem to have an overwhelming influence on certain second-hand tool prices, which I'm not a fan of. Still, if it wasn't him then it would've eventually been someone else.

Bill Carter has made one (or two?) dovetailed jointers at 36 inches. I followed suit and made one back in the day, but it was a bit over the top. Can't remember how long it took me to make in actual hours, but I could turn over a 26 inch (actually they were 25-1/2 inch) jointer in around 45...

Just a slight correction on the original post. It's not a casting error, as such. The casting itself would have been perfectly fine. Rather, it's a drilling and tapping error (probably tapping). Cast iron is quite brittle and sometimes these things happen. They may have "ummed and ahhhed" about...

Laying planes on their side came about during the "Golden Age" of the gentleman (ie. amateur) woodworker in the late 1800's. It did make some sense in regards to generally damp surfaces, workshops and sheds and limiting the edge's contact with said moisture. If you look at the texts before this...

"I SORBY" and Marples are basically the same thing, as all the pre-WWII Marples "M" series metal planes were made by Sorby (Turner, Naylor & Co.) at the John St. works anyway. Both are excellent brands. Stanley and Record planes are probably more common and are as good as just about anything...

Now that I see the handle it definitely looks like a European style plane - similar to the ECE Primus planes. Hard to say what the wood for the handle is, but pear is a possibility.

Not as much as you would think, actually. Though I guess it's all a bit subjective. Let me add a little backstory to this that only a couple of people know about. Firstly, the thumb plane sides and sole were not actually made by me, but by a guy named Gil Rogers who lives in Melbourne...

To be fair, Geoffrey Tweedale states that the first (known) appearance is from an 1816 trade directory, however that does not mean that the company did not originate six years earlier. I'm of the opinion that the date of 1810 is probably correct - but it's only my opinion. Also, the original...