Intriguing plane...

[woodbloke]

Martin the Woodkateer let me have this old jack plane to 'spruce up' as my next plane project and as you can see, it's had a fairly hard life:

Newt (Pete) has been round this afternoon and amongst our many and varied topics of woodworky conversation was this old plane, so when I showed it to him stripped of the infill, he pointed out that there was some newspaper that had been used as a packer (which I hadn't noticed before) or filler and parts of the print are still legible. However what I would like is a date, and there isn't one on the print as far as I can see. The print looks very old and is small, smaller than you might find in one of todays papers and the font used also looks like it could be from the 19cent:

The orange stuff I thought to be rust, but Pete has said that it's the original glue used to stick in the infill. There are no makers marks of any sort on the plane so I would like to try and date it before I do any work on it. Can anyone shed any light on this and maybe suggest a way of removing the newsprint without too much damage, or even offer a date as to it's manufacture? - Rob

 

[Paul Chapman]

Any chance of a closer shot of the newsprint, Rob? Someone then might be able to recognise the font.

Cheers :wink:

Paul

 

[woodbloke]

Paul - will have a go and post a close up of the newsprint, not sure the camera will go that close for a macro pic but I'll give it a shot - Rob

 

[woodbloke]

This is a close up, as good as I can take it, of the print. Camera is about 100mm away, on a mini-tripod with the shot taken with the self timer:

Hope this is a bit better 8-[ - Rob

 

[tnimble]

The condenced font used for the print could indicate a shortage on paper availability. I'm not an expert of English print. But during the WWII the letter size was first reduced to save paper prior to stopping printing newspaper completely. Also the first years after the war there was a shortage on paper. Generally the print in todays newpaper is smaller than older newspaper (as is so with many things such as books and signs)

 

[matthewwh]

Judging from the profile of the side wings and the design of the cap and screw I'm 95% sure it's a post - turn of the 19th/20th century Mathieson.

They were a major producer and so their planes are quite common, though very highly regarded, and I'm sure that once it has been 'woodbloked' it will be a pleasure to use. I know from previous research that they did produce planes without markings and they did offer an open handle option in their 1899 catalogue.

 

[woodbloke]

Judging from the profile of the side wings and the design of the cap and screw I'm 95% sure it's a post - turn of the 19th/20th century Mathieson.

They were a major producer and so their planes are quite common, though very highly regarded, and I'm sure that once it has been 'woodbloked' it will be a pleasure to use. I know from previous research that they did produce planes without markings and they did offer an open handle option in their 1899 catalogue.

Mathew - that's very useful, many thanks, so wer'e looking at a Mathieson plane that's probably at least 100 years old. Although you can't see it in the original shot, I think the tote is broken and was a closed handle to start with. Here's another shot of it, blade has been removed:

The woodwork was all excellent quality mahogany when I chiseled it off..I had to do that as it was all held in place with huge steel screws that had totally corroded in place, you can see one of them just poking thru' the front knob, or where the front knob used to be. Pete and I discussed this afternoon various cunning and extremely devious ways :wink: to fill in the 4 screw holes in the sole bottom so that nothing will be seen once the refurb has been done - Rob

 

[Racers]

Hi, Rob

Did you think of the one where you use big screws and then file the head down removing the slot in the process? thats what they used to do and its what I did on my scraper plane.

Pete

 

[matthewwh]

I see what you mean about the closed handle, much more obvious from the side.

Thought these might be of help guys, first a pic of another original, with slightly less ''character' than yours:

Image courtesy of http://www.oldtools.co.uk

And an excellent article on making one by Jim Yehle:

http://www.xmission.com/~jry/ww/tools/jy-panel/jy-panel.html

 

[Digit]

I want one!