Ray Iles A5

[Mr Ed]

Does anyone here have any experience of this Norris A5 reproduction plane?

http://www.oldtools.free-online.co.uk/latestnews.htm

I have been looking for a Norris A5 for some time and it seems that the price for a good condition original is not far off the same as this plane (£400).

Obviously wouldn't have the same nostalgia / collectability but I am more interested in the performance to be honest. Would appreciate any comments if someone has one, or has used one.

Ed

 

[Wiley Horne]

Ed,

In addition to what you may learn from the UK folks, you might also email Joel at Tools for Working Wood in the US:

link

Joel sells these planes and is also an expert on vintage infills, and can make comparisons. He is dead honest and will tell you the truth as he knows it.

Wiley

 

[Jeff Gorman]

I gather that the original Norris A5 was not intended to be made with a very fine mouth.

I'd check the shaving aperture size befor pruchasing if quality of finish is required.

 

[Harbo]

I have not seen the Ray Isles A5, but I sent him my original A5 and Ray fitted a much thicker iron to give a very tight mouth. It now works very well.

I would think from that, that Ray's planes have a tight mouth - the A5 after all is a smoother?

The original irons on the older types were tapered, so the mouth would widen in time as the blade was worn down with grinding/sharpening.

Rod

 

[Joel Moskowitz]

The original irons on the older types were tapered, so the mouth would widen in time as the blade was worn down with grinding/sharpening.

Rod

All infill planes with lever caps used originally used parallel blades. Tapered irons were ONLY used in wedged planes (wood or metal). If you have an infill with a tapered iron and a lever cap it's a replacement blade.

Returning to th modern age:
The initial first 100 planes Ray made had mouths around .020" This is pretty typical on historic infills and Rays original idea was to mimic Norris's approach - that is a general purpose infill plane at a moderate price - and you can easily shim the iron for special occasions. However the modern approach for infills is as a uber smoother only for difficult wood so Ray kept on getting requests for really fine mouths so (it's actually pretty simple to do) the later runs of planes have much finer mouths .008-.015.

 

[David C]

I reviewed an early Ray Iles plane and it was excellent value.

David Charlesworth

 

[Harbo]

Joel wrote:

All infill planes with lever caps used originally used parallel blades. Tapered irons were ONLY used in wedged planes (wood or metal). If you have an infill with a tapered iron and a lever cap it's a replacement blade.

Are well - I stand corrected - so my original blade was not original after all? :x

Has anybody written a definitive book on the history of planes - stuff on the web about Norris and Spiers planes is very sketchy?

Rod

 

[Mr Ed]

Rod

'The Handplane Book' by Garrett Hack is an excellent reference on planes generally, which is well worth buying if you don't have it. (ISBN 1-56158-317-0)

Ironically, although there is a picture of a Norris A6 on the front cover it doesn't actually have that much detail on Norris / Spiers type infill planes. It is nonetheless a nicely presented book containing lots of information.

Ed

 

[Harbo]

EdSutton - I have Garret Hack's book and excellent it is too. But what I really would like is a bit more detail on how particular models evolved with some ideas of dates etc.
A bit nerdy perhaps, but I found it very difficult finding out details re Norris & Spiers plane when I was looking on the Bay etc. It would be nice to recognise some of the features?
My incorrect knowledge about tapered irons is an example.

Rod