Should antique tools be cleaned before selling

[keithh]

Hi there. some of the planes look quite interesting from a historical point of view. The photo of the plane you have described as a rebate plane is a sash fillister, and looks to be 18th century. There also appears to be a moving fillister in one of the images. This looks as though it's wooden depth stop is missing, but is proberbly also 18th century. The plane marked "N T" also sounds interesting, as some early 18th century plane makers used this style of mark.

I probably won't get to photo the tools now until after 9th Sept as both Michael and I are going away. Michael posed a question this morning which neither of us had thought of before and that was was Michael's Great Grandad a woodworking tool maker? His name (Sutton) is beautifully stamped into several of the planes. He was a carpenter foreman responsible for making the church spire at Tyler's Green nr. High Wycombe and for one of the London Stations (Michael did tell me which one but I am afraid I didn't write it down)