Three Woodies

[rxh]

Three woodies recently given to me:
- The big one is 17” long and has a 2 1/8” tapered blade by Lewis & Co. Sheffield. It has no visible writing on it. There is a bit of a split at the back left corner but looks sound otherwise.
- The middle one has a 2 1/8” tapered blade stamped: Warranted Sheffield, Pharaoh Brand. The back end is stamped with “Master” and “279”. Wooden parts are in fairly good shape.
- The small one has a 1 ¾” Stanley parallel blade that looks like it belongs to a Bailey type plane. The construction is interesting: it is in two parts, dowelled and glued together, and has an insert at the mouth. I wonder if it was originally a wider plane that has been “cut down”.

So far I have de-rusted the blades and cap irons. The ones for the big and small planes won’t require much work but the end of the middle plane’s blade is very badly pitted.

Nothing very valuable here, I think, but I’ll see if I can put them into usable condition.

 

[tobytools]

Potentially some good users there especially the 17"er.

As you mention the 2nd iron and chip breaker is too far gone, tho with a lot of hard work you could get a shaving but overall just fin plane with a spare iron I'm sure you have some

I like the look of the dowel plane, one can only guess of it Origen.

Ps.
This chisels you got a while bad have you re handled them all yet? Pics

Thanks mate
TT

 

[rxh]

Yes Toby, the blade of the middle one is quite far gone. However, I have an idea for making toothing blades and I may use it to experiment on.

I'm sorry to say I haven't re-handled the chisels yet as I've been working away from home for a while lately.

 

[bugbear]

- The small one has a 1 ¾” Stanley parallel blade that looks like it belongs to a Bailey type plane. The construction is interesting: it is in two parts, dowelled and glued together, and has an insert at the mouth. I wonder if it was originally a wider plane that has been “cut down”.

Stanley blade, laminated construction; I'd guess home made.

BugBear

 

[tobytools]

Yes Toby, the blade of the middle one is quite far gone. However, I have an idea for making toothing blades and I may use it to experiment on.

I'm sorry to say I haven't re-handled the chisels yet as I've been working away from home for a while lately.

Hmmmm, that's sounds very interesting and I look forwards to seeing the product of another amazing tool you make

Cheers
TT

 

[MIGNAL]

I guess that the middle Plane (the smoother) is the same as one that I own: a Salmen 'master' Plane. I don't think mine has the '279' stamp though.

 

[bugbear]

Three woodies recently given to me:
- The big one is 17” long and has a 2 1/8” tapered blade by Lewis & Co. Sheffield. It has no visible writing on it. There is a bit of a split at the back left corner but looks sound otherwise.
...

Nothing very valuable here, I think, but I’ll see if I can put them into usable condition.

You've got probably the most useful woodie to a modern hand worker - the Jack. Put a camber on it (the amount of camber depends on wether you also have a scrub in your arsenal) and go.

BugBear

 

[swb58]

Snap! I was given a Master 279 a while back, not in such good nick as yours though, it's been food for many wood worms. Mine also has the government arrow and 1944 stamped on it.
It also has the Pharoah iron which is original by what I found on the internet. I think you'll find it's really good metal if you go to the trouble of cleaning it up.

 

[Cheshirechappie]

Charles Hayward suggested making planes in two halves dowelled together - there was a link to his book 'Making Woodwork Tools' posted recently by The Prof (AndyT) I think, but I can't find it now. If I recall correctly, Hayward wasn't very forthcoming about a source of irons, so I suppose it would make sense for someone to use what would be readily available from a decent tool merchant as spares for Bailey-type planes. The plane shown just looks home-made - rather heavy in the wall thickness at the top of the mouth opening, and slightly non-standard in shape of wedge.

 

[AndyT]

The missing link is here - once again to Gary Roberts' excellent site

http://toolemera.com/Books & Booklets/booksplans.html

But I also think it might have been modified to take a narrower iron - does the wedge look as if it has been trimmed?

PS - There was a copy of the Hayward book on eBay the other day - did anyone on here get it?

 

[Cheshirechappie]

Thanks, Andy!