Today’s bootsale

[DannyEssex]

Finally managed to go to a bootsale for the first time this year and chanced upon this little Preston Bullnose plane for the pricey sum of £2


It’s quite rusty and has a tiny chip on the mouth but I’m really happy with it. I’m not sure if I’ll ever use it mind you. But I will enjoy cleaning it up.

Also bought an old ELU bench grinder for £5. (I know it’s not a hand tooI, sorry) It was completely in parts, but everything is there apart from the flip down plastic guards.

Going by the plate on the back it is a MWS 146, looking online I haven’t found out much about it, but I’m thinking of converting it into a polisher.

I also got a couple of cabinet maker screwdrivers and a nice cigar box, for my next cigar box guitar (hammer)

 

[DannyEssex]

I had a nightmare trying to upload the photos. I tried Flickr, then Dropbox but was only getting an empty image box. I finally had to email them to myself to shrink the size but it’s reduced the image quality quite a lot. I’m using an iPhone, but haven’t had trouble in the past ?

 

[AndyT]

Don't worry, your photos are clear enough for everyone to see how well you did! That Preston plane for £2 was a very good buy, as was that grinder. And the other stuff!

 

[DannyEssex]

Don't worry, your photos are clear enough for everyone to see how well you did! That Preston plane for £2 was a very good buy, as was that grinder. And the other stuff!

Thanks Andy, the blade and plane body are stamped with a 49, I take it that is the model number?

 

[AndyT]

I think (from this site
http://www.oldhandtools.co.uk/preston-1 ... nose-plane) that it's probably a 1355, though I don't have a catalogue handy.

I don't know for sure, but I think the 49 numbers might have been put on after a set of cast parts had been fettled and fitted together, so they could be reunited as a set after the plating was done, but I don't have any evidence for that.

 

[Mr_Pea]

Nice finds Danny,

I've got a couple of older Bullnose planes one by Holland Jr (possibly Norris) and one by Slater and they both have all 3 parts stamped with a single digit number wooden bed, iron and wooden wedge. These aren't plated but maybe they get one final polish before sale and then re-united ?

Or maybe its part of the manufacturing flow / system as they move from person to person each with their own speciality.

 

[Cheshirechappie]

One of the first (if not the first) vintage tools I ever bought, way back in the late 1980s, was that self-same Preston bullnose. I found it in a small antique shop on Watergate row in Chester, run by a chap called Paul LeRougetel. It's a really lovely little plane to use; I use mine as a sort of substitute block plane, because it's so easy to use one-handed. I'm very fond of it, and wouldn't part with it.

Mine has the number 29 stamped on the body, screw-cap and blade; I'm with Andy on his theory that they kept the different parts of the same plane together as a batch went through the processes of manufacture. The plating on mine is a wee bit worn, but for something that must have been made before 1932 (I think) when Preston were bought out by C & J Hamptons (Record), I think I's survived OK. It's clearly a tool that's had use during it's life, because the blade isn't full length.

By the way, I paid £22 for mine. Thirty years ago. I'm not at all jealous that you managed to snaffle the self-same gem of Britain's fine tool heritage for less than the price of a pint … oh no, not at all ..

***shuffles off, muttering "lucky barsteward" and other epithets under breath***

 

[DannyEssex]

One of the first (if not the first) vintage tools I ever bought, way back in the late 1980s, was that self-same Preston bullnose. I found it in a small antique shop on Watergate row in Chester, run by a chap called Paul LeRougetel. It's a really lovely little plane to use; I use mine as a sort of substitute block plane, because it's so easy to use one-handed. I'm very fond of it, and wouldn't part with it.

Mine has the number 29 stamped on the body, screw-cap and blade; I'm with Andy on his theory that they kept the different parts of the same plane together as a batch went through the processes of manufacture. The plating on mine is a wee bit worn, but for something that must have been made before 1932 (I think) when Preston were bought out by C & J Hamptons (Record), I think I's survived OK. It's clearly a tool that's had use during it's life, because the blade isn't full length.

By the way, I paid £22 for mine. Thirty years ago. I'm not at all jealous that you managed to snaffle the self-same gem of Britain's fine tool heritage for less than the price of a pint … oh no, not at all ..

***shuffles off, muttering "lucky barsteward" and other epithets under breath***

Thanks CC

 

[Phil Pascoe]

Not much yesterday, but I did get eight No.1 MT Dormer and Presto drill bits in decent nick for £3.