Wooden Planes

[Adam]

So.. I got a "hand-me-down" item from my parents, who decided I would now be the best person in the family to care for it. I'm not really into wooden planes (I sent all mine off to a charity who helps people learn a trade in africa recently). Anyway, this ones a bit special - once I read who the owner was!

Anyway on to the questions.... any recommendations for storing/using it? What is it exactly? Any guesses at age? Anything else of interest?

Thanks in advance (ALF)

Adam

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That'd be 'W' for William, my great (or possible great great) grandfather.

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[Chris Knight]

Adam,

That is a great looking little plane and you can't beat its provenance! I bet that once tuned up a bit it will soon become one of yoiur favourite tools.

 

[Alf]

Adam,

Lucky fellow! What an excellent piece of family history to have. What can I tell you... Well, it's a little smoother, and I'm wondering if it possibly could have been made by your great x ? grandfather himself. The wedge style doesn't say commercial manufacture to me, at least not for a smoother (but I could well be wrong), and it appears that the iron is an old chisel, yes? Not the usual choice, but it could be a user replacement I suppose. Unfortunately James Howarth as a maker doesn't help us much to date it, as the name was in use from before 1845 right through to WW2. :? BTW, I did check British Planemakers, but there's no Leitch listed!

As for what to do with it, well I'd give it a try first of all. After all, that's what it was made for. Then it's really your call, whether you want to keep it preserved for future generations of your family, or use it in your workshop. Probably depends what result you get when you let it taste wood again, if it's a dream to use it's going to be awfully hard to stick it on the mantlepiece... Judging by it's great patina it got used quite a bit, so it could be a very sweet plane indeed. Also judging by the colour it's been regularly wiped over with some BLO. If it feels a little dry I'd give it the same treatment; if not, just a wipe over with a dampish cloth to remove the dust.

Cheers, Alf

 

[Dewy]

When I was doing woodwork at school they were slowly replacing the wooden planes with metal ones. I always grabbed a wooden one to use.
Using a wooden tool to work on wood felt much better to me.
I seldom use a plane as I can't get the feel of these new fangled metal ones. :wink:
That school is earmarked to close as it's a grammar school & the local polititians are against such things. I am waiting for the announcement as their woodworking tools & benches are likely to be auctioned off. That was in the days before power tools so there should be plenty of hand tools going begging.
I see plenty of posts about the Neilsen & Clifton planes but what about the ones by Karl Holtey?
At £1600 plus they are far out of most peoples reach.

 

[Noel]

Dewy writes "£1,600 plus", didn't know he did ones at such low prices....
£3,000 to £6,000 for a proper plane and maybe a year or two's wait.
I actually had the pleasure of using........no, not really. Never even seen one.

Rgds

Noel, who thinks the spoken jest is rather better than the written jest.

 

[Dewy]

The link to Karl Holteys site is above where his name is blue Noel.
I saw his planes & workshop on one of the Johns Workshop series on H&L.
They are beautifully made with hand cut dovetails in the metal.

 

[Aragorn]

These are seriously nice planes! I've only got a couple, the 9" smoother and the 22½ jointer .......... :roll:
Just a little wind up!
Seriously, who buys these things???
What a price! Not that they don't look the part, but where's the justification for spending over £7000 on a handplane?
(Over to you ALF?!)

 

[Dewy]

I hadn't looked at the prices. I was going on the £1600 he quoted on the TV.
£7000?
I would double my workshop size & fill it with all the kit I'm ever likely to need for that & still have enough left for a decent stock of timber.

 

[Chris Knight]

Seriously, who buys these things???(Over to you ALF?!)

Not Alf and I have no idea who actually buys them but I can tell you that you have to wait a year if you order one.

Yes, I once enquired - sad to say that is as far as it got!

 

[Alf]

Seriously, who buys these things???
What a price! Not that they don't look the part, but where's the justification for spending over £7000 on a handplane?
(Over to you ALF?!)

I dunno, but it's not me. I s'pose people to whom £7000 doesn't seem a lot of money, or as an investment, or as a special gift for a significant event, or maybe they just feel only the best will do. A certain amount of designer badge desire comes into the whole thing I think. Karl Holtey is the best known maker, so he can sell at a premium. There are plenty of other makers, just as good, maybe even better, who don't have the "name" so charge less. Coincidentally there's a pretty good list of contemporary infill makers recently posted here, should anyone feel the urge. :wink:

Cheers, Alf

 

[Anonymous]

Do you really think that the Holtey will be better to USE than an LN or Clifton. I seriously doubt it.

Made to a higher precision and with more hand work and attention to detail, sure. But cuts better?

Cheers
Tony

 

[Alf]

Do you really think that the Holtey will be better to USE than an LN or Clifton. I seriously doubt it.

Made to a higher precision and with more hand work and attention to detail, sure. But cuts better?

Well Tony, I just can't say for sure. If someone would like to lend me one for review I'll devote a couple of years of my valuable time to conduct an in-depth study and get back to you. Maybe 10 years to do it properly. Okay, 15 at the outside... :lol:

Cheers, Alf

 

[Aragorn]

Alf
For such a detailed study, there's not much point just testing the one. Now, the whole range would make a more reasonable review.

 

[Anonymous]

Do you really think that the Holtey will be better to USE than an LN or Clifton. I seriously doubt it.

Made to a higher precision and with more hand work and attention to detail, sure. But cuts better?

Well Tony, I just can't say for sure. If someone would like to lend me one for review I'll devote a couple of years of my valuable time to conduct an in-depth study and get back to you. Maybe 10 years to do it properly. Okay, 15 at the outside... :lol:

Cheers, Alf

Alf that's very kind of you but wouldn't it get in the way of the collecting? :wink:

 

[Alf]

Oh I say! Ref! A bit below the belt there. :shock:

Cheers, Alf

 

[Gary H]

Imagine the scene...
You've saved/mortgaged/stolen enough money to join the Holtey Association, ('cos there's bound to be one!!), you placed your order 12 months ago and the day has finally arrived for your prized A1 22 1/2 Jointer Panel to be delivered.(By hand courier who has trekked on foot to your door, carrying said item in a titanium alloy security case).
The doorbell rings and you carefully accept the package from the man, sign his form and edge your way gingerly down to the workshop, carrying the case as if it may explode at any given moment.
Placing the box on the bench you close and lock the door so as not to be disturbed. The workshop has been pre-heated to the optimum temperature to preserve the materials from which the tool has been hewn and so you carefully open the case, unwrap the plane from it's Moldavian beaverskin swaddling. Gently you ease the plate of the Holtey onto your clean bench.
Turning to fetch a piece of prime black walnut you have saved for this very moment, your sleeve catches the knurled knob on the lever plate and sweeps the plane, slow-motion, onto the cold concrete floor of your workshop!!! :shock: :shock:

Might just as well put your head through the bandsaw right now...

Should have bought a Stanley :wink:

Ta muchly

Gary

 

[Anonymous]

Do you really think that the Holtey will be better to USE than an LN or Clifton. I seriously doubt it.

Made to a higher precision and with more hand work and attention to detail, sure. But cuts better?

If I recall, DC did a test of both an L-N and (at least) one Holtey in volume 1. The British infill planes are supposed to be better at reducing tear-out than metal planes - they tend to have a much tighter mouth. Holtey is also an advocate of bevel up irons, with no chip-breaker. I think, without looking, he ran a Holtey and an L-N over some purpleheart.

His S98 (which isn't dovetailed - it's made with pins in the sole, going through the sides, and then planished to bind) is probably the 1600 quid one; his Norris styles planes are definitely in the 6000 region. But then again, so's a decent nick, pre WW1 Norris.

Geoff Entwhistle is another (expensive) infill maker - not as expensive as Holtey though. And of course, there's always Ray Iles.

 

[Chris Knight]

our sleeve catches the knurled knob on the lever plate and sweeps the plane, slow-motion, onto the cold concrete floor of your workshop!!

Many a true word spoken in jest Gary! I reckon that every tool must expect a trip to the floor at sometime - judging by my own experience- and the quality tools are the ones that take this in their stride.

 

[Alf]

<Shudder> I've really gotta do something about a wooden floor... :shock:

Cheers, Alf

Where's Nick Ross telling me not to have nightmares when I need him?

 

[Adam]

Adam,

That is a great looking little plane and you can't beat its provenance!

Wrestling my thread back for a brief moment, in answer to comment, we don't just have the plane. Here's a few piccys of a cabinet it made. Officially he was only a "joiner" at Glasgow waterboard I believe, these bits of furniture were made from odd-and-sods in the kitchen, when he came home from work each day - certainly no workshop.

Certainly makes you realise it;s skill not equipment or workshops which makes nice bits of furniture. [Actually it's not to my taste at all but that can't be helped :roll: :shock: ]

All the inlays are hand cut, and the curved glass is also handcut to shape (I wonder if that is more or less difficult than making the curved frames :shock: . My parents have quite a few other pieces as well, although the plane is the only thing left of the tools, I believe his son took them to New Zealand when emigrating, and some of the furniture, and we have pictures of the house he built out there.


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