Today I went onto my favorite web forum The Antique and Vintage Tool Forum, subdivision Infill Plane collectors. As usual, there was a question from a newbie on whether or not he should restore the damaged infill in a plane that he had just purchased. To my mind, the question is, are you capable of restoring the plane back to a reasonable condition. The plane below, a 13 1/2″ Spiers of Ayr, was in a sad condition when I purchased it. A week in the shop and it was completely restored to spiffy.
My answer to the guy asking the question would be if you can go ahead if you can’t leave well alone.
If you were to buy a similar plane to the one above from a modern infill plane maker it would cost around $1800.00 USD or more. This Spiers (the pinnacle of plane making) can be bought for $300.00, Where is the antique value in that. It is just an old tool.
The old tool collector 