I was in the process of dusting down my collection of Mathieson infill planes and a couple of No. 4 types, when I thought, how far they fell. From producing the finest infills ever, to these No. 4 types, trying to keep afloat. The truth is that it happened to all the great makers. Spiers, Norris, Mathieson, Ed Preston and Record here in the UK as well as the top makers in the US.
It’s the nature of the beast, how many of today’s top manufacturing companies will be around in one hundred years, very few I would imagine. How many will be remembered with such fondness even less.
Old tool collectors never die, they only lose their edge.
The old tool collector 