Not to sure if I’m fussed about this effort, I’ll see if the paint work settles down, if not, I’ll have another go at it.

You win some you lose some!!

 

I took a chance on this late Preston No. 1014 plane when I saw it for sale on the online shop. The only reason that I considered buying it was that I already have a Spiers No.14 and 2 Mathieson No. 4s in my collection. Like them, this was a latecomer to the Preston range.

The plane was as described apart from a chunk out the front knob and the back handle being stuck fast to the plane, I think someone must have repaired the handle and left an excess of glue, which has left it stuck to the plane.

Got these two planes from the online shop, a Marples M4 and a Stanley USA No.10 The Marples cost £12 and the Stanley £46. A week in the shop and here are the results.

Not too shabby for a sympathetic restoration. I only got them for something to work on as my store of planes to do has come to an end.

I’ll have to get out more to find some projects.

One for the connoisseur.

An early, screw sided, pistol gripped plane with a very different cap screw and marked with an upside down”SPIERS AYR” on the front bun. I got this plane in Edinburgh some time ago and it is in a super condition for its age.

This one is a definite Keeper.

I received my newsletter from the world’s top carpenter. He was making it known that the routers he used and collected(he must be a collector, he has more the one of each) the Preston 1399 and the much rarer Tyzack are no better than the Stanley 71 or Record 071 and don’t compare to the modern day Veritas equivalent. “Shocker”

The Man likes to use these routers and stated so. He didn’t say “here you have to go out and buy one” He is being blamed for single handedly  causing the hype in price of these routers from £30 – to £300. These are rare planes especially the Tyzack and they are fun to use.

The same point can be made for Norris planes with adjusters. Most of the top carpenters that I’ve heard speaking about the adjuster say there is no great benefit from having it. Yet the value of these planes are hyped as well.

If you want to use or collect vintage tools, choose for yourself there are plenty out there. Most of them are fit for purpose. These tools built an “Empire” and started an “Industrial Revolution”

By choosing yourself, you can’t blame anyone else. I bought 10 plough planes 15 years ago and paid three time more for them than they are worth today, my bad. Nobody else to blame but me.

 

Here I have a low angle infill plane. It looks like a precursor to the Stanley No. 62. It is about 18″ in length and is extremely well made. The sides taper form top to bottom and front to back.

Although nearly all metal, it has small infills before and after the handle. The plane is completely functional and works a treat. This is one of the most unusual planes that I have come across in twenty years of collecting.

Any information on this plane would be appreciated.

I purchased this small infill(beech) with a job lot of planes. The bed was set about 10 degrees to low and it was non functional. Someone had added a couple of bits of packing but it still didn’t do the job.

I’ll take ti to the workshop and set the bed to a standard Spiers setting and I should end up with a dinky little plane.

I saw this advertised on the online shop, Vintage tool, very rare Preston model 1347F bullnose plane, with fence.

Not much argument there, probably is a 1347F, and it does have a depth stop, which is incorrectly described as a fence. We can all get our depth stops and fences mixed up.

So was it incorrectly described, apart from the obvious, well not really it’s just that the two parts didn’t match. The guy didn’t say with a Preston fence, he just said with fence. It was up to the buyer to know they didn’t match.

So what price did it go for, well if it had been match it would probably gone for £150, a good plane with both fence and depth stop goes for £350. This one went for £51.03 which goes to show that most of you know your stuff and have done your homework.

See below for example of matching parts, fortunately the depth stop is marked “PATENT”.

 

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.

Putting this on to the online shop along with a set of 8 blades. It is a fantastic specimen of the Mathieson 5B plough plane. I purchased it 10 years ago when plough planes were all the rage. It was one of about a dozen plough planes I purchased. I think that of all the tools I have added to my collection, my ploughs were the items that have lost the greatest value, selling for about 1/3 of their high.