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Small hand planes identification

ButchC

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Something someone else said in another thread reminded me that I had these. Has anyone ever seen a set of handplanes like these? Sorry for the bad pic.

[attachment=31747]

I picked them up at auction, and haven't been able to find much researching on the web.

There are no makers marks that I can find, and they may be rosewood. (Being a color blind woodworker su-ucks, but not as bad as a color blind electrician).

I believe that they are hand made, and very well made at that.

Any help would be appreciated.

Butch

small planes.webp
 
ButchC said:
Something someone else said in another thread reminded me that I had these. Has anyone ever seen a set of handplanes like these? Sorry for the bad pic.



I picked them up at auction, and haven't been able to find much researching on the web.

There are no makers marks that I can find, and they may be rosewood. (Being a color blind woodworker su-ucks, but not as bad as a color blind electrician).

I believe that they are hand made, and very well made at that.

Any help would be appreciated.

Butch

I have a few like that, I believe they were called Rabbet planes, used for cutting groves in the days before Dado blades. Are they standard widths like 3/4 or 1 inch? the one I have that I use quite a bit works great to clean up dado grooves if for some reason I didn't cut them deep enough. I'm sure someone out there has the correct answer :good:
 
The only way I would know for sure, is if you would send them to me... For an extended amount of time... :lol:

Just kidding, I really know about as much as you do. You could maybe hit up the guy from www.hyperkitten.com and see if there is anything he could tell you.

Jacob
 
I have a book on old hand planes. If you could post pix of the underside and a few other angles and i will page thru my book and see if i can come up with something for ya
 
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  • #5
Treecycle Hardwoods said:
I have a book on old hand planes. If you could post pix of the underside and a few other angles and i will page thru my book and see if i can come up with something for ya

Thanks Greg. I can get some o ics maybe later today after the auctions. Problem is that I honestly don't think they are very old....And/or they've never been used. I think they are user made.
 
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  • #6
I was finally able to get some new pics of these planes. These are camera-phone pics, so please bear with me.

[attachment=31855] [attachment=31856]
All three planes intact And all three side view

[attachment=31857]
Irons and wedges removed

[attachment=31858] [attachment=31859]
All have completely smooth soles

[attachment=31860] [attachment=31861]
A "finger" groove runs the length of each

[attachment=31862] [attachment=31863]
All three irons are shaped the same, and are inserted into the body from the mouth opening in the sole.

[attachment=31864]
Wedge by itself to show grain detail.

If anyone can help me identify these, I'd really appreciate it. I still think that they are user made, and probably rosewood.

PS - My favorite is the bullnose plane, what do you think?

Thanks, Butch

small planes 1.webp

small planes 2.webp

small planes 3.webp

small planes 4.webp

small planes 5.webp

small planes 6.webp

small planes 7.webp

small planes 8.webp

small planes 9.webp

small plane wedge.webp
 
I was paging thru my book yesterday at lunch. It is kinda hard to see if the irons in your planes are flush to the body of the plane. It looks like they are that way... if so that would make them a shoulder/rabbiting plane of some sort. Do the irons have any markings?
 
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  • #8
Treecycle Hardwoods said:
I was paging thru my book yesterday at lunch. It is kinda hard to see if the irons in your planes are flush to the body of the plane. It looks like they are that way... if so that would make them a shoulder/rabbiting plane of some sort. Do the irons have any markings?

Sorry, I meant to mention that yes, they appear to be shoulder or rabbeting planes. All three are 1" wide.

The irons do not have any markings at all.
 
They're all variations of rabbet/shoulder planes. They're used to cut rabbets and clean up tenons or shoulders of tenons. Stanley made a number of them. The Stanley model numbers are: 90, 92, 93 and 94 if you want to check them out.
 
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  • #10
Tim Carter said:
They're all variations of rabbet/shoulder planes. They're used to cut rabbets and clean up tenons or shoulders of tenons. Stanley made a number of them. The Stanley model numbers are: 90, 92, 93 and 94 if you want to check them out.

I realize that there are a ton of manufacturers that produced rabbeting and shoulder planes throughout the years, and I love my Lie Nielsen's like a long lost brother.

I am interested in identifying these specific planes to a specific manufacturer if anyone has ever seen them before. If not, I can only assume that they are user made planes, and I will have to be satisfied with that.

Thanks, Butch
 
ButchC said:
Tim Carter said:
They're all variations of rabbet/shoulder planes. They're used to cut rabbets and clean up tenons or shoulders of tenons. Stanley made a number of them. The Stanley model numbers are: 90, 92, 93 and 94 if you want to check them out.

I realize that there are a ton of manufacturers that produced rabbeting and shoulder planes throughout the years, and I love my Lie Nielsen's like a long lost brother.

I am interested in identifying these specific planes to a specific manufacturer if anyone has ever seen them before. If not, I can only assume that they are user made planes, and I will have to be satisfied with that.

Thanks, Butch

It didn't dawn on me til just now that your planes are made from much darker wood than the older planes outlined in my plane handbook. (I had been focusing on shape and uses) It looks like yours is made from an ebony or rosewood of some sort which more commonly used in modern wood body planes. Maples and oaks were common for older European and American wood body planes. Without any markings it will be really tough to Id who made it. I remember the author of my book referencing something to the effect that people are buying up old planes and using the irons in a new body. It could be the case with your planes as well. There were several in my book that look like yours and the irons are very similar in shape to the old ones. The one you have that is a low angle plane has a few close look a likes. If I can get my scanner hooked up to my computer later this eve I will see if I can get you a few pages where the author is talking about that style.
 
Treecycle Hardwoods said:
ButchC said:
Tim Carter said:
They're all variations of rabbet/shoulder planes. They're used to cut rabbets and clean up tenons or shoulders of tenons. Stanley made a number of them. The Stanley model numbers are: 90, 92, 93 and 94 if you want to check them out.

I realize that there are a ton of manufacturers that produced rabbeting and shoulder planes throughout the years, and I love my Lie Nielsen's like a long lost brother.

I am interested in identifying these specific planes to a specific manufacturer if anyone has ever seen them before. If not, I can only assume that they are user made planes, and I will have to be satisfied with that.

Thanks, Butch

It didn't dawn on me til just now that your planes are made from much darker wood than the older planes outlined in my plane handbook. (I had been focusing on shape and uses) It looks like yours is made from an ebony or rosewood of some sort which more commonly used in modern wood body planes. Maples and oaks were common for older European and American wood body planes. Without any markings it will be really tough to Id who made it. I remember the author of my book referencing something to the effect that people are buying up old planes and using the irons in a new body. It could be the case with your planes as well. There were several in my book that look like yours and the irons are very similar in shape to the old ones. The one you have that is a low angle plane has a few close look a likes. If I can get my scanner hooked up to my computer later this eve I will see if I can get you a few pages where the author is talking about that style.

To add to the above- beech was a wood of choice also.
Did you buy on ebay? if so what country did they come from? Look like modern repro's to me but that is a guess.
 
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  • #14
Mike,

I found them at an auction. They were buried in the bottom of a box with some other older tools from an old time woodworker that passed away here in Colorado. I don't think he made them. If he had, I would have expected more of the tools, or at least the wood used to produce them. He made mostly jewelry with semi precious stones, and domestic woods mixed in.
 
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  • #15
Found them. They are marketed as "ebony" but I seriously doubt it for the price some are asking for these on ebay.
http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_kw=Ebony+Shoulder+Plane

They appear to be Chinese. I also found them on the Grizzly website here
http://www.grizzly.com/products/Flat-Profile-Shoulder-Plane-Ebony/T10266

I also found a blurb on a different site, like woodworkingtalk.com or something where a guy said he even saw these for sale at the woodworking show in his town.

I still think they are very nice looking planes.

Butch
 
If the are indeed Chinese some ebony species would still be an option and cheap. It grows over there so to them costs would be like domestic species to us. Import laws are such that completed items like planes don't have as high a tariff like raw lumber does.
 
Wish I knew more about such things. Saw some old medium size wooden planes, made of light colored wood, for sale this week end. They were about $20 a piece. Are those things collectable?
 
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  • #18
robert flynt said:
Wish I knew more about such things. Saw some old medium size wooden planes, made of light colored wood, for sale this week end. They were about $20 a piece. Are those things collectable?

They're very collectable, but thd market is really saturated. I see guys sdlling "lots" of 10-15 moulding planes for $5. Everybody is looking for that rare gem and selling off everything that's not for cheap.

Iike studying the old wooden planes. I think the old masters built them very well and I can learn a lot by simply studying them.

Butch
 
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