T-time

T'was the sight of one of these beauties perched atop the rest of the stash that alerted me to the fact I wasn't going to be looking at any old woodworker's tool kit. Yep, reading Salaman's dictionary for fun isn't totally insane. Mind you, it's a close call... Anyway, viz:

Plane, Coachbuilder's, (e) Tee Rabbet Planes. Rabbet Planes in which the sole is wider than the stock (T-shaped in cross section), thus leaving room for the fingers when working in deep rabbets or in confined spaces. The stock is usually rectangular, measuring about 6in long. They are made in sets with straight or compass soles varying in width from 1 to 1 3/4in.... The iron is square, single, double-shouldered, with the cutting edge from 1 to 1 3/4in wide. Used for cleaning up glass frame runs and rebates on door pillars and elsewhere.


From top to bottom:

1 3/4" with (user added?) brass wear strips, straight sole. The wear strips have been done very nicely but I have no means of knowing if they were added later or a purchasing option. Makes sense to do it I suppose; must have suffered quite a bit of wear, although on the other hand by their nature these planes must have had a limited life because of the restrictions on usable iron length.

1 1/2" straight sole, Williams, London. BPMs gives two options on Williams in London but John, Henry, Thomas and then & Son seem the most likely. Need to study the mark again to see if I can glean more info. As it stands there are dates that could still fit the bracket quite comfortably plus the additonal thought that perhaps this could give us a source on the dovetail saw. In addition all the likely addresses seem to be in and around areas of south London that I know fairly well, and for some reason that's nice.

1 3/8", slight convex curve. Another that appears to be by Buck in Tottenham Court Road, and another that really needs another look with book in hand.

1 1/2", very evident curve, Collier, Brixton, London. Can't tell you how pleased I am to finally have a Collier plane; they eventually went kapput in Streatham in 1984 which means I was unconciously wthin touching distance of them every school day for five years. Okay, so it didn't mean anything then, and the days of wooden planes were long gone, but it's kinda the closest I'll ever got to the old tool makers. I know, silly isn't it? But I like that tenuous link in the same way as I enjoy the couple of Cornish dealer-stamped tools I have. Anyway, the early days of Geaorge Collier in Cornwall (!) Road would also slip into our rough time bracket. Must take the book to the tools and see if I can at least work out which mark it is.


So nearly at the end of the countdown now - should be anyway, as I've done my best to tuck this last bit into the week... ;-) A small hint of what's to come tomorrow here; an unmarked 1/16" wide iron and two 3/8" ones, one by Buck and t'other by W Baker (& Son?), London.


The slipstone was totally black and barely recognisable as a stone at all at first, but the ever-useful Painter's Hand Cleaner brought out the lovely colours of the natural stone. 3 1/2" long, 1 3/4" wide tapering in thickness from 3/4" to 1/2". The only stone in the lot - wonder if there were others at one time?

But enough for today; time to go and try to work out who the heck I am talking to in the comments box... :-)