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A group of four English dovetailed mitre planes, from a private collection.Compared to wooden planes, metal planes were rare right up until the mid 19th century.English mitre planes are typically quite plain, of parallel sided box construction. The toe and heel of the sole extends and is ‘dovetailed’ to the…

A wonderful set of 39 moulding planes by Joseph Gleave & Son of Manchester. Gleave began making planes in 1832 and continued up until 1926 by which time the business had grown into a large tool dealership. The business still exists in Manchester today as ‘industrial supplies specialists’.Many of the…

A very nice example of the STANLEY No 1 plane, the smallest of the Stanley bench planes and much sought after.Introduced in 1869 and available through to 1943 this little smoothing plane is only 5.1/2 inches long with a 1.1/4 inch blade iron.Although a practical plane the majority of those…

A dovetailed steel badger plane by Stewart Spiers of Ayr – rare just doesn’t cover it!Stewart Spiers was born in 1820 and began his working life as a cabinetmaker like his father. It is believed that he started making planes in the 1840s and soon earned a reputation for quality.It…

An 18th century moulding plane by Owen, or is that Orven?Despite the ongoing efforts of a number of highly capable interested parties, little is known about Owen although enough planes have been discovered with this mark to make it safe to assume that he was a professional maker.The mark is…

A special purpose edge or chisel plane from Stanley USA. Aimed at piano makers and cabinet makers for working into the corners and tight spaces where the use of other planes would be impractical or impossible.The Stanley 97 plane was offered from 1905 – 1944, is 10 inches long and…

Francis Purdew is one of the earliest known English planemakers, active as early as the 1680s up until the late 1720s.This plane is a recent find, hidden at the bottom of a tool chest containing a quantity of poor quality items from the 20th century, needless to say it put…

When making sash windows, no matter which bar jointing method is used, tradition has always been to reinforce the joints with dowels.The sash dowelling box or jig is used to aid the boring of accurate holes in the end of the bars to locate the dowels.The majority of these boxes…

We see plenty of wooden bullnose planes, most of which started life as small smoothers. Either through need or as a result of damage, these have been converted to bullnose form by their owners.This one, however, is a rarer factory produced example sold by tool dealer Richard Routledge of Birmingham.According…