Wood plane identification
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Tagged: Sliding dovetail plane????
- This topic has 4 replies, 4 voices, and was last updated 5 years, 5 months ago by eric towns.
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5 November 2018 at 1:01 am #553029
Can anyone help me id this plane meaning what is it used for i believe and hope lol it is a sliding dovetail plane the maker is d.p Simpson i can’t seem to find much info on the maker
The fence adjust to a taper and the iron is skewed also it has a knicker any help on use would be greatly appreciated thanks!!!!Attachments:
You must be logged in to view attached files.Sorry to say that it is definitely not a sliding dovetail.
The only British plane-maker named ‘Simpson’listed in W L Goodman is William Simpson of Leeds; he is listed up to 1820. I don’t think that it is that old. Late 19th / early 20th C at a guess. Makers’ name-stamps were usually on either the heel or the toe of the plane body, with their factory location. Single names elsewhere on the body were likely to be previous owners.
As it appears to have a nicker blade on one side only, it is a Rebate plane intended to cut rebates both along and across the grain. The nicker is intended to be used only for cross grain work.
(Frankly, these nickers were next to useless for clean-cut cross grain work, but they are a feature of these planes.)They were (and still are in metal forms) available with both straight-across and skewed irons. The skew on the iron is intended to cut the fibres nearest the wall of the rebate first and in so doing, the leverage is intended to pull the body of the plane tight to the rebate wall as you cut….. that was what was intended, anyway.
The fence is intended, when used, to be dead parallel to the body along its length. It has to register parallel with the side wall of the stock to give an accurate cut.
I expect that it will need some fettling to the body and fence to get it to work properly.
When sharpening the iron, as well as getting the back flat and the cutting angle correct and dead sharp right across, it is essential to stone the rebate wall-side of the blade so that it is straight and its intersection with the cutting angle is pin-sharp; any rounding here will force the iron sideways as it cuts.
Good luck
Here is an example of a sliding dovetail plane: http://www.thebestthings.com/newtools/graphics/ece_23_dovetail_plane.jpg The key thing is the angle of the sole so that the plane can cut the tail. That’s where the angle comes in, rather than the angle of the fence along the sole (although the fence is tilted). So, a dovetail plane is just a fillester with the sole cocked at an angle and the fence tweaked to keep the plane body vertical. Because of the way the plane forms the tail, there must be an acute angle between the sole and the side of the plane, so I don’t think you could just put a tilted fence on a rebate plane or fillester (tilted, but parallel to the plane’s long edge).
- This reply was modified 5 years, 5 months ago by Ed.
I tend to disagree with A Joyner on the age of this plane. The nicely rounded back end and elegant moulding on the right side suggest early 19th Century or even earlier. One tipoff would be the length of the tool. Post 1830 wooden planes are almost always 9 1/2 inches long. Earlier ones tended to be longer, though many of them were cut down to fit in later tool chests.
Dave
6 November 2018 at 3:47 am #553072I had a feeling it wasnt one one can always hope tho lol still a nice find for 10$ who k knows maybe I’ll modify it to work as a sliding dovetail plane might be a good challenge thanks for all your help!!
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