Well, a diversion here from the usual topics lately.  I picked up a toothing
plane today that had a little surprise in it — the laminated iron is marked
David Malloch & Sons / Perth.  The iron is also bedded at 90 degrees (vertical
for those challenged).

Two questions —

#1 — I’m not aware of any place named Perth in the British Isles, so I’m
wondering if one of our fellow Galoots Down Under may have a reference on 19th C
Aussie toolmakers that might indicate the period of time when Malloch & Sons
were operating to define the range of time when the iron probably was made.  I’m
expecting that to be in the period 1840 - 1900.

Other than the vertical throat, the body of the plane is nearly identical in all
details to an Atkins wooden toothing plane I have, with the one obvious
difference being the Atkins has a 78 degree bedding angle.

So, Question #2 — Assuming that Malloch & Sons might also have made plane
bodies, was it common in Australian practice to use a 90 degree bedding angle
for a toothing plane, or is this just a variation they offered?

Given Derek’s postings over the years about how hard the native woods, I can see
where someone might want to use a vertical iron in their toothing plane.  I have
seen other toothing planes from the British Isles and the US that are bedded at
90 degrees, but this bedding angle just seems less common in the part of the
world to me.

Under the grime, I couldn’t tell whether the wood used in the body might be the
same as the Atkins.  It is entirely possible this is either a) an Atkins plane
with a Malloch iron, b) someone else in the northern hemisphere made the plane
body and it now has a Malloch iron, or c) someone's Aussie-made body and Malloch
& Sons provided the steel part.

I’m in the middle of a partial kitchen renovation at the moment, and the
‘supervisor’ has gone up to bed first leaving me a few minutes before I collapse
to fire this off.  It will be awhile before I can clean this newcomer and find
out anything else about it, but knowing whether Malloch & Sons only made irons
or did make the whole product at some point would be interesting.  This plane's
iron really needs sharpening, as someone ran the teeth right down to the point
where there are no teeth protruding anymore, turning it into an awkward to use
burnisher.  Easy to fix, which makes me wonder why they didn’t do it.

Charlie Driggs
Newark, Delaware