Chuck Taylor wrote: "My theory is that the BCTO (Bridge City Tool Owners) clan
are cousins of the YBIFPO clan."
I object to that, having just joined the FOOYBIPO with two planes. But I'm not
jackass enough to fall for Bridge City's line of goods.
Two good infills in first-rate condition, for about $135 all told! The "chariot
plane" (more like a honking big thumb plane) needed a shim between the blade and
the wedge, and its ready to go; its even sharp enough to use. I cut a bit out
of a cardboard box (Trader Joe's English Breakfast Tea, for those who care about
materials) but may have to replace that with a piece of glued-in veneer for
serious work.
BRASS INFILL CHARIOT STYLE, PLANE NEEDS TLC FROM UK | eBay
The first I bought was a small coffin-assed smoother. It looks a bit grotty in
the photo, but that is just the photo. All I can find that it needs is
sharpening. The blade is a good Buck Brothers, not a parallel iron and made in
the wrong country, but it looks like it has been there a long time and seen a
fair bit of service.
ANTIQUE INFILL WOODWORKING SMOOTHING COFFIN PLANE--BUCK BROTHERS | eBay
I've wanted infill planes since I first read Jim Kingshott's Making and
Modifying Woodworking Tools around the time it came out (1992). But Kingshott
started making his own because he couldn't afford old ones, and I figured that
meant I would never be able to, since they weren't professional tools for me.
The last time I looked at prices, maybe ten years ago, bore this out: even
unsigned examples in bad condition were ceiling-high then, in the middle
hundreds if I recall, ten times the most I ever paid for a plane. But in an idle
moment last month I checked out "infill plane" and "chariot plane" on eBay, and
found quite a few unsigned planes priced or with starting bids under $100. Most
unsigned infills seem to be resting under $200, including a lot of unassembled
kits (could this be old Shepheard stock finally coming to market?). Mathiesons,
by all accounts fully as good as Spiers and Norris, were down there with the
unsigned. Only Norris seemed to have held their old value, with prices ranging
from five hundred up to around three or four thousand dollars. I told the seller
of the smoother that I didn't understand why it went so cheap, and they said
that they didn't either. Maybe it was just last month; prices today look like
they may have recovered a smidgen.
My strongest reaction to them so far is wonderment at their weight, despite the
fact that neither has a sole much over 7" long. They are too heavy for my letter
scale and too light for the bathroom scale, but well north of two pounds each.
At least twice the weight of a broadsword, for those of you for whom that is a
natural unit of comparison. Neither, I must confess, sings in my hands as yet. I
usually lift the plane at the end of each stroke and carry it back wards out of
contact with the wood. I've used wooden planes more and more over the years, and
there is no problem with using a coffin woodie in this way. But after a few
trial passes with my new infill I understood why most infills have totes; it
wants to slip from my hands as I lift it, and I think I will have to alter my
planing technique to scrubbing back and forth with the sole in constant contact
with the workpiece. The other plane is an even bigger shock. I expected an
infill version of a block plane, a one-hand plane, and it is indeed very similar
in size and even shape to the #65 sitting right next to it on my desk. However,
its so heavy I can't control or use it with one hand; its definitely a two-
handed plane, at least for me. The sole is 6-1/4" x 2-1/16", with a blade 1-3/4"
wide.Looking at Kingshott's book, the very similar "thumb plane" I have lusted
after all these years turns out to be probably 5-1/4" long with a 1-3/8" blade
(from creative measuring of photos and drawings). The St. James Bay casting in
my decades-old printed catalogue is likewise only 5" long. I think these
seemingly not-much-smaller sizes would be small enough to be under control with
one hand. One good thing about mine: the combination of heavy weight with low
angle and fine mouth does indeed seem to give the infill aan authority and
smoothness on endgrain that is well beyond what I have previously experienced.
All for now, I think. I should be out shopping for tennis shirts and a BMW. Not
buying, shopping.
Tom Conroy
North Berkeley, ancestral land of the yuppie, where Alice Kahn first described
the species many decades ago, and I live surrounded by many no-longer-young
specimens. I've been here longer, though. They moved in on me, and I couldn't
control it. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.
Links in the message (2)
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BRASS INFILL CHARIOT STYLE, PLANE NEEDS...
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ANTIQUE INFILL WOODWORKING SMOOTHING CO...
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