This plane is now under restoration and will soon be used in the workshop as a daily tool,it has its handle missing, if I can not locate it, a new one will be made. The body of the plane has splits and some wood worm damage on the back end, this has been fixed with an application of epoxy and teak wood flour we stock. To my great surprise the bottom of the plane is near true, just a slight bump aft of the blade exit that was removed with a belt sander, with a few more cracks to fill next and soon this old classic will be used once more.
This plane Iorn must be a century old,its warranted cast steel,the blade is tapered and also bi metal,to my surprise,it has a forged back of very hard steel as the cutting edge,the blade is forge stamped and marked as made by Johnson,this plane blade sharpend up to a razor edge,just like an old Mathieson plane I used to own,I could shave the hairs off my arm with that blade.
Why is this Dudleys plane? well it was once Dudley Middletons RN (royal navy) plane, Craig,his son RCYC Commodore, gave it to me when he was clearing out his garage. I knew Dudley very well, in 1976/7 in the evening we used to join him on the aft decks of Tandaka for gin and tonics at the RCYC Small Craft basin, it possible he used this very plane in building his rather large steel yacht.
I put this wooden jack plane on Gumtree, it never sold,then I started to look at it more closely, what was its make, where was it from, was it any good? as ever these old tools have tales to tell.
November 2017,
Since this post was started I have used the plane for some quite serious plane work, large rudders and birdsmouth masts and spars. The plane cuts so well that it whistles as it cuts, so I now call the plane The Whistler !
My best large plane and one I am lucky to own.
Roy
This plane Iorn must be a century old,its warranted cast steel,the blade is tapered and also bi metal,to my surprise,it has a forged back of very hard steel as the cutting edge,the blade is forge stamped and marked as made by Johnson,this plane blade sharpend up to a razor edge,just like an old Mathieson plane I used to own,I could shave the hairs off my arm with that blade.
Why is this Dudleys plane? well it was once Dudley Middletons RN (royal navy) plane, Craig,his son RCYC Commodore, gave it to me when he was clearing out his garage. I knew Dudley very well, in 1976/7 in the evening we used to join him on the aft decks of Tandaka for gin and tonics at the RCYC Small Craft basin, it possible he used this very plane in building his rather large steel yacht.
I put this wooden jack plane on Gumtree, it never sold,then I started to look at it more closely, what was its make, where was it from, was it any good? as ever these old tools have tales to tell.
November 2017,
Since this post was started I have used the plane for some quite serious plane work, large rudders and birdsmouth masts and spars. The plane cuts so well that it whistles as it cuts, so I now call the plane The Whistler !
My best large plane and one I am lucky to own.
Roy
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