Replies

1. 
   KiddervilleAcres | May 10, 2008 02:56pm | #1

   Matt,

   A wooden #45, kinda!

   Regards,

   Bob @ Kidderville Acres

   A Woodworkers mind should be the sharpest tool in the shop!

2. 
   mufti | May 11, 2008 05:18pm | #2

              Trouble is Matt, it may cut only that one profile, you really have got to be sold on that. A selection of planes are versatile.

1. 
   dkellernc | May 11, 2008 06:17pm | #3

   While interesting, the current bidding of $300 (with 4 days left, it will no doubt go considerably higher at the close) is pretty pricey for a plane that's single use, has no collector value, and may, or may not, work well.

   Triple iron-molders are certainly rarer than their single or double-iron counterparts, but even a triple-iron complex molder that's an antique English tool will not sell for much over $300 if it's in superb shape (as in barely, or even never, used).  The exception would be an antique signed by an early plane maker, like Robert Wooding or one of his apprentices (such as T. Codgell).

   Check out http://www.thebestthings.com.  While I've no commercial connection with him, I know the owner fairly well, and he's an expert on wooden planes, and sells more antique planes to collectors and users than anyone in the world, including Tony Murland or Matin J Donnelly.  The good thing is that he's brutally honest about the the vintage tools on his site - you will never wind up with a "lemon" that had condition problems that were not noted in his listing.

   If you're interested in using wooden molding planes, antique English ones are the way to go, they will be FAR less expensive than having a modern company like Mazzaglia Tools or Clark and Williams make one for you, and they work just as well, and in some cases better, than a new one.  I cut the vast majority of the moldings on the pieces that I make this way because I view router bits as inauthentic (both in the profile and the surface texture they leave behind), and I can't justify the expense of a shaper and sets of custom knives for a few tens of feet of molding for a piece of furniture.