i just aquired a Millers Falls hand plane at a flea market, probably equivalent to a stanley no 5(or so)
who were these people and when did they make planes?
is it any good? seems well made and works well
really unique 2 piece blade cap, and nice long blade
im new to hand tools and have bought a few at flea markets for a song, but this is the nicest so far
Replies
Some info here.
Giving money and power to government is like giving whiskey and car keys to teenage boys.
-- P.J. O'Rourke
Steve, if it's fairly clean then ya did good. As a Bailey style bench plane it should out perform most Stanley pre war types and all of the post war production if properly tuned up. The two piece cap IIRC was first done with production planes by RECORD in England with their "stay-put cap" and yours is the MF version. Clifton still sells it for about 25/30 bucks( see -HIGHLANDHARDWARE.COM) for #'s 2 to 7 I think, it works fine and I use it on my Bedrocks. If you read the site that Dgreen was kind enough to give you it will show you the Stanley #type and the MF history.
When you fine tune the plane be sure that the front bottom edge of the cap lays dead nuts flat to the iron, if there is any space the chips will jam up. Just turn a water stone on edge and stroke the cap till it's flat. Good luck with your clean up. Paddy
BTW, what did it cost you and got any pics?
thx for the info, i'll post a couple of pics tomorrow after a little more honing, i have used it a little and it seems to be a beaut
i paid 30 bucks, it seemed a little steep at the time but the uniqueness caught my eye, and it was obviously used carefully in the past by someone who cared for fine handtools
steve,
I have a #9 and a #15 and they are my favorites for smoothing. Took some time/work to get 'em going but well worth it. Both were given to me; the #9 was my fathers and Frosty, who posts here in Knots, gave me the #15.
Hang on to them as I'm sure you will enjoy using them. Yes, I want more of them too, all of them!
Regards,
Bob @ Kidderville Acres
A Woodworkers mind should be the sharpest tool in the shop!
Edited 7/24/2008 2:25 pm ET by KiddervilleAcres
a couple of pcs for those who are interested
Steve,
That is a #4 size, I believe. The #5 is longer , a jack plane.
You should let us see the mouth and the state of the sole.
When one sees a frog that is machined rather than belt ground from the rough casting it is a plus. (Belt grinding is not accurate, removes material rapidly and is/was favoured by latter day mass plane producers, and formed part of the downward spiral in quality).
It should clean up into a useful plane that will outlive you, so I would suggest that $30 was a good price even for the frugal brethren.Philip Marcou
Millers Falls are great old tools. I believe in my heart of hearts that Millers Falls had a contract with the Navy and Merchant Marine to provide tools for ship emergency repair lockers during WWII. Sometimes you can find jack planes (the 14 inch bench plane) and other tools, still in the original boxes, with the remnants of a Navy Stock Number on the box - often unused, in effect brand new. I have one such plane. I also have one similar to yours but of a "No 3" size that I recovered from an old barn and cleaned the wasp nest out from between the tote and frog, among other amounts of cleaning/ restoration. Works great for the North American hardwoods (cherry, walnut, pecan, etc) that I use.Good luck, Ed
I have MFs equivalent of a Stanley #7 and it is a nice plane. I added a after market blade and it made it better than the stock blade. Some of the MF planes are very nice.
Troy
Millers Falls (now closed) was in a pleasant mill town of the same name in the northwest hills of Massachusetts. They have a large river race in the spring on the Millers River-all types of small canoes and boats. Starret in Athol, Ma is another noted tool manufacturer in the area.
I have some Millers Falls planes. A few are reconditioned with Leigh Nielsen blades. The company made some really great planes and some real cheapies. Some of the ones with red colored wood are called "Buck Rogers" types on ebay. Millers made some great user block planes.
Millers numbering system is different -some of their planes are named after the length...a #9 would be nine inches long.
Hi Steve - I've got an MF #8 (Stanley 3 equivalent), and an MF #14 type 3 (Stanley 5 equivalent). Both work really well...the #14 works better than my Bailey #5 but that could always be a setup issue.
I good Millers Falls is just about a good as they get. Some of the post war stuff is not so great, but they made some very good planes and were competitors with Stanley and Sargent in quality. I have a #9, and a #18 that are my go to users. One of the nice things is that Millers Falls planes tend not to command the prices Stanley does and as you eye told you, the quality is there so you can frequently get some great deal on user planes if you look for Miller Falls instead of Stanley. Clean it up and fiddle and you will have something that is a pleasure to use.
Steve is gonna find out about the MFia sooner or later. Next thing you know it will be "buck rogers" planes.
Eric
This forum post is now archived. Commenting has been disabled