Bill's Favourite's
Update Sunday 3/8/08
I am keeping the latest plane to show at the 2008 Festival of Trees at Westonbirt . A picture of the altered plane.
Sunday 22/6/08
1 experienced plane maker & 2 aspiring plane makers, each admiring their planes.
Sunday 15/6/08
Billy and Charlie spent all Saturday learning different woodworking skills. It's the first time they have spent all day whittling and strangling the mallet with Grandpa.
Billy using a spoke shave on his shepards crook handle, given to him by Tom Priestly at the steam rally on Saturday. Tom also gave him the spoke shave.( Billy is 10)
Friday 30/5/08
Billy and Charlie worked very hard to get to this stage. The last thing Billy said when he went home was "don't let grandpa mess with it", of course he couldn't leave it alone. Look what happened, he broke it.
On Monday Tom gave Billy another shephards crook to work on. Grandpa will be in big trouble if he touches this one.
Bill's Favorite Plane.
About 20 years ago a friend of mine, Peter Bishop brought this plane for me to purchase, it was in a terrible state. The bronze casting was dented in on the front. A previous user had worn the iron right down past the wedge, so had cut the wedge off in order to set the plane. The front infill was beyond repair. I decided to infill it with boxwood, I only had one piece big enough to do it, with a little left over. On removing the front infill I discovered 2 bronze pillars cast into the body running top to bottom just below the top surface of the infill. Then at the bottom of the plane, cast again into the body, was a well. Fortunately it was a midsummer's day and the light was good. By tea time I had made the wedge and had partly shaped the front infill and without giving it to much thought, I had cut the front infill around the pillars and shaped it to fit into the well. Sarah called me up for tea and just before I went, I started to cramp the unfinished front infill into the plane, using the soft jaws of my vice. After tea, the front infill was half in and half out and I could not budge it, I'm now really upset, I chiseled a 3/8" gap running front to back of the front infill and I still couldn't get the 2 halves out. I had to nibble away until I got the rest of the wood out. Of the original piece of boxwood that I started with, I just had enough to make another front infill. I was so upset with the mistake I had made, I finished the new front infill and fitted it before I went to bed. It was now about 11 o'clock. Had I not finished it I would have been unable to sleep.
At a later date I coloured the boxwood with Nitric acid, to make it look more in keeping with the age of the plane. I said I would never sell the plane, but I did. It went to Ireland. About 10 years later I had the chance to buy it back, I said to Sarah, I will never sell the plane again. But I did, this time it went to America. Some years later I had the chance to buy it back, I could not believe my luck. I am now all on edge waiting for it to return. When I took it out of the parcel the nitric acid over all these years had coloured it a very dark brown, it no longer looked like boxwood. I decided to scrape it, this turned out to be a very tricky job, I could not take any off the bottom or sides of the wedge as it would make it loose and wouldn't fit in the right place. The front infill proved tricky as it had to be scraped in situ, it took the best part of a day. It was still to dark, the next day I did it again and it still was to dark, guess what, the naxt day I did it again, this time Sarah & I were both happy with the result. When I originaly infilled the plane I stamped my name on the front infill, on each of the 3 days that I scraped it, I erased my name and had to stamp it again. In total my name has appeared on this plane 4 times, but no one would ever know unless I told them.
Once more I have said I will never sell it, but we will all have to wait and see!!!!!!
Not For Sale