Old planes are these desirable?

[Michael Mayo]

I was over at my buddie Derrick's place on Friday. He recently built a very large two story garage/shop and he finally has gotten some of his collection moved in. I had never seen any of his stuff before but he has been collecting for over 40 years and is an avid collector of antique and vintage tools, farm implements, etc. He has 100's of hand planes and i was able to see only a very small fraction of what he has. He has so many that he said he was going to set me up with a complete set of Stanley's because he has so many of them......... So we were just browsing around different areas of his shop and he was randomly picking out stuff for me to look at. Then we go into the basement and I see some planes sitting on a shelf. These are planes he has not had a chance to restore yet but they looked different than the regular run of the mill Stanley's. The thing I noticed was that one of them had a square shaped tote and I thought that was unusual. So I pulled out the three planes and he started telling me what they were. The first one was small block plane that he said was a Birmingham. It was pretty dirty but he said it was worth a lot just like the other two. The second one was the square tote model. It was a Spiers plane and he said that it was worth a boat load. The third one I thought was very cool because of it's size. It was very small but the same shape and configuration of a Stanley #4 but smaller. It too was a Stiers and that one too was supposed to be worth a lot of money. I didn't really care about how much they were worth but just thought they were very interesting and cool to hold. The smaller Stiers also had a metal and wooden base which was something I had never seen before. I admittedly don't know much about planes or old tools like he does but I do appreciate their history and the careful craftsmanship that went into making these a very long time ago. I would love to hear what the real hand tool guy's think of these planes as I really don't know anything about them other than what Derrick told me.

Here is the little Birmingham block plane

[Michael Mayo]

Here is the square tote large Stiers plane

[Michael Mayo]

And the last one is the small Stiers

[David Weaver]

Spiers dovetailed panel plane is desirable. How much it's worth, I don't know, but it's a desirable plane.

Never seen a block like the first one, and not sure about the second spiers.

[Andrew Arndts]

IMHO they ain't worth a darn thing unless they are ready for use. otherwise they are nothing more than a paper weight.

[Bill Bixby]

I've heard that there are people out there who collect old planes...I guess just to look at them. Put it on Ebay for $500 and see what happens.

[David Keller NC]

Michael - What you refer to as a "square tote spiers" is, as David noted, a Spiers panel plane. The construction is three pieces of steel (sole and two sides) dovetailed together, with Brazilian rosewood infill. Hence the common name "infill plane".

It is highly desirable, particularly in that size, which I'm guestimating is a couple of inches shorter than the most common Spier's panel planes in 13" - 15" length.

The one you've picture is fairly early, perhaps 1880 - 1890. Earlier Spiers planes than the one you've pictured have the lever cap mark "Spiers, Ayr" in upside-down type (upside down in that it's right-side up if you grip the plane by the rear tote and look down at the lever cap). Even earlier Spiers planes have screws through the sides instead of pins, and the earliest Spiers have screws through the side and a wooden wedge butted up against a metal bridge rather than a lever cap.

From a collector's point of view, your friend's plane will be really, really desirable if it has the original Ward iron and the original cap iron (will be marked "Spiers"). If he doesn't know this already, you can tell whether the iron and cap iron are original to the plane because the iron, cap iron and wooden infill underneath the iron/cap iron will all be marked with the identical roman numeral. This was done at the factory because each blade, cap iron, lever cap and plane were all hand-fitted together as a unit.

If it does indeed have the original iron, cap iron, and lever cap, it hasn't been refinished (the wood) or buffed (the lever cap and steel sole/sides), and there are no repaired breaks to the wood, it's worth about $1300 - $1500, retail. If it's a rare size (11" long, for example), it's worth quite a bit more than that - perhaps $1700 - $2000.

Spiers, by the way, was a Scottish firm in Ayr, Scotland from about 1860 to about 1925 or so. If you'd like to read about the business and Spiers family, here's a good link:

http://www.spiers.net/stewart.htm

[tommy han]

So funny that I just saw this post! I know that this might be a bit rude to ask, but your friend wouldn't happen to have a plane that he'd be willing to donate for a little "experiment," would you?

To try and sum up, I'm restoring a couple user planes and want to experiment with "baking on" a protective finish of flaxseed oil (edible linseed oil) as an alternative to engine enamel to give my bodies a nice industrial "raw iron" look. The catch is that the metal is heated in a 500 degree oven for about an hour each coat, with a total of about 5 or 6 coats.

The consensus has been that no one (including me) is sure if this would damage or warp the cast iron bodies to the point of being useless. So I thought I'd try it out on a user, but I can't even find a cheap old plane where I live anymore. Seems like everyone is buying up anything relatively old to try and capitalize on the hand tool renaissance....

Here's the forum topic I posted about it... http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthre...64#post2073064

[Tony Zaffuto]

Don't write off any old plane without giving it a good "look-see". Case in point, I have an acquaintance who has given me some old tools, because he knows I accumulate tools. Generally there is nothing there at all. Anyways, last summer, while taking a close look at a block plane, it turned out to be a Stanley 18-1/4, and free!

[Mel Miller]

The Birmingham block plane is uncommon, and will be worth more if it has a blade adjuster.
The last plane is a Steers patent plane. Collectors like them because of the rosewood strips in the sole. The blade in that plane is wrong, and finding an original Steers marked blade is not easy.
Neither plane is worth $500.

Mel

[Michael Mayo]

Thank you all good or bad the responses are all very much appreciated. I don't know if he would "donate" a plane for testing a finish on he is kind of weird about his collection even though he has literally hundreds of planes he is not really willing to let go of any of them and believe me he could use the dough right about now. I will have to look closer at the dovetailed plane to see if it does have the original parts or not I would not have known to look for that stuff until reading your replies and it is impossible to tell from the pics I posted.

[Frank Drew]

A Spiers panel plane in good working condition is a fabulous user, but as David notes the collector's market places a premium on little used, unrestored examples.

[Harold Burrell]

Yes, these planes are desirable.

I can tell you that for sure...because I want them.