SPIERS AYR No. 3 Infill Rabbet Plane. 3/4 " X 9 ".
Item History & Price
| Reference Number: Avaluer:42455447 | Modified Item: No |
| Country/Region of Manufacture: United Kingdom | Brand: Spiers |
| Original/Reproduction: Vintage Original |
SPIERS AYR No. 3 infill rabbet plane. 3/4" x 9". The iron is marked W. MARPLES & SONS SHEFFIELD.There is some rust and light pitting on the body of the plane and the shank of the iron, but the back of the iron is clean and bright. This could be restored as a collector plane or tuned up and used as a working tool. It's called a rabbet plane, but with it's low angle iron it could certainly be used as a shoulder plane as well. Lots of life left in this plane!
Stewart Spiers followe...d his father William Spiers into the cabinet-making trade in Ayr, and when his father died in 1844 he apparently took over the workshop in River Street. He was later to claim 1840 as the year his plane-making firm began. How Stewart came to be a plane-maker was, according to the Ayrshire Post, purely by accident, however. He is said to have bought a rough casting in Edinburgh for 1/6, finished it at home and sold it to a local cabinet-maker for 18/-. This supposedly was the beginning of what soon became a successful operation in which he was selling his planes in Glasgow and Edinburgh and as far afield as North America, yet this was still little more than a sideline to his cabinet-making. Only much later did he become a full-time plane-maker.
Beginning at River Street in his father's workshop, Stewart moved his work premises round the corner to 12 Garden Street in around 1850 and later, by 1858, had moved to premises at 11 River Street, where the firm stayed until around the time of Stewart's death in 1899, before its removal to 2–4 River Terrace at the end of Auld Brig.Unlike Alexander Mathieson & Sons, the firm of Spiers remained small. The 1851 Census notes Stewart as a master cabinet-maker employing two men and two apprentices; the 1871 Census records that he had one man and two boys working for him.Notwithstanding the story of the first plane he sold being a cast one, almost without exception the firm's early planes were dovetailed, many with screwed sides and many with the lever cap and screw system for holding the cutter. The Garden Street leaflet published in the 1850s shows a wide array of infill planes available: panel, rebate (single and double iron), mitre (with snecked iron), smoothing and joining planes, some with wedged cutters and others with lever and cap. Later in the century bull-nose rebates planes were developed by Spiers, and shoulder, chariot and thumb planes were also added to the range. Gun-metal was introduced for making plane sides and lever caps.I attached a couple of images from early Spiers catalogs. "In the c. 1930 catalogue the claim was made that Stewart Spiers was the inventor and original maker of steel dovetailed planes. Such an assertion is somewhat exaggerated, but nevertheless it is without doubt that he contributed to the perfecting of metal planes, a legacy the firm continued to build on right up to its demise. In his tribute to Stewart Spiers the man, Nigel Lampert wrote: "Although others made metal planes before him, he was effectively the 'father' of the British metal planemaking trade."
Wouldn't you like to own a plane made by "the father of the British metal platemaking trade"?
Condition is "Used". Shipped with USPS Priority Mail.
Stewart Spiers followe...d his father William Spiers into the cabinet-making trade in Ayr, and when his father died in 1844 he apparently took over the workshop in River Street. He was later to claim 1840 as the year his plane-making firm began. How Stewart came to be a plane-maker was, according to the Ayrshire Post, purely by accident, however. He is said to have bought a rough casting in Edinburgh for 1/6, finished it at home and sold it to a local cabinet-maker for 18/-. This supposedly was the beginning of what soon became a successful operation in which he was selling his planes in Glasgow and Edinburgh and as far afield as North America, yet this was still little more than a sideline to his cabinet-making. Only much later did he become a full-time plane-maker.
Beginning at River Street in his father's workshop, Stewart moved his work premises round the corner to 12 Garden Street in around 1850 and later, by 1858, had moved to premises at 11 River Street, where the firm stayed until around the time of Stewart's death in 1899, before its removal to 2–4 River Terrace at the end of Auld Brig.Unlike Alexander Mathieson & Sons, the firm of Spiers remained small. The 1851 Census notes Stewart as a master cabinet-maker employing two men and two apprentices; the 1871 Census records that he had one man and two boys working for him.Notwithstanding the story of the first plane he sold being a cast one, almost without exception the firm's early planes were dovetailed, many with screwed sides and many with the lever cap and screw system for holding the cutter. The Garden Street leaflet published in the 1850s shows a wide array of infill planes available: panel, rebate (single and double iron), mitre (with snecked iron), smoothing and joining planes, some with wedged cutters and others with lever and cap. Later in the century bull-nose rebates planes were developed by Spiers, and shoulder, chariot and thumb planes were also added to the range. Gun-metal was introduced for making plane sides and lever caps.I attached a couple of images from early Spiers catalogs. "In the c. 1930 catalogue the claim was made that Stewart Spiers was the inventor and original maker of steel dovetailed planes. Such an assertion is somewhat exaggerated, but nevertheless it is without doubt that he contributed to the perfecting of metal planes, a legacy the firm continued to build on right up to its demise. In his tribute to Stewart Spiers the man, Nigel Lampert wrote: "Although others made metal planes before him, he was effectively the 'father' of the British metal planemaking trade."
Wouldn't you like to own a plane made by "the father of the British metal platemaking trade"?
Condition is "Used". Shipped with USPS Priority Mail.
