Thread: F6 Pope Falcon plane

Originally Posted by snafuspyramid

Picked one of these up at a market earlier. Nice and square and in good condition, except for a superglued rear tote. I know that these were Australian copies of Stanley designs. What would be the corresponding Stanley model upon which the 21" F5 model is based? Does anyone else know anything about these planes?

Well, there are Falcon collectors on the forum and I'm sure that they will comment. A good Falcon is a very useful plane. I am a little confused by the numbering and size you have mentioned.
An F5 would be about 14 inches long and an F6 about 18 inches.
Number 7 planes are about 22 inches

Here is a link:
HTPAA :: Pope Tools

A picture of yours might help
Cheers
SG

Hi,

The Falcon F5 is essentially the same as a Stanley (or Record et al) 5. If anything, the Falcons are a little heavier in the castings and more rigid - a better tool. I swear by them. The later (blue) Pope models were downgraded and not as good.

BTW, I once bought an F6 on ebay that turned out had been in a shed fire, totally red with rust and charcoal were there was once wood. I nearly threw it out but decided to clean up the sole to see what was left - it was fine! No damage apart from wood and paint. Became a beauty!

BR,

Fraser

Originally Posted by snafuspyramid

Picked one of these up at a market earlier. Nice and square and in good condition, except for a superglued rear tote. I know that these were Australian copies of Stanley designs. What would be the corresponding Stanley model upon which the 21" F5 model is based? Does anyone else know anything about these planes?

You're quite right, it's actually an F6, not an f5, my mistake. It has a red frog and weighs a ton..

Originally Posted by snafuspyramid

Picked one of these up at a market earlier. Nice and square and in good condition, except for a superglued rear tote. I know that these were Australian copies of Stanley designs. What would be the corresponding Stanley model upon which the 21" F5 model is based? Does anyone else know anything about these planes?

Good planes despite a lot of claims to the contrary. Have a look at my collection here
http://mc2.vicnet.net.au/home/lymber...pe_planes.html
there are a couple of pages here with photos and notes. The HTPAA also has a few pages onPope falcon history and some good notes by Rod Thomas which you can see here HTPAA :: Pope Tools
Alan.

Originally Posted by Patonga

Good planes despite a lot of claims to the contrary

I'm certainly not an expert on planes, and have only very limited experience using this one. But I'd tend to agree with you. The casting is noticeably more solid than on my Stanleys, and the sole is remarkably true - by far the truest of the #6's I've come across. (It doesn't look like it's been lapped, either). I also notice that the frog is very accurately machined, certainly more so than a few of the Stanleys I have (at least, the English ones).

Plus, cost me a whole lot less than the equivalent Stanley would have.

I do hope I'll be able to find a #7 or #8 somewhere, but the larger sizes seem scarce. Patience, I guess.

I saw a Pope Falcon scrub go down on eBay for $40 recently, I'm now regretting not picking it up

Snafus,

I bet you won't find a #8 - they never made one! Sizes were 9" (#4) to #7, plus a 220. The #6 & #7 are a bit harder to find but they do come up - I bought a Pope (blue) #7 in a junk shop recently for $35.

BR,

Fraser

I was interested to see the posts about the Pope Falcon planes as I bought a F7at a flea market in Victoria a couple of years ago. That's Victoria, B.C., Canada. It would be interesting to know how it got here.
When I got it home I found it had a broken and brazed frog (how do you break a frog?) and blade, lever cap and tote were in poor shape so I found a Stanley frog, lever cap and tote, and installed a Veritas blade. I spent more on the blade than everything else but the sole was flat and I've been using it happily ever since.
I kept the blade; it is stamped:"Falcon / A Pope Product / Made in Australia / 2 3/8 IN / Tested"

Originally Posted by Daibach7

I was interested to see the posts about the Pope Falcon planes as I bought a F7at a flea market in Victoria a couple of years ago. That's Victoria, B.C., Canada. It would be interesting to know how it got here.
When I got it home I found it had a broken and brazed frog (how do you break a frog?) and blade, lever cap and tote were in poor shape so I found a Stanley frog, lever cap and tote, and installed a Veritas blade. I spent more on the blade than everything else but the sole was flat and I've been using it happily ever since.
I kept the blade; it is stamped:"Falcon / A Pope Product / Made in Australia / 2 3/8 IN / Tested"

A good Aussie product that far from home should be complete. I hope you keep it inside in the winter time ! I am not sure what I have in 2-3/8" components as I am away from home at present. I will send you a PM shortly.

Originally Posted by Daibach7

I was interested to see the posts about the Pope Falcon planes as I bought a F7at a flea market in Victoria a couple of years ago. That's Victoria, B.C., Canada. It would be interesting to know how it got here.

Daibach7 - I too came across a #6 Falcon at a clearing sale in Ontario, quite a few years ago. Got it for the princely sum of $7, and it turned out to be a very good user - no broken or missing parts on that one.

I brought it back to Australia with me, but it has since returned to Ottawa with an old friend, traded for a beautiful Disston D9 in near-new condition - they must like the cold! I too would like to know how it arrived in the first place. I assumed someone took it there with their personal effects, because it seems unlikely Falcon would try to crack the North American market with all the competition they would have faced there - but who knows?

Cheers,

Your Falcon collection is very nice Alan. I have at least one of all of the models except for the F151R, but I am still in the process of cleaning and tuning them, so they aren't really fit for a nice photo yet. I'm only looking at the Falcons, not Popes, for the reasones that you go into on your site. My plan is to have multiples of the really useful ones - the 9 inch, 4.5, 5.5 and 220 so that I always have a sharp one on hand and so that I can set them up for different uses. I'm not a collector though - mine will all be users.