Unusual Plane

[AJOE123]

Greetings
Found this plane recently; not sure of its provenance.
Is it a Coopers plane or a Wheelwrights? Maybe a Patternmakers?
Appears to be the work of a master but no makers mark found.
Iron by Tillotson and backiron by Robert Sorby
Metal sole screwed on.
Looks and feels like Blackwood.
Any thoughts?
Cheers
Tony

[orraloon]

I would agree with coopers or may be wheelwright but to my thinking looks a bit crude for pattern making. It does look like it could be blackwood and so likley made here in Oz. I have seen metal soles on a few old wood body planes to save the wear and make the plane last longer. More need here with the hardwoods we have to work on. I have a rebate plane with a screwed on steel sole.
As to who made it I cant help. There is no record of old plane makers (that I know of) in this country. Perhaps some others can shed some light.
Regards
John

[seanz]

Put my guess down as "boat building".

Now, if I could just remember what part of boat building it's used for.

[orraloon]

Could be boat building too. Any inside curves. I guess the metal compass plane would have seen the demise of a whole range of those sorts of wood bodied curve cutting planes.
Regards
John

[auscab]

It looks like a converted smoother . I Have come across a few blackwood planes , you see one in every 600 of the beech ones .
I don't know if someone was producing them , no stamped names on the ones Ive seen, but I do have a feeling I heard somewhere that someone was doing them .
It could be someone needed to radius something like the seat of a chair and they changed the smoother Or they built it from scratch to do the job. Interesting find though . I use the Stanley compass plane every once in a while, what a great invention.

Rob