Thread: Falcon Pope 9 inch

Originally Posted by Brett57

...On another tack. Are Stanley #3’s rare ?...

They're not particularly rare. Less common than #4 and #5s but probably up there with #5 1/2s and #6s.

Cheers, Vann.

I am a bit out of touch with prices so had a look on ebay at what the market is doing. $40 for the Pope is a tad high and you could get a reasonable Stanley for that. Pope is not a plane I have ever used but from what I hear not as good as a Stanley or Record. Last time I looked at plane prices was early in the lockdowns and they were all through the roof then so good to see things getting reasonable again. No3s are more expensive and likely have been for a long time. Not exactly rare but likely never produced in numbers like the 4 and 5. Not a must have plane but handy all the same. I kind of reach for it for a lot of things that a block plane would get used for as its got a handle.
Regards
John

Hi B57. You're spot on. Took me a while to find a #3 and a #5. And prices do seem to have settled. Funnily enough I think the 1st plane I bought on Ebay was a #6 and was around $50 (a few years ago now).

The popularity of plane sizes & types seems to have varied a bit over the 50 years or so that I've been keenly interested in them. Part of it was due to some guru or other in a magazine (or now on the inter-web) talking up a particular model. [On the UK forum it's been referred to as the "Sellers effect". ] I remember when someone talked up the #4 1/2 about a couple of dozen years back (maybe more), and suddenly everyone had to have one. I did own one for a brief while, but it's not a size that endeared itself to me at all. For most of my woodworking career my preference was decidedly for the #4 size as a smoothing plane.

Initial exposure has to be a major influence of our preferences. Blokes of my vintage spent a couple of years doing woodwork in school in grades 7 & 8 & the two sizes tht were ubiquitous in schools then (& perhaps still?), were the #4 & #5. That sort of experience gets strongly imprinted on a 12-13yr old brain & for a long time I don't think I knew other sizes of plane existed! In the years since, I've had & used used all of the sizes of Bailey style bench planes except 1, 2 & 8. By around 30 years ago I'd settled on the #4, #5 & #7 as my "core" bench planes that would see use on virtually every project. The only change has been an old type 11 #5 1/2 replaced the 5 & over the last 10 years or so, since I got to the stage of being able to make tolerable planes of my own, I use one of my infills as my "best" smoother, while the #4 does more of the pre-final-finish work. I like it because it's easy to dial in a bit more or a bit less cut on the go as I like to do at that stage of a job. Resetting the infill is easy enough, but is a more deliberate act, so it stays set for jobs like the final few passes over a tabletop or whatever.

I have noticed I'm using smaller planes (of which I have one or two ), a lot more of late, partly because I've been spending a ridiculous amount of time making small stuff & perhaps also 'cos I'm not as strong & fit as I once was. A little while ago I decided a #3 might be a nice plane to have & started looking around for one. However, as noted, they aren't so common, & good ones especially were way over what this stingy old coot is prepared to shell out just for the sake of curiosity. As luck would have it, a very nice old #3 did enter my life for a while. It belonged to my neighbor, who'd inherited a bunch of tools that had belonged to a mate of her father, several of which were very nice examples. I was asked to appraise them, & somehow got the job of cleaning a couple up. It didn't take much effort to bring the #3 back to life, the biggest job was removing the thick grease & grime (which had protected most of it very well). My reward was I got to play with it for a while & I very quickly decided I much preferred the #4. The #3 is a sweet little plane, but the space between tote & thumb-wheel is too tight for my hand, which is medium-small, and it's not comfy to use for more than a minute or two. So, my take is, if you have an average-sized hand a #3 may not suit for any serious work, but is probably fine where you might otherwise use a block plane, as Vann suggests.

Cheers,

The #3 was not a plane I went looking for but one came my way with a job lot of tools some years back. So having cleaned and set it up I gave it a spin and I got to like it for small jobs and these days its more small projects than big ones. It's the same footprint as the 130 block but the handle makes it a lot more pleasant to use. Quite good to use one handed. I keep finding more uses for it.
Regards
John

John, I didn't intend to denigrate the #3, it's a size I really wanted for a long time. I'm sure I could learn to live with the cramped rear finger-room, but by the time I got to give a decent #3 a good workout, I'd already made this (same width blade as a 3, 25mm shorter sole):
Bull oak 170mm.jpg

It's apples vs oranges, I know, but because I'd become accustomed to the rear-bun grip I was probably less patient with what I perceived as the somewhat cramped rear hand-room on the 3. It was otherwise a very nice little tool, & if it hadn't had a corrugated sole (something I have never seen any value in whatsoever!), I would have been strongly tempted to accept the offer to keep it.

But I've got this thread totally off track - apologies to the OP (I plead advancing years & an increasing tendency to rabbit on, m'lord). The original question was concerning the desirability or otherwise of a Falcon Pope smoother. Before I got side-tracked on the size issue, I meant to say that I had a Falcon #6 for some time & it was a perfectly good tool, with no glaring faults. I swapped it for something else when I acquired my #7, but I had no complaints about its performance. With any make, you can strike a lemon, or a Frankenplane that may need a lot of attention to restore to sound working condition - it's a risk you take buying any tool you can't have in your hands for a close inspection. However if you find one that has all its original bits & no signs of obvious abuse, there is every chance you can fettle it up into a very good user...