Thread: Nice freebie coffin smoother

You did better than me. My 2 coffin smoothers cost $5 each. They do work surprisingly well even with the mouth a bit wide. I also intended to give them a decent rehab but all they have got so far is a scrub with turps some linseed oil and a sharpen.
I have not heard of that maker but my guess it is old. When you start looking at 19th cent tool makers there was almost one in every other street.
Regards
John

A bit of a search shows that Tertius (meaning 3rd as it happens) Keen is the bargain basement, 3rd quality Mathieson brand. Still, it's put in a 100 plus years so it clearly wasn't complete junk, maybe the blade was which is why it was switched. In any case I can't find anything on JCP so it may have been 3rd rate too, but if it was I'd like to see the good stuff!

Originally Posted by Berlin

My FIL just found this at the bottom of a box of unwanted stuff at his son's place in Sydney. Given his description on the phone ('rusty block plane') I was expecting a little 101 or something.

It was filthy and there was a lot of rust under the back iron as usual but it came out surprisingly well. I think it was made by a company from a Dickens novel - Tertius Keen and Co. with a JCP laminated blade. I will probably put a brass insert in to close up the mouth although as is it cuts a treat in everything I had lying around, spotty, tas oak and hoop. I don't really need it but based on looks it may bump the 90's Ulmia out of its spot in the tool box, although I've not used it in anger yet so we'll see if it works as well as it looks.

If anyone has any info on either maker I'd be interested to know some back story.

Cheers

ImageUploadedByTapatalk1379291006.904783.jpgImageUploadedByTapatalk1379291044.994070.jpgImageUploadedByTapatalk1379291068.971508.jpg

The Tertius Keen and Co, is the "Third Quality Bench Planes"
In the Mathieson Catalogue from 1899. A smoother by Tertius Keen with a 2 1/8 in blade cost 2 shillings & sixpence...$0.25
Peter

Originally Posted by lightwood

The Tertius Keen and Co, is the "Third Quality Bench Planes"
In the Mathieson Catalogue from 1899. A smoother by Tertius Keen with a 2 1/8 in blade cost 2 shillings & sixpence...$0.25
Peter

..and it's depreciated

I'll take whatever he finds though, even if just to cannibalise parts or polish up and pass on... what I really hope he digs up is a 3rd rate moving filister .

Matt

Nice plane for nothing, I keep them with differing radius's to the cutting edge , some quite small . sometimes I'm using them with a third of the blade cutting which makes them easy for pushing through Oak , or the blade taking a 90 % wide cut for the soft pine backs of cabinets or drawer bottoms where I want that heavy hand planed look.

Rob

Rob, it actually came to me with a very strong camber but it wasn't even, with one corner way out of line with the other which made it impossible to set. So I squared it off and just gave it a very gentle arc. The steel is hard as and to be honest I stopped sharpening as soon as it was tidy but maybe I should give it a bit more elbow grease.

Matt