Thread: Woden and Record planes

There's a little information in this thread and on this site .

In 1898, two brothers, Charles and Joseph Hampton, left the family business The Steel Nut and Joseph Hampton Limited (trading as Woden) in Wednesbury, Staffordshire, to go to Sheffield and set up their own business in Attercliffe. Their partnership was called "C & J Hampton". Shortly afterwards, Charles and Josepth fell out and Josepth returned to Wednesbury. In about 1900, the two sons of Charles, Horace and Charles W. Hampton joined their father in the business. When C & J Hampton became a private limited company on the 14 May 1908, their premises were located at The Eagle Foundry, Livingston Road, Sheffield. It was at this address one year later that the Record trademark was registered in the Trademark Journal,

Record purchased Woden and adopted their line of planes. Woden purchased WS Birmingham back about '52 or '53 and adopted their line of planes, such as the A78. You'll find some info about 2/3 the way down that page along with a couple of pictures.

Craig

Record came first - producing handplanes from 1931. As others have said Woden purchased WS Manufacturing in 1952 and carried on their line of planes.

Initially Woden planes looked similar to their parent WS planes (which were very distinctive - and somewhat ugly IMHO). Record bought the plane line from Woden in the 1960s and continued to make planes under the 'Woden' brand for around another 10 years. At some point the shape of the Woden planes changed from the WS profile to the Record/Stanley profile - whether this was before or after the Record buyout, I don't know.

So if your plane looks like a Record, then a Record cutting iron is not original, but probably cut from the same sheet of steel as the Woden iron (but stamped with a different brand).

Almost any cutting iron of the correct width (and thickness) will fit any plane. But if you want an original you'll have to look out for a 'Woden' stamped iron on e-bay.

HTH.

Cheers, Vann.

Thanks for the information, everybody. I think I can live with the Record cutter. If it hadn't been for that decal, I would have assumed the plane was a Record.

Ugly?
I think they look great.
Regards
John