Thread: Ebay Droppings Thread.

Oh my...

Obviously amateur made plane with no shaping in the handle, no prior study of proportions. $2400 US!!

Handmade Dovetail Infill Plane (2 3/8) Blade | eBay

(and I sold my spiers 18" panel plane copy - made from a kit - for $350!! - looking at the price of vintage infills, I'd say I was lucky to get it)



And another slightly better made, but still very amateur with a common bench plane replacement blade. $2750 US (!!)

Handmade Dovetail Infill Plane (2" IBC Pinnacle Blade) | eBay


that's in the ballpark of a rosewood 24 1/2" original norris no 1 on ebay - that I'd really like to have, but have zero interest in a divorce.

And about 3 times the price of a spiers rosewood 20 1/2 jointer.


!!

But it's shiny!

Given the same location for the items and the distinct family resemblance, D.W., I'm assuming it's the same maker for both planes? It looks like the first one you linked to is try #1, and the second is #2, where he/she got a few more details sorted out, and the finish on the cap iron is a lot better. I'm looking at them on my laptop, & the pics are pretty ordinary, but the D/Ts don't look too bad. There's a thin line or two showing, and possibly some errant hammer blows that haven't sanded out (but I'm not sure they aren't reflections off the surface it's sitting on). I'd class them as not too bad for an 'early work'. But oh my, those lumpenhandles and bland buns give them a rather working-class look, don't they?

Asking prices similar to a Sauer & Steiner, but maybe not quite in the same class? ......

Cheers,

I agree on the comments about it being decent work for what looks like early tries. One of the auctions says 80 hours of time, and it looks like it's about another 80 or 100 short on details in terms of being a plane in that price class.

Not an uncommon thing. I've been scouting infills on ebay to come up with a couple to have in hand to build one or two, and just notice these and other things like some new kit makers who are a little funny on the details and proportions.

The person selling those planes has a youtube channel, you never know when they come across someone who doesn't know much but sees the planes on youtube - they very well might sell one or get a ridiculous offer. Just sticks out to me, personally, because I think it's pretty presumptuous to take something you've made when you don't know quite so much about it and then ask top dollar. It's not my nature, but there are plenty of people whose nature it is!

Of course, beauty is in the eye of the beholder, D.W., & there is a prevailing notion that the more you pay, the more you must be getting so the seller just might get an offer at his asking price, but probably not from any readers of this forum... .

Originally Posted by D.W.

.... I think it's pretty presumptuous to take something you've made when you don't know quite so much about it and then ask top dollar. It's not my nature, but there are plenty of people whose nature it is!....

I agree. It's hard to properly value one's own work, & if you are the self-critical type you tend to grossly under-value rather than the opposite. You can get an estimate of worth by how quickly your offerings are snapped up, but that's only partial reassurance.

I think this bloke's chutzpah is more amusing than dangerous. Anyone in the market for an infill is likely to know the basics of handplanes and is likely to have had a surf or two of the web. They would surely have stumbled on Holtey's, or Sauer & Steiner's work, let alone a few Norris or Spiers examples, which are, after all, just as 'hand-made' as the one advertised. But didn't your Mr. Barnum say that one is born every minute?

Let's watch how it goes....
Cheers,

Interesting...

It's like a mental block for me when I look at it. The only thing I can focus on is that PHILLIPS HEAD SCREW!!!

Why, in the name of all that is good and decent, would someone spend that kind of time on something like a traditional, infill plane and then put a domed, phillips machine screw RIGHT IN THE MIDDLE OF IT!!

what I like is the artful draping of shavings near the planes.
to borrow a saying from the food industry the shavings are a "performance suggestion"

$1000US a week isn't a bad wage for an amateur plane maker.

I know zip about planes but they don't scream comfort, it has reminded me to start looking for a No 6 plane.

Ian, I agree - it's a harmless chutzpah, as opposed to someone selling counterfeit goods. It's newbie miscalibration, I'd call it. Love the super thin shaving boast, though - it's something any plane can do, but the current crop of newbie buyers is just fascinated with thin shavings. Increase the thickness and demand no tearout and the order is a lot more difficult to fill.

They're otherwise reasonably well made, except for things that you can see that would be better done by someone who wasn't making their first planes. A price of $300 for each would be more than fair to the seller, but it would leave a buyer with a plane that has some strange aesthetics as well as performance that wouldn't match up to an LN plane that could be had just above that. I see this when I look at it (and I've been there before, the first couple of things I made, I had some strange details)
* The lever cap shape is strange on both, one much more so than the other - and it should be brass
* the single iron plane does not have a tight mouth (that's a terminal problem)
* the side profile of the handles is OK, but the shaping is "quicked" and skipped - too late to fix that once the infills are laminated together as opposed to sinking the rear handle into a solid rear inlay (which looks much better, but is more difficult)
* The finish on it if it's going to be gloss should be rubbed out lacquer or shellac built up with the pores filled- gloss finish with open pores is a bad combination
* the cap iron screw with the wood inlay (and the other with the metal sticking out) is corny
* the mouths have a lot of lateral play, which is just poor planning and looks bad

Other than that, the maker looks to me like they have the potential to make excellent planes, but they'd have to settle with the idea that it takes more than 80 hours to make a really good one, even if you're machining parts of the plane. The metalwork, though, looks relatively clean, and the fit of the wood to it is pretty good. Most people wouldn't make something as nice first.

George Wilson told me a long time ago that unless you know you're a good designer, you'd better start by making dead copies of good designs so that you can understand them before you start trying to freelance designs. That's probably applicable here - dead copying some things, though, like the early 1900s norris planes or spiers panel planes, etc is a fairly difficult thing to do.

VERY RARE, 24 1/2" NORRIS No1 DOVETAILED JOINTING PLANE - PRE-WAR | eBay

This one is a good example. In design and execution, both, it's just wonderful. If I wasn't married, I'd have that one to copy - I have bought from the seller and think I could get it for $3000 US, but my wife would see that on the bank statement and have a severe negative reaction!

Originally Posted by D.W.

George Wilson told me a long time ago that unless you know you're a good designer, you'd better start by making dead copies of good designs so that you can understand them before you start trying to freelance designs. That's probably applicable here - dead copying some things, though, like the early 1900s norris planes or spiers panel planes, etc is a fairly difficult thing to do.

VERY RARE, 24 1/2" NORRIS No1 DOVETAILED JOINTING PLANE - PRE-WAR | eBay

This one is a good example. In design and execution, both, it's just wonderful. If I wasn't married, I'd have that one to copy - I have bought from the seller and think I could get it for $3000 US, but my wife would see that on the bank statement and have a severe negative reaction!

Funny, I think I've seen that plane, or a very very similar one, in the flesh.

Are you a member of the Sydney based The Traditional Tools Group?
The infill panel plane I saw was acquired by one of the members at a tool swap on the NSW Central Coast.
If your intent is to make a copy then perhaps there's one or more already in Australia and accessible for obtaining dimensions.

No, I'm in the states. If you want to copy Ohio wooden planes (something nobody would want to do) or stanley planes, this is the place to be.

I won't be casting anything!

Ebay Global shipping is a killer in cost (the panel plane that I just ordered is going to cost me $70), but it does make a lot of things accessible to us that used to be brought over here by auctioneers and dealers and doubled in price (plus some).

Admittedly, there's little chance that I'd use an infill jointer that large - I'd make a copy and then stare at it and think about how heavy it is. I'd be willing to bet that one goes 12 pounds or so. But, it's a lovely looking plane with much nicer wood work than a lot of later norris planes have (and the cap iron screws on the early ones look nicer, too).

Something like this is more reasonable to copy (the wooden parts can be greatly improved, and in my opinion, the plane is easier to use without an adjuster).

BARELY USED, NORRIS A1 17 1/2" PANEL PLANE - WITH BOX | eBay

with it's original box AND instruction / description sheet -- WOW

Originally Posted by ian

with it's original box AND instruction / description sheet -- WOW

Yeah,I bought that one to have one in hand. It doesn't look like something I'll keep unless I strip it of its bulky wood and put something else in it, but at the price (the seller did come down a fair amount), it's better left close to original so I can resell it after copying it.

Another potential plane to copy, though i certainly don't have the original of this one. This one is George Wilsons, he called it the "elephant plane". If you look at the cheeks, you can see the profile of an elephant in the middle of the cheeks. A very handsome plane. I think George said he sold it long ago for $3,000 (US) to a collector.

https://s28.postimg.org/ixfm7opf1/PICT0011_copy.jpg