I decided to to do some ‘homework’ to establish when this might have been made? Judging by the parts: -
· the frog- flat machined straight sides, from 1931 to 1956.

· the body- how the frog is seated. The frog receiver in the body casting was modified from a straight central rib to a wishbone shaped buttress around 1955 to 1960. This plane has the straight central rib.

· the lateral lever- Solid disc at the end of the lateral lever with “RECORD” marked on the lateral lever, about 1952 to late 1957.

· the wood used for the handle and the knob- . Rosewood was used for the handle and knob until WW2. Post-war production used dark stained beech until 1998 when resistant resin (plastic) replaced wood handle and knob. I removed the handle to look underneath- it is obvious Stained Beech was used.

. the Cutter and Backing Iron. The profile of the cutter has a straight top with angled sides, marked “RECORD, Made in England, Best Crucible Cast, Tungsten Steel” from 1930 to mid 1950’s.

Most importantly I think the best clue is the original ‘RECORD’ decal on the rear handle. The lettering and border are in gold on a blue background with ‘Trade’ and ‘Mark’ either side of RECORD. ‘Genuine’ is on top of RECORD and ‘Made in England’ is underneath, from 1930 to 1955/6.

Therefore I believe this plane was made circa 1955 /6.

All reference info was found here:- Record Hand Tools, A History. By David Lynch

I hope you find this of some interest?

Cheers,
John.

The big boys, particularly here in the UK are /were:-
1) STANLEY, made in USA & England

2) RECORD, made in England

But there are many others available that have not, shall we say been taken to our hearts like those above.

So here I’d like to show you a plane that I own, picked up for pennies at a car boot fair [Flea Market]. It has remained under my bench stashed away, unloved. Until now.

This is a RAPIER 400. Which to all intents and purposes is a Bailey pattern #4 bench plane. they were made by Anglo Scottish Tool Co. Gateshead, England.
Gateshead just happens to be approx 20 miles from where I live. I’d never heard of these planes until I saw this one and read ‘Gateshead’. Which in itself is a bit odd because usually planes simply say ‘MADE IN ENGLAND’. Also Gateshead is not particularly [be polite Johnny] well known, other than being on the south side of the river Tyne, across from the more famous [?] city north of the Tyne, Newcastle. However I’m waffling.
Carry on!

To make a point I Googled RAPIER and found a link to the UK Workshop site [like LJ’s] and found this ...a typically pithy comment by ALF [She’s on LJ’s too somewhere] it reads…. RAPIER...

Brandname of the Anglo-Scottish Tool Co. of Gateshead, c.1950s/60s. Generally considered not the greatest planes ever, although their #3 mini grooving plane (a knock-off of the Record #043) is well regarded. There’s a bit in the archive on them, but not much more than this really – no-one seems to know (or care) much about all the various companies skulling about in Britain at that time.

Cheers, Alf

Thank you Alf, I couldn’t of put it better myself :-)

Why don’t I like this plane much? Well it’s silly really- it’s got ‘Plastic’ handles and it’s not black [Stanley] or blue [Record] and it hasn’t got a nice shiny chrome Lever Cap?

But is it well made? Yes. The castings of the body & frog is excellent.

It is also slightly heavier than the equivalent Stanley #4 by 5 ounces

Are the handles comfortable- fit for purpose? Yes, apart from being made from plastic.

Are they cheap to buy off Ebay? Hell yeah- nobody wants them!

Can it be tuned up into a smoother? Dunno- Yet!

STAY TUNED?????

Luckily there was not a lot of rust and almost no pitting to the saw plate.

The only major issue for me was the ugly tote! The tote is obviously a much later example- I’m guessing probably 1970’s era. This was when cost cutting measures and design aesthetics would result in a [shall we say] a much simpler yet still usable handle.
However I found this tote to be boring, bulky and uncomfortable. So I decided to re-model it from what I had.

What I have come up with has a ‘nod and a wink’ to the more traditional look incorporating shapely Horns, Nib, Hook and Lamb’s Tongue.

I’ve acquired a few Spear & Jackson saws recently, very cheaply. They all have the same [ugly] Tote.
for example:-

However all is not lost; Here is the 14” S&J finished: -

Cheers
John

Before: -

The tote was re-modelled -not much- to give it a more traditional ‘Lambs Tongue’

After: -

They are nice little saws these Spear & Jacksons. :-)

Cheers
John.

The Tote is a sandwich of 3 pieces of bubinga, in a ‘Z’ configuration glued to 2 acrylic tote profiles with maple cheeks.
my original idea was to use brass sheet but I didn’t have any to hand so I used clear acrylic sheet [from a car registration plate].

Also I fitted a Quangsheng Blade & Chipbreaker assembley.

The body was first stripped and repainted and the surfaces reground.
The mouth needed to opened up by approx 1.5mm to accept the 3mm Quangsheng blade.

I hope this is of interest.
Cheers

and my 8” ‘Steel Backed’ S&J Dovetail saw, 20ppi. The 8” Dovetail handle has 3 saw nuts, but only on the left hand side. The third screws into the steel back!

Both saws are fitted with the S&J patented ‘NON BREAK HANDLE’ -

The handle on the left has been re-worked- but not much. This is because the non break feature gets in the way. So I opted to simple give it a nice ‘Lambs Tongue’ and a general clean up. The same goes for the handle on the right.

The next photo shows the non break feature on the top of the handle-

and at the bottom of the handle-

The saw plate has had a bit of a clean up to show the etch & stamping up better.

The Dovetail saw handle being marked out for the Lambs Tongue re-shaping procedure!

The big one is a ‘no-name’ 24” rip tooth 5ppi. It is surprisingly free of rust and no pitting. It is also straight.

The Tenon Saw is a ‘Brass Backed’ Spear & Jackson 12”, 16ppi, fitted with the patented ‘Non Break Handle’. This is the second S&J I have with this kind of handle. Basically it has a rod running through the handle grip. I’ve no idea how successful this handle was, but it was more than likely a sales gimmick?

And here we go with the refurbishment of this handle-

A bit more ‘Fettling and Fiddling’, re-shaping the lamb’s tongue-

A bit more filing and sanding

Wetting the surface with water to raise the grain-

When dry more fine sanding and out with the Danish Oil

Now all I need is to sort the sawplate out!

Before Photo- The original scruffy handlle…

...and after

The handle was comfortable enough, but I thought why not do a ‘Brit job’ on it?
So out came the thick black permanent marker. ( not the best idea with hindsight) and on with the design details.
I basically wanted it to look more traditional, with the vintage details. (see Brits Saw Talk blog) like the one I already have.

Some of the design work is self indulgent, but hey, nobody is gonna see it anyway.

There is something quite satisfying in using a rasp to re-shape handles.
Now it needs a few more tweaks and the rasp marks filed out then break out the abrasive papers.
Thanks for taking a look.
Cheers

John.

This is a photo taken with my iPhone of the brace being refurbished. I’m really just getting to grips with downloading using the iPhone and Photobucket?? Hopefully it is successful?

OMG it works!

In this pic you get a closer look at the chuck body-

This is held in a ‘cheapo’ vice I bought from ‘ALDI’ (Wal-Mart, but even cheaper, to our American cousins) years ago. It is very handy cos you can adjust it to suit what you are doing.
It originally had a sucker pad on the bottom to attach it to the work bench etc., but it didn’t work so I pulled it off and screwed it to a mounting.
The mounting is actually a simple Robert Wearing jig for holding your work pieces together when you mark out the pins- through the dovetails you have just cut.

I also like to use these magnetic tool holders to hold ‘fiddly’ small parts in situ whilst I wire brush them. This tool holder is clamped to the table of my bandsaw.
The next one is clamped in the bench vice to hold this saw plat in place while I clean it up.